To think that Infant Formula should be a luxury?

[FridayThirteenth]

Actually I don't, but this is the warning that dairy producer Arla has given in a speech to LSE about the possible consequences of customs barriers and restriction of labour after Brexit (even in a soft brexit scenario):

www.foodbev.com/news/arla-warns-of-higher-costs-for-uk-consumers-after-brexit/

*“Our dependence on imported dairy products means that disruption to the supply chain will have a big impact.

“Most likely we would see shortages of products and a sharp rise in prices, turning every day staples, like butter, yoghurts, cheese and infant formula, into occasional luxuries. Speciality cheeses, where there are currently limited options for production, may become very scarce.

“It is important to be clear about this: Brexit might bring opportunities to expand the UK industry in the long term, but in the short and medium term we cannot just switch milk production on and off.

“Increasing the UK’s milk pool and building the infrastructure for us to be self-sufficient in dairy will take years.”*

So what are the consequences of this given the low breastfeeding rates in the UK generally? Would there be a higher uptake of breastfeeding? I know personally, despite being a committed breastfeeder, my DD probably wouldn't be alive without formula due to latch refusal and an inability to express enough. So higher breastfeeding rates combined with infant mortality?

Will we just have to suck up even more expensive formula?

Or perhaps we could go down my grandmothers route in the 60s when formula was prohibitively expensive and feed babies condensed milk (assuming that will be more available due to shelf life).

Genuinely interested in views here as haven't heard of this as a potential consequence. Given the recent votes in the commons making the possibility of a 'no deal' much more likely, how worried should we be?

Is the sky still falling? 🤔

Are people still pretending that Brexit isn’t heading for disaster? Or, sorry, LeighaJ, are you going to explain how a no-deal Brexit won’t lead to shortages including vital items such as formula? Do you think it all just carries on as normal after we fall off the cliff edge? It might feel quite a lot like the sky is falling then, you know.

It concerns me, hugely. Some months I scrape by (single parent two children). Some months I have to borrow money. Already I have no tv, no tv licence, no WiFi. Things that a year ago I said I would always need. As food price increases, my diet becomes poorer. I can rarely afford meat, I eat veg and toast during the day. The food I buy is limited leading to less choice for the children’s meals. Any increase in food prices will hit me hard. And this is without having to pay for formula anymore.

Interesting point bambamber. I was happy to donate milk (it went to the local NICU for preemies who needed it) but I know lots of people really don't like the idea of milk-sharing / feeding a baby donated breastmilk instead of formula (which is fine of course, that's their opinion).

There is no way there could’ve enough donated milk to make up for a formula shortfall. And the resources are not in place to support more women to breastfeed for longer successfully.

I also donated milk to the local NICU and would have happily used it if it had been available to supplement for my preemie

Maybe poorer women who have no problem with their supply can set up as donors / wet nurses like Ye Good Olde Days?

Or, more likely, we will see parents doing what they used to do: water down formula to make it last longer; use condensed milk instead; wean at 16 weeks.

I don't reckon that BLW will be in fashion for much longer, if people start weaning much earlier than at present

Remember that for some families the cost of formula is met by the NHS - another expense to be met by that lovely £350m per week Brexit dividend

Or adult humans could just stop drinking cow milk designed for baby cows.

Can we please stop demonising formula feeders! I had no bloody choice as my milk never came in for either child. My mum was the same and no amount of trying would have changed anything.
How on earth formula could be considered a luxury item in this case? The sanctimonious bf brigade do my head in, no I couldn't try harder, there was fuck all there.
Ok rant over, will go away now.

Deadhead have you read the thread or even the OP?? None of us think formula is a luxury, but if we no-deal Brexit then it will become one due to shortages and babies like yours will not be fed. It’s an impending catastrophe. No one is demonising formula - we want to protect it.

Butter prices are up due to reduced exports from New Zealand and increased demand from China - nothing to do with the EU.
Trade is global, not just from next door.
The only reason we have such high agricultural trade with the EU is due to high EU import tariffs, so things are currently expensive from outside the EU.
In a no deal scenario, we can reduce all this tariffs to nil.

I do think it is a genuine concern. I'm planning on formula feeding DC2 in the new year (after extended bfing DC1) but this is actually making me reconsider. I hate breastfeeding though!

OP:

It happens here in some touristy bits of Japan too. Basically, many Chinese tourists and students find ways to buy up lots of formula and take it to China to sell on the grey market. It is completely understandable and God knows, if I were a Chinese parent I would NOT want to give my child Chinese formula. But of course it leads to tensions when shelves are cleared. There are signs up in my local stores saying, you cannot get more than one tin at a time. It's just about OK, but if the problem keeps increasing then we could start to see parents struggling to find formula when they need it.

