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.

We could also do with some evidence for the claim that everyone knows medical professionals choose other brands over Cow and Gate because they don't want to look poor...

What would be the point of putting money into plain packaging? I don't really understand the point in promoting breastfeeding so much anyway. Yes it's better for babies but only marginally so. Surely focusing on healthy foods being more affordable later in life would be far more efficient.

This is often due to medical intervention though.
Example it's known that women who have c-section take longer for their milk to come in, medication given after birth can have an effect and so can removing the baby from the mother, biologically 98% of women can breastfeed. I'm not saying we shouldn't have medical intentions as then infant and women mortality rates would be higher.

But it's just not true that you need to give artificial milk before milk comes in.

If you want to read more about how the biology works.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK148970/#:~:text=When%20a%20baby%20suckles%2C%20the,the%20next%20feed%20(20).

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

@ThisOldThang the link you provided isn't actually a research paper it's an review of other research papers. Which is something you always have to wary off as the writer has selected a number of papers to analysis unless they have very carefully chosen all papers published in this field they can be very biased.

I don't think that really matters with regards to studies that are referenced - e.g. 15% of women, that were provided with intensive breast feeding intervention, still couldn't produce enough milk.

Throwing around numbers such as '98% of women can breast feed' is an attempt to suggest that 'failing' mothers just haven't tried hard enough.

They are equal in terms of nutrition. That’s not the same as saying they are all the same.

😂 Yes, those shinny aptamil tins are just that irresistible!

Packaging had nothing whatsoever to do with my decision to formula feed or which brand.

I never produced any milk at all so breastfeeding wasn't an option for me. Whilst still in hospital, the midwives there started my son on formula milk and I just carried on with the same brand once we left.

At no point did I ever think about the packaging at all.

I need this on an inspirational poster, please.

Fuck the fucking piety of women that actually think I gave my babies formula because the packet was too pretty to resist.

I suppose they think I gave my newborns cigarettes because of the packaging too? Hmm? No. They just loved a fag after a big bottle.

How about if we could buy a generic version of formula the way we can do for medicines?

Like the 28p paracetamol is exactly the same medicine as the £3:95 Panadol but with no marketing or fancy package.

Couldn't we have a plain Baby Formula that contains all the essential regulated nutrients, but then cost only I dunno, £1.50 or something?

Iceland (the store) came out with their own version of a formula for around £6 I think it was.

I did wonder if maybe Boots or someone do their own. It's been a few years (decades) since I needed it though so I've no idea!

Seems like a good idea to me!

This is quite unusual. I'm glad it all worked out for you.
One Born EVery Minute or whatever it is ,set in the UK, I am absolutely flummoxed at just born babies being given bottles. That's nothing to do with supply, but definitely won't help.
That actually did shock me, although as long as all the bubs are fed that's the best outcome. STrange not to even give it a crack though!

But op that's literally part of the point in your op that we're all getting irritated about:

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

And your conclusion is to have plain packaging. You imply this will improve breastfeeding rates. Then this later sarcastic comment of yours implies that's a ridiculous notion. We know.

And OP claiming that formula causes deaths in the same sense that cigarettes do is rational?

I was fortunate. I was able to breast feed my two for over a year each and found it really easy from the start. To my shame, I was a bit smug about it. My daughter however had multiple problems with trying to feed her baby, and little support, thanks to the state of the NHS. She felt like a failure. The thought of her having to be faced with the equivalent of 'a plain white wrapper' to make her baby's milk equivalent to something dodgy sent through the post, makes me angry.

It's stunningly naive to think that a plain wrapper will make formula cheaper. And frankly I doubt that the thinking behind this is to save 'poor people' 5p off each purchase.

I also didn't produce milk to feed a premature baby even expressing didn't seem to produce any, acting faux confused and flummoxed at a random TV programme when you know nothing about circumstances and also pulling up copy and pasted research suits your narrative.

This is not an issue. No sensible person is buying formula because one has better packaging than the other - you buy what is sold in the shop near you, or you know suits your baby, or your friend recommends.

Breastfeeding rates are poor, in my opinion, due to families being spread out and lack of hands on help day to day. Possibly more women working as well (which I fully support, I work full time myself). Also very quick discharge from hospital. It's a cultural issue. Women don't live with or near an experienced family member or friend anymore.

On one visit, my midwife told me how disappointed she was with my friend as she had given up breastfeeding after only a few weeks! She knew we were friends and had given birth at the same time. I couldn’t believe she would discuss another patient with me, let alone pass judgement on her. I was ff anyway so I was not as outraged as she was 🙄.

No, I want things to go the other way, actually.

I want mums to be allowed to spend their loyalty points - which they got from spending their own money - on formula to help them eke things out 'til payday. Did it actually help anyone for my friend (incapable of BFing due to medication)

The US has better BFing rates, yet they have formula manufacturers sending mums free samples - a "hack" I've seen on mom sites is to sign up for samples from a bunch of different companies in case BFing doesn't work/so you have an emergency supply if times get tight!

This. My daughter ended up in A&E with dehydration. That triggered severe PND and I attempted suicide. Fun times.

Yikes. Some HCPs really struggle with boundaries.

My son needed prescription formula….so you know, breast feeding not exactly right for him there is it