Infant formula - they know it's illegal to discount it...

[hunkermunker]

..but they do anyway.

Twice in the last week, once in Moss and once in Boots, I've seen cut-price infant formula.

Both times I took it to a member of staff and told them very politely it was illegal to do this.

Both times they said (in hushed tones) things along the lines of "Ah, yes, I think we knew that" or "She's right, actually".

So why do they do it?

tiktok - I think my friend's mum had this - she couldn't tolerate lactose, thought that it would be fine if she breastfed, but then her daughter couldn't even tolerate breastmilk, and had to be switched to soya. my friend's family has been plagued by all sorts of health problems, unfortunately.

TR Nanneh.
Not you!!!

Sorry, didn't know there was such a genetic disorder. Apologies to redhed, didn't know there was such a thing, didn't mean to offend

it's ok moondog - the previous post to mine ? must have cross posted

Congenitally inverted nipples cause a lot of problems, children couldn't latch on I expressed (amid much pain for as long as I could) but eventually had to give in and formula feed them both.

A friend of mine has two children with galaxaceamia (sp) and was unable to breast feed as any milk products will seriousley damage their liver and eventually kill them and they had to be fed a special formula which could only be obtained by prescription through the childrens hospital. I dread to think how much that stuff cost. It apparently is something connected to the sugars in breast and cows milk which will cause the problem.

dd1 has galactosaemia . The issue is that breast milk has 50% more galactose in it than dairy formula, so they go downhill more quickly if breast fed than if bottle fed. Plus of course as you can't measure what they're taking it's harder to work out why they are losing weight: poor weight gain despite good feeding is a clear flag for a metabolic condition so they get picked up quicker when fed from a bottle - though of course that goes for ebm as well.

The problem I had is that HVs are now so strongly trained to be pro bf (and don't get me wrong, I'm pro bf myself) that they can think it will cure absolutely everything; my baby was literally dying in front of her eyes and I was begging her to get me help and she was sending me bf counsellors and trying to get me to relactate when I had given up bfing (DD1 didn't take to it, understandably in hindsight) and actually telling my DH I was imagining the illness and trying to persuade him to ignore my concerns and get me to a shrink. Undiagnosed Galactosaemics often die within 2 weeks - DD made it to 4 1/2 weeks before we finally got help, thank God.

Anyhoo - bit of an odd story, Galactosaemia is very rare (1 in 40,000 in the UK) but my real point is just that there are genuine conditions where formula is not a "decision"; Galactosaemia isn't the only one, I think. And that in those cases the formula manufacturers are not the bad guys, they are the people keeping your baby alive. So although I too get v cross about the way formula is promoted in developing countries, I have mixed feelings about the value of making it expensive to formula feed a child in the UK.

Sorry, cross-posted with mummyhill re: galactosaemia - small world, eh?

redhed - I am sorry to hear that your HV was so rubbish. Your baby should have been diagnosed properly by a specialist.

My experience has been quite the reverse. I never had any support from my HV or GP to breastfeed (my GP was telling me to "give baby a bottle at night" he was only a week old because I said he hardly slept - her solution to sleep was formula

I think it goes without saying that all mothers, especially first time mothers, need better access to info. and where there is an inability to pay for expensive health care or feeding products for a baby, there should be more money allocated.

I dispair at the state of the NHS though and the quality of HV and MW support we get, I really do.

Must have been very, very worrtying, redhed.....I had a friend whose baby had this condition (which was the one I meant in my previous post) but he was spotted within days of the birth. Trouble is, mws and hvs don't know how to spot effective and ineffective bf. A baby who is clearly not thriving needs proper help and a diagnosis and just telling mothers to persevere with bf is not good enough. In your case, it was life threatening.

To repeat - I am in favour of cheap formula.

I think it should be cheap all the time.

I don't think manufacturers should spend any money on marketing it, designing fluffy bunnies for the packaging, sending health care professionals tat with the logo on, advertising it and all the rest of the paraphernalia that mothers ultimately pay for.

It should be unbranded, and readily available at an affordable price for everyone. Speciality formulas which cost more to make can have a premium added, but this should not be reflected in the price to the mother, but be paid for by the NHS because they should be easily available on prescription.

The analogy I would make would be with pharmacueticals, which are available (still, I think) in generic formulations with no branding.

mummyhill - yes, I understand what you mean about badly inverted nipples. It didn't strike me that this would be a congenital condition ie one that mothers could be born with, but of course this must be a rare possibility.

Your posts make a refreshing read on this thread Tiktok. Can I ask you then, is it your belief that the sole problem with formula (just considering the UK) is the advertising (thus promoting) affecting the breastfeeding rates?

Tik tok - unfortunatly it runs in the family. You know it is time to give up expressing when it is extremly painful and takes ages to get 1oz let alone when the milk is pink because there is blood in it. I was disapointed that I couldn't bf but understand that I gave them the best start possible.

My friends little boys both have developmental problems which are linked to the Galactosaemia even thought the youngest was tested at birth and has never received anything other than the milk provided by the hospital.

Unhappy experiences, mummyhill.....and so painful : (

Squarer - my problem with formula is that it is marketed unethically and thus undermines breastfeeding. It's not just advertising. The product is promoted in many ways, sometimes quite subtle.

Thanks Tiktok. I certainly appreciate the unethical marketing using follow on milk. So it is the commercial nature of formula, and all that goes with it. I also really appreciate your balanced view.