The problem is that it is difficult to increase the supply of formula quickly---it has so many specialist ingredients and processing procedures (the milk requires a special form of processing equipment and the ones in countries like Oz are already working at full capacity and it will take years to build more facilities), and all the rules are unbelievably strict. The lesson which formula manufacturers learned from the Chinese debacle was that, if you EVER screw up infant formula, even once, nobody will ever trust you ever again.

It's very worrying. There are indeed families who are just getting by - we're one of them! A sudden 20% inc in prices is bloody hard to manage if you are just getting by and have no way to increase income.

I'm repeatedly shocked at how utterly unprepared the uk is to provide for itself. It should never have reached the point where we were so dependant on other countries. It's not just brexit, a European war or natural disaster would have been just as impactful and our govts have clearly let us down.

In addition it makes the decision to even hold the referendum an appallingly irresponsible idea.

It's also appallingly irresponsible that this possibility isn't being more widely reported, not least because mothers in a position to can then make informed decisions on bf/ff/mf based on this information. I've seen/heard nothing in the major news outlets.

If more mothers who are able to bf then choose to (with this info) then that could also mean more formula available for those babies who can't be bf.

I also wonder - is there any formula milk produced in the uk? Do we have the equipment to produce it? Because I'd think that needs addressed ASAP so that using our (limited) milk supply could be used for producing it.

Maybe referring to 'experts' sounds too abstract or too elite to a lot of people, so let's call them professionals: people who know their jobs well and their industry keep warning us of the consequences of no deal. It's not scare-mongering. Please listen to them. It's not about anyone being patronising, it's just information.

It might just make people think about what formula is and how much their babies really need it. By the time my babies were 9 months old they had morning and bedtime feeds and the occasional night feed. Formula fed babies seem to have a lot more than this, probably because the tin says so. Also, follow on and toddler milk? Why? If they are eating a varied diet, they shouldn't need it. I say this as someone who used goats milk formula for a couple of months, that really isn't cheap.

Remember that for some families the cost of formula is met by the NHS - another expense to be met by that lovely £350m per week Brexit dividend

There are also many fortified dairy based products (similar to follow on) prescribed to all ages in order to provide maximum calories, vitamins and minerals. More cost to the NHS?

If you have a baby and can't breastfeed then it's not a luxury, it's a life or death necessity.

Sheep my breastfed babies fed several times a day at nine months. Maybe all babies are different?

Can I just say again, there are NO positives from this. It won’t revive British dairy industry, it won’t be a boon for breastfeeding, it won’t make people reconsider their use of formula. It will create desperate and dangerous circumstances for mothers and babies. And Britain is walking into this by choice. We can stop this from happening. The consequences of No Deal are catastrophic.

@CaptainBrickbeard

@CaptainBrickbeard sorry posted too soon, read first couple of posts and got a rage on because it is close to my heart. Have read the rest and agree with you so am very sorry everyone.

@Sheeparemyfriends yes FF parents are so idiotic, we all just do what the tin tells us to do. Well done on being so wonderful and nurturing and in tune with your babies. I just throw a bottle at mine every 2 hours and hope that shuts them up.

BuntyII I was much more guilty of shoving a boob in DCs face to shut him up (it was usually what he wanted in my defence) than any of my ffing friends! All babies are different, some need more milk than others, some want to feed little and often. At 9 months mine was still a frequent (breast) feeder.

Formula should absolutely not be a luxury, but I do not know how we are going to avoid that (in the cost sense) if no deal brexit goes ahead. Yes, we will likely continue to have access to formula but at what price? Probably one which would endanger some and push others below the breadline.

People are still disbelieving experts and still claiming this is project fear. So depressing. Even pro-Brexit papers are beginning to report the consequences of no deal now. It isn’t a hard Brexit, no deal means no rules for trade full stop.

From the Times: food, petrol and medicines would run out. Not be hard to get, 20% more expensive: run out. This is the Times, very pro Brexit.

Why do you think the government is virtually imploding trying to negotiate this? If we could get a better deal outside the EU that would be a massive win for May and she’d be shouting it from the rooftops.

Forgot the Times link:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/revealed-plans-for-doomsday-no-deal-brexit-02mld2jg2

Trade is global. Yes, absolutely it is. But are we also not dealing with climate change, trying to reduce emissions etc? So then trading more locally becomes desirable, and if gvts start to factor in emissions costs into the products, then the fact we can't deal as cheaply with the countries on our doorstep is an issue, isn't it?
Butter costs have risen because it's not as cheap to import it from New Zealand. Maybe it's not due to Brexit. But if we are having to pay more in costs when trying to deal with the biggest and closest trading partner we could have (EU), and we can't influence the amount of butter Japan buys from NZ, then we're screwed, aren't we? Can't see that quoting the global market is much help because there are then so many factors out of our control.