in being annoyed at the tin of diet coke in the six month Bounty weaning pack?

[JollyPirate]

Now I am aware that Bounty packs can be an emotive issue but it is my sad lot in life to be around them on a weekly basis. The clinic I work in has recently started taking delivery of both antenatal packs and the 6 month weaning packs. Today I opened one (as I occasionally do to monitor what's inside). There were no end of Hipp Organic sachets, bottles of juice and fruit jars, fruity porridge (of which 36.5g/100g was sugars but hey "no added sugar" prominent on the label) plus samples of washing powder etc and money off coupons.

Then - right at the bottom a small (lunchbox sized) tin of caffeine free diet coke. Now I know this is probably aimed at the parents and NOT the weaning baby (one would hope although with the area I work in anything goes ). But I was pretty gobsmacked to say the least. Worst of all I had a load of Under 1 Year olds coming in for their development check this morning whose parents all came in with a Bounty pack.
I had to do some rapid explaining that they contained tins of diet coke and no I did not advocate them and definitely not for the baby. There was a coke tin shaped advertisement included which talked about how just because you were a new Mum or an expectant Mum you didn't have to give up your favourite soft drink because "hell - we've removed the caffeine". So that's okay then..

Went to my manager straight away afterwards with the offending Bounty pack - she says we are to remove the tins of Coke from the bags and has contacted Bounty to say no more are to be delivered.

Is it me or are Bounty really bad and the bags not worth having? Will women really suffer if we get rid of these bloody bags full of adverts because let's face it they have very little of any value in them.

[chegirl]

Not about being a chav

[funkybuddah]

I love bounty packs but mainly coz im a sucker for a freebie, i lvoed the free washing powders/conditioners and the spoons/bibs etc.

i never used any vouchers or owt but i got months owrth of washing out of them (friends at hosp)

[LynetteScavo]

Breast feeding is thirsty work - they should definately give out cans of coke - but normal size ones not little ones.

I thiught I wouldn't get a Bounty Pack when I had a homebirth - imagine my delight when the midwife came back a few hours later with my pack.

[Paolosgirl]

You forgot the sovvie ring - essential wear, no?!

[heather1980]

i had a home birth this time so i didn't get one, but i did last time and it was rubbish, not as bad as the emmas diary one but still rubbish.
my friend had the photo done when her dd was born and it's awful, the way the lighting was done her dd looks dead. it's really creepy.

[corriefan]

I think I was quite naive when I had my first. I kind of trusted what I was being given etc. Now I know it's all a marketing con!

[MissSunny]

Message withdrawn

[MamaHobgoblin]

I remember the couple in the bed opposite me (well, obviously most of the time it was just the woman! ) - she'd been pressurised the day her baby was born to sign up for the photo, and her partner was giving her grief about it, because they couldn't afford it.

Why do photographers think you're going to want a studio-style pic of yourself looking exhausted, tearstained and meconium-besplattered, when everyone brings a camera in anyway?

Mini sudocreme is still going strong (with some recharges) as it's a good change bag size, but I could live without it...

[TrinityIsLovingHerLittleRhino]

diet coke still has caffeine in anyway
fucking ridiculous
bastard bounty

[TrinityIsLovingHerLittleRhino]

sorry missed that it was caffeine free
still bastards

[stripeysox]

I don't agree with the NHS helping companies to sell their products, parents may assume the stuff is recommended by health professionals which its not. I asked our mat hospital (using Freedom of Information Act) how much they got paid for gving out the Bounty packs and allowing a baby photograph company access to the post natal ward. The hospital gets £5 for every pack that's given out and £10 for each person who uses the photography service.

[chegirl]

I never had one of those creepy photos done. I mus thave missed the bounty woman when I had DD in hosp, was out in a few hours with DS1, didnt meet DS2 till he was 8 weeks old, had homebirth with DS3.

I have a few bounty photos of neices, nephews etc but they are not the sort I would have on the mantlepiece if ya know wha I mean

[AnarchyAunt]

Bounty packs are a pile of commercial shit, designed for the purposes of

getting your/your baby's/your family's details on a database

selling said database to anyone and everyone so they can target you with advertising for more shit

undermining BF relationships with their soft-sell brand placement for formula

encouraging early weaning by sending out samples in the 3/4 month pack

exploiting any loophole they can find in the legislation banning formula advertising

targetting HCPs with advertising for 'pregnancy and birth synonymous products' (they boast on their corporate website about how much parents trust their HCP's recommendation of products)

making big mahoosive profits out of all of the above

[pingviner]

DP took the pack home while I was in hospital with all forms etc and industriously went through it while tidying up and threw them out (the only useful thing in it!)

You can download the forms anyway

[JollyPirate]

Bounty told me yesterday that their "new birth" packs are put together with the support of the Baby Friendly Initiative people. . Forgive me if I am a little suspicious about this (although to be fair I have not seen a new birth pack for a long while).

[Cloudbase]

I hate the Bounty packs AND the Emma's Diary pack - they play on the fact that you are really excited about being pregnant and will sign up to anything, then inundate you with literally forests worth of junk mail for the rest of your life. I spent a whole day after DS was born ringing round the miniscule printed phone numbers on all of the junk mail I was getting from companies flogging french baby wear and disney books etc and asked them to take me off their mailing list. Oh, I also got loads of loan companies offering me loans at around 150% (According to Bounty statistics I was a new mother, at home, in a rented flat - therefore I must be desperate, poor and stupid!)Miraculously it all stopped, so it deffo comes from Bounty and Emmas Diary. And the ED pack contained about 20 advetising leaflets and a variety pack size box of cereal!! Not even a washing powder tablet...I didn't know that the hospitals get paid for letting them be handed out though - that's disgusting!

[gasman]

Bounty packs being given out in a healthcare environment concern me because of the assumed approval of the contents for staff.

However the specific inclusion of a diet soft drink concerns me not one jot. As a practising healthcare professional with a pretty hefty carbonated drink habit I find the fact that I can no longer buy a can of diet coke in the hospital I work in (banned by the healthy eating brigade) far more galling.

[Nighbynight]

Cloudbase - they figured out that I had a job and no credit card, so I used to get credit card stuff in every post. Which probably also came to 150% interest
Doh! stupids - couldnt they understand that I didnt WANT a feckin credit card?
Lets hope they will be more regulated after the banking crashes.

[FatFree]

Cant understand the uproar of a tiny free can of coke tbh. In this day and age, anyone giving me anything for free is fine by me!

Oh and you dont have to read all the crap advertising that comes with it, thats what your recycling bin is for

[EyeballsisonaDietAgain]

If only my Bounty pack had contained anything as interesting as a can of diet coke. I might have taken it home then...

[Tidey]

I only ever got one Bounty pack, and the only useful thing was the Sudocrem. All the rest seemed to be leaflets advertising photo companies. Most of it went in the recycling box. I wouldn't have minded a can of Coke.

[brettgirl2]

YABU FFS it's only a can of diet coke not free fags or heroin.

I don't understand the obsession that some people have about diet coke - oh sorry it's the people who don't like it.

Only an idiot would actually give it to a baby anyway. And if they are that stupid it is freely available in the shops.

As someone said though, it's a shame that it was the caffiene free one.

As someone else said, I was more offended by the adverts for 150% APR loans.

[LesAnimaux]

I think it's a shame they don't put in a mini bottle of Blossom Hill.

I can see where you are comming from, OP - but really should dried baby food be encouraged? [blurgh]

[FatFree]

I'm with you LesAnimaux with the free mini bottle of Blossom Hill