to think baby formula should come in plain packaging?

[Yoyoyozo]

Fancy packaging is used to inflate prices and extract more money from parents with phrases like 'premium' plastered on the tin. Parents shouldn't be made to feel guilty for not buying the most expensive, well-marketed brand.

Yes, parents can make their own informed decisions, but clever marketing is proven to undermine this.

A report published in The Lancet (2016) unveiled that aggressive marketing of breastmilk substitutes is undermining efforts to improve breastfeeding rates

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(15)01044-2.pdf

No, this is not equating infant formula to tobacco! The aim is to prevent exploitative marketing practices that undermine access to impartial information on infant feeding.

Has the price of ciggies come down due to no pretty packaging?

Personally I remember buying a nice gold pack of 20 for less than £2 I bought some for my neighbour recently nearly £20 not even 20 and a grey box

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8491802/

This review shows that the evidence regarding common and preventable harm to neonates associated with breastfeeding insufficiencies is sufficient to warrant fundamental changes to early infant feeding policies and practices. Current protocols and their implementation, such as the WHO/UNICEF Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding codified by the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, emphasize exclusivity in breastfeeding. This emphasis assumes that lengthy neonatal starvation periods are rare when they are common, and safe when they are risky, and that formula (or other best available milk) supplementation necessarily undermines breastfeeding when the evidence is insufficient to establish that claim. Instead, early infant feeding guidance should advise that all neonates be offered adequate milk within two hours of birth and after every nursing session until their mothers’ milk has come in and supply has been established as sufficient, e.g., through typical infant weight gain, behavior, and waste output.

Default early, adequate, and often formula supplementation is consistent with widespread prelacteal feeding traditions and behaviors worldwide. It applies the precautionary principle to act when grave hazards are possible and stakes are high. At the same time, prior prelacteal feeding traditions were heterogeneous and should be updated according to the best available evidence, including to support safe breastfeeding. This return to prelacteal feeding as the recommended norm would avoid lengthy, risky starvation periods for a substantial minority of neonates. There is insufficient evidence to establish that it would cause harm in turn, including by lowering breastfeeding rates."

Lots of trauma evident on this thread, infant feeding is such an emotionally loaded topic. But this thread is about the ethics of marketing a medically necessary product.

To those thinking its patronising to add plain packaging- it's the exact opposite. Yes it's patronising to think a pretty package would factor in a parents choice, so it's unecesaary. Why should parents be paying £££ for formula because of all the money that goes into design and marketing? A parent is capabale of choosing a formula without needing attractive designs on the tin. Parents who for whatever reason aren't able to provide their own free milk, are already unfairly burdened, why should they pay more per tin to cover the millions spent on design and marketing?

Between them six infant formula companies - Nestlé, Danone, RB (Mead Johnson), Abbott, FrieslandCampina and Kraft Heinz - spend an estimated £5 billion on marketing per year in the UK.

Formula is so tightly regulated that all recipes are the same - so why should a company be able to use 'luxury' packaging to give the impression that their product is somehow better and thus pressure parents to buy the 'high quality' expensive one?

Yes of course we are in dire need of better and more abundant breastfeeding support but this is not about that.

There is no FF vs. BF, the 'breastapo' don't exist. The only Us vs. Them is parents vs. greedy corporations.

So much of the cost of cigarettes is tax.

Sorry, yes, you're right. I was typing quickly while getting the kids ready and forgot the important category of those who would like to breastfeed and can't regardless of support.

I just hate the attitude on these threads of formula being acceptable for those who want to breastfeed but can't or struggle, but often a judgement towards those who don't even try and just choose formula for their own reasons.

So do you feel the same about baby food companies with their bright colourful packaging ? Formula is not shameful Formula is a baby food, a viable option for many babies and their carers wrapping your views up as "concern" Is not only insulting but dangerous for those parents and carers who just want to nip into the supermarket and choose the brand the in peace.

I agree. We established BF really easily and me and baby were really happy, but one day I walked into a supermarket and saw the fancy formula and decided what the heck! Look at that fancy packaging, I will formula feed instead.

