We're inviting you to send in your questions to Mike Brady, Campaigns and Networking Coordinator at Baby Milk Action.
Mike graduated in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and has worked in Africa as an engineer and science teacher. At Baby Milk Action, he monitors the baby food industry and campaigns to hold them to account.
Baby Milk Action is a non-profit organisation which aims to save lives and to end the avoidable suffering caused by inappropriate infant feeding. It is the UK member of the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), a network of over 200 citizens groups in more than 100 countries.
Baby Milk Action's slogan is: "Protecting breastfeeding - Protecting babies fed on formula". It is perhaps best known for promoting a boycott of Nestlé, but also works with national governments and international bodies on regulations and marketing standards.
Mike was seen earlier this year outside Nestlé (UK) HQ in the guise of [[http://info.babymilkaction.org/emailnestle
Mr. Henry Nastie]], explaining Nestlé's marketing practices.
Send your questions in to Mike before midday on Friday 9th December and we'll link through to his answers from this thread later the following week.
Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.
MNHQ have commented on this thread
Infant feeding
Q and A with Mike Brady from Baby Milk Action
RachelMumsnet · 06/12/2010 14:05
Er, no 
.
I am talking about the way people like you engage with mothers who formula feed on threads like this. Being argumentative and picking over posts is counterproductive if you wish to persuade people to adopt your viewpoint. I didn't say abything about persuading mothers to breastfeed.
Perhaps I have misunderstood, but I though part of BMA's role inclded giving info to UK mothers (and others) about formula? Where their website says "Parents have a right to accurate, independent information." I took this to mean from them.
'people like you' 
tiktok has helped many, many people with her expertise, does not discriminate, and would even help you!
its not about bringing people to 'her side'
tiktok did not invent breastfeeding.
its about feeding infants in the best way we can, with the information we have at the time.
Hang on a minute 
, now I feel pounced on. Lowercase, you seem to be making assumptions about my views and motivations. Perhaps this is my fault because I'm not that eloquent 
. I was clumsily trying to make 2 different points I think: one about debating styles on the internet and one about how a campaign is perceived by some. It struck me both were about persuasion.
By 'picking over' I was just referring to Tiktok's post of 8.49 on Fri where she picked out a series of quotes. I am sorry, this probably was not the best way to word it . As I said in response to that, I feel this style of posting on this topic is counterproductive. 'People like you' = people who debate in this way on threads like this about infant feeding. Sheesh, I seem to have been labelled by lowercase as someone attacking people who help people breastfeed just because I make what I intended as a generalised observation about how to not persuade people. I wasn't trying to be unfriendly .
Maybe, the BMA info is not primarily for mums. However, given the UK breastfeeding rates of course the majority of HCPs, politicians and civil servants who have kids are likely to have used formula, just like the majority of the UK population. So actually, if as a campaign group BMA want to gain widespread support then they do need to be able to reach out to people who have bottlefed. As some of the responses to this thread show, in some cases they already do this . By the way, I'm not talking about persuading people to feed their baby one way or another, I'm talking about trying to persuade people that, well, whatever BMA wants to persuade them through its campaigns. My understanding is that the purpose of any campaign is to change the status quo, which I would expect to mean winning hearts and minds at some level.
Maybe you are right and getting some people's backs up is unavoidable collateral damage of any campaign. It might be worth thinking about whether this really is the case, or whether the info could be conveyed differently, for example by separating more clearly the UK and international issues. It does seem a bit unfortunate that the people on MN who feel upset by discussions about BMA and the Nestle boycott are some of the ones BMA's campaign is intended to help 
. I do not mean by avoiding publicising the issues, nor abandoning the boycott.
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
Nooooooo! Please, no more of this thread!!!!!!
The debate (ie before Mike's answers) was interesting in parts, but honestly, can anyone say that they learnt anything from it? Or changed their views?
C'mon everyone ... peace on earth and all that 
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