To think adverts for and more info on formulas should be allowed?

[StrictlyBoogying]

I couldn't and didn't breastfeed either of my DCs for many reasons and when in hospital I was asked which formula I wanted DD1 to have. I had no idea which to choose and the staff weren't allowed to suggest or recommend one brand. I think it's ridiculous. People who want to make an informed decision on formula aren't being allowed to.

[Pheebe]

a formula fed child is far more likely to end up in hospital within its first year, it is more likely to have long term illnesses....

perhaps you'd like to back such a sweeping statement up with hard fact and rigorous scientific evidence please. Sounds that the evangelic claptrap our local 'breast buddy' spouts!

[StrictlyBoogying]

Yesterday - I find your post quite patrionising. (but maybe that's because I feel a bit defensive about my need to FF) I'm sure every new Mum would breastfeed if they could but it's not always possible and no, not all formulas suit all babies.
Why would you see an advert for breast milk? That comparison is pointless.

[thisisyesterday]

at 11pm? lol
i may come back to you with that, but it's absolutely true.
will dig out the politics of breastfeeding and find the references, but yes./
I think in the US a formula fed child between 1week and a year old is something like 4 times more likely to die than a breastfed child (this takes all other factors into account)

[Penthesileia]

YABU. Advertising does virtually nothing to inform you about a product; but it does do everything it can to make you "brand aware".

As someone has already pointed out, what has advertising done to "inform" you about the differing constituitive elements of washing powder? Or the differing qualities of cars?

Or do you want the same kind of bogus-science, "here comes the sciencey part" shite that comes with the beauty industry - "wrinkles appear plumped out" ...?

For the poster who argued against "censorship": what's being censored? Formula is still available; plus it is advertised after 6m. Just out of interest: would you bring back cigarette advertising?

Finally, even if advertising were an effective way of "informing" people, which, I repeat, it is not (since it is about brand awareness), how would if work to inform you vis-a-vis competing products? Thankfully, in the UK we don't have comparative advertising (as they do in the US, for example), so X formula wouldn't be able to compare itself directly or qualitatively with another formula, so you'd not really be any better off, comparison-wise.

As far as I can tell, it becomes an issue of trial and error and finding the formula that your baby likes best, should s/he not get on with the first one.

[Pheebe]

Where is the mass of evidence then? Point me to it and I'll happily read it? Such statements are provocative especially when they are unsubstantiated and designed to apply severe guilt to mothers who ff (by choice or necessity).

[thisisyesterday]

strictly- i used to feel the same as you. when i gave up bf my ds1 at 4.5 months, i was devastated. i was cross with everyone who said a bad word against formula because i'd had no choice in what i fed him

now i re-direct that anger, because i DID have a choice. what I lacked was the correct help and support and information to successfully breastfeed. the instant availability of formula, and the plethora of people waiting to tell me that "happy mum means a happy baby" made the switch far too easy, and something I will always regret.

so now I am in the process of starting BFC training, and i am directing my anger and formula manufacturers wgo continue to flout marketing regulations, and the professionals who failed me and my baby.

[Pheebe]

The very fact that there is a need 'to dig out' the references belies the argument that there is a 'mass of evidence'. A quick trawl of pubmed also fails to reveal this 'mass of evidence'.

[Fitzy72]

i would have thought that advertising would be to make you buy their product over another - not to influence you to make a decision as key as whether to bf or ff.
every child has the right to the best nutrition so surely then nutritional information on formula should be permitted to be advertised?
i think that the point being missed here is that people have freedom of choice and also some people cannot breastfeed -- these people should be given more information to permit informed decisions

[thisisyesterday]

fairly good, very well referenced article here

[CornishKK]

YANBU - my PFB is FF, I planned to breast feed and couldn't. I struggled to get any information at the hospital on formula feed. One health visitor told me Aptamil was the best as it was closest to breast milk, although this was three weeks after I began FF.

I don't think adverts would help but there should be decent information available from the health service - we all know breast is best, some of us didn't have that choice.

The government is taking plenty of steps to ensure that breast feeding is promoted (constantly) - providing a source of information for FF that can be trusted will not change that.

There is a lot of smugness and snobbery from some posters about how simple FF is (they are all the same, just stick it in a bottle FFS etc. etc.), those posters should consider how they would feel with a 2 day old baby who has never fed, has low blood sugar, being told you have to FF and to make a decision on which formula with no guidance or information. Have some empathy!!

[thisisyesterday]

n 1981, Allen Cunningham published Hospitalization patterns of a homogeneous, middle class, white, 1,18 population and concluded that, ?I would expect 77 hospital admission for illness during the first four months of life in every 1000 bottle-fed infants. The comparable figure for breastfed infants is five hospital admissions?

[Pheebe]

Hooch - that study was conducted in the phillipines so hardly applies to the UK population and while the study 'adjusted for age, education, and place of delivery' it did not adjust for sanitation levels or the cleanliness of water supply.

If a statement that babies in the Uk are more likely to be sick and die if ff then the data needs to come from the UK or socially equivalent societies

...still awaiting such data...

[thisisyesterday]

and here

[StrictlyBoogying]

This post wasn't just about adverts; it was about more information in general. And why shouldn't we be brand aware of brands we have to buy? I don't change my car insurance in every break or play bingo online but because of adverts I know about them.

[thisisyesterday]

btw,. there are NHS leaflets on formula feeding, making and preparing bottles etc etc

these ought to be readily available from GP/midwife/health visitor

[thisisyesterday]

A risk/benefit analysis by the United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences estimated that for every 1000 infants born in the US each year, four will die because they are not breastfed

[thisisyesterday]

A multicenter study in British neonatal units showed breastfeeding to be the single most effective method of preventing necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in preterm infants. Infants born at more than 30 weeks gestation whose diet contained any breastmilk rarely experienced NEC. It was 20 times more common in those babies fed only formula. The authors estimated that exclusive formula feeding could account for 500 extra cases of NEC each year, and the death of 100 (20 percent) of these infants.23

[thisisyesterday]

in fact, just read the whole thing here

[Pheebe]

1981 data (you do realise thats at almost 30 years out of date), data from third world countries, data from countries with extreme levels of poverty and questionable public health policies...still no evidence from a UK-comparable population

...still waiting...bored now and going to bed...

[cory]

StrictlyBoogying Tue 10-Nov-09 23:06:03
"I'm sure every new Mum would breastfeed if they could but it's not always possible"

Not true, actually. Quite a few Mums do decide to bottle feed, before the baby is even born; most of them will never know whether they would have been able breatsfeed to or not. Some of them admittedly make this choice for quite serious reasons, like hang-ups over breasts after sexual abuse.

But quite a few choose formula simply because they don't like the thought, their friends don't do it, they think bottle feeding is easier, they don't want to end up with saggy breasts, their Mums think it's unhealthy (we've seen examples of all these on Mumsnet).