(Said no one ever)

Well babies need , feeding
So if a," poorer family " has chosen to formula feed ,I'm sure they have factored this into their budget ,I don't think they need your g
faux concern.

Main reason behind the formula we chose when we were in a situation where we pretty much HAD to abandon BF - what brand was most widely in stock in the supermarkets near us? One was often out of stock so we went for the option that seemed to be solidly in stock because we didn't want to add the stress factor of running around multiple stores when we needed a tin and it was out of stock locally.

Then one child ended up on Neocate anyway - which is prescription only, gated behind an absolute arse of a GP refusing to prescribe and a battle involving dietetics, two HVs staging a sit-in in the GP reception until she actually issued a prescription and me ending up with crippling PND as a result of the battle. No shiny attractive packaging or adverts or anything.

Please don't accuse me of faux concern, you've no idea what's in my head and it's very rude.

No one has ever bought a tub of formula because it's pretty.

Do you not think new mothers will have considered they might have to formula feed?
Wether it's a choice ti formula feed or a medical or a medical need, the baby still needs to be fed .

Well you are coming across as pretty patronising.

No it hasn't, tobacco companies are arses aren't they. And in fact you're right, so are formula companies. They would just charge the same and pocket the extra as profit. So yes I'm wrong.

I completely agree.

Most people I know (including myself) formula fed was due to difficulties in breast feeding not because formula advertising made them think formula is better. It's made very clear that 'breast is best' but unfortunately not everyone is able to breastfeed exclusively. People like you are just adding to the shaming in this country that mothers experience when they have to formula feed. A fed baby is best!

That. It's hard enough for women to deal with not being able to breastfeed without being psychological shamed by having to purchase food for their baby which is treated in the same way as cigarettes.

This action would basically put formula on the same level as something that is both socially unacceptable and kills.
What a cruel thing to do to a mother whose already feeling terrible

I can't believe that you can't see that,@Yoyoyozo

It's part of an entire brand image. Why is Aptamil £3 per tub more expensive than Cow and Gate when one is not demonstrably better than the other and they're made by the same company? Because it's the "premium" brand. If there was no brand image they'd have no way to get that across

I don't know how it is now but I remember NCT refusing to even talk about formula. It was all breast is best and you don't even need to buy formula just in case so yes there is definitely a proportion of pregnant women who don't even consider that they may have to formula feed.

And seriously patronising? Stretching of formula milk still happens in the UK, many families really struggle with budgeting.

No I don't feel the same because baby food isn't a medically necessary product. It's the same as any other food and not as tightly regulated as to contents. For baby food you can definitely advertise based on this one has less sugar, is organic, tastes better or whatever. There aren't many things about different formula brands that are relevant to the consumer and not just spin.

Baby food marketing is also awful but it's not the same - you don't have to feed your baby pre-packaged baby food.

If you can't breastfeed then you have no other choice Nothing can compare to formula. It is medically necessary. It is a regulated recipe. So why market it?

Who said anything about shame? Not sure why you're mentioning the potential for it to be shameful?

I always thought there was a minimum price for baby formula anyway so prices wouldn't go down that much. The good thing is that families on low incomes will get healthy start vouchers which should cover most of the cost.

Unpopular opinion though - a few years ago I definitely thought mums should be able to feed their babies however they choose. But, after massive shortages and precarious supply levels due to covid, production problems, toxic materials and so on, I now think any mother who can breastfeed should breastfeed even if it's hard and leave the formula for babies who genuinely have no other option when supplies run out again.

To be fair, some poorer parents are really struggling to feed their children, be that with food or formula, hence the rise in demand at places like foodbanks.

@iLovee marketing and advertising is a lot more complex than something being 'pretty" though. Premium packaging/price suggests higher quality, when that may not actually be true at all.

Is there still zero information out there on formula?
ten years ago when I had mine I needed formula, there was no information out there. I spent a long time trying to research what would be best
there was no support or help to guide me.

fed is best. It’s important to allow parents to make informed decisions not make them feel like they are making a dirty choice.

It’s not the packaging enticing mothers. It’s lifestyle, poor support and fear (of sore nipples)!!
let's not bash formula users, it’s really not anyone’s business.