Reducing the price of first formula milk

[starsintheireyes]

Please can someone link me to to some info about this, I was 99% certain its illegal to discount first milk in shops yet my local store is selling sma gold for 20p

Yes - it's defo illegal to discount first milk op but not follow on.

Do you remember a large supermarket recently got caught reducing the price of first infant formula.

You can take a picture and send it to your local trading standards with more details.

For those saying hasn't the OP got better things to do......well, the law is there to protect breastfeeding. Formula was oringally not invented to provide equal nourishment or as a substitute to breastfeeding; it was introduced for mothers who could not breastfeed.

You can find all the info from Baby Milk Action

Could it just be close to the use by date and he's trying to just get rid of it?

Makes no difference wheresmycaffeinedrip. The law is the law.

The law is there to stop formula feeding companies promoting first milk. These guidelines are in place to prevent marketing for first stage formula.

Whether it is price reduction, advertising, contacting mums in pregnancy with milk freebies, companies are and should be prevented from these tactics.

Yes formula milk should be available. No it shouldn't be promoted or marketed.

20p for a whole tin??? Or one of the little ready mix cartons?

oooh 20p you say?

Right thats me not bfing anymore then woohoo

Yes Op report it, cant have anyone getting FF on the cheap can we?

FFS this isn't about stopping 'anyone getting FF on the cheap'. It's about stopping any promotion or marketing of first stage formula.

Perhaps the owner just doesn't know. Op did u try explaining to the owner that he shouldn't be doing it? Have to say I had no idea this law existed and there r probably many others who don't either. :)

But all the law actually achieves is allowing formula companies to keep the price artifically high and then shrug and say well we're not allowed to discount. The only result is they make huge profits and FF parents pay through the nose to feed their babies. This includes those who can't breastfeed for whatever reason as well as those who choose not to (not that I think the latter should pay a premium for their choice).

I still think if a law is needed at all, it should be one restricting the maximum price infant formula can be sold at. Yes, companies would possibly stop trying to improve the product (although they would still presumably be trying to compete with other brands if only to hook people in for the older milks) but from what everyone says on here, at this stage most of the so-called improvements and benefits of one type of formula over another are largely baseless claims anyway.

Then spend more time educating people aboput the benefits of breastfeeding - go into schools maybe so children grow up with the idea that babies=breastfeeding not babies=bottles.

Wow, how nasty are some people being on here. As if there isn't enough crap going on in the world.

OP - yea it's illegal, I've linked as has another poster. Either speak to shop or follow advice on links. Regardless of wether a person agrees with the law in place, it is law and they shop is breaking it.

Now if people want o debate whether this law is a valid law or of they wish it o change, perhaps they could start another discussion in politics and raise it with their respective MP's.

Sorry, just think its a spiteful thing to do. I imagine its a local shop so FFing parents in the area are going to have a bit of money off some FF, no harm in that (or is there?). Id bet good money that its nearly out of date so rather than sell it at full price, they've knocked a bit of money off. Better that than binning it surely?

I also disagree with formula being so expensive.

BUT the law is there to stop the promotion of first stage milk. For those who think the law shouldn't exist, would you agree with pregnant mums being sent free milk samples? Advertising of first stage milk? All the same thing.

Sorry crap typing, jiggling baby and on phone

"I think it is very patronising to view ff women as unable to realise that the price of discounted formula can go up just like the price of discounted dishwasher
tablets - we all understand how dicounting works in supermarkets." Yes agree ,you buy something on special offer, you know it's not going to last so perhaps you buy a few more to last a bit longer - I do it all the time, bread, ham, milk (of the semi-skimmed variety) what's the problem?

"For those saying hasn't the OP got better things to do......well, the law is there to protect breastfeeding. Formula was oringally not invented to provide
equal nourishment or as a substitute to breastfeeding; it was introduced for mothers who could not breastfeed." So let's continue to penalize those mothers who cannot breastfeed then shall we by over-inflating the price of the formula and ensuring they know just how wrong it is every time they buy a tin.

Plus, if you look at the breastfeeding rates in the UK, it seems abundantly clear that it's not working, is it?

Ultimately if a woman doesn't want to breastfeed, no amount of price-kiking the formula is going to change her mind. women decide not to breastfeed for reasons of their own and which are not for anyone else to judge. And equally, a woman who does want to breastfeed is unlikely to be swayed by lower cost formula if she has her mind set on bf. And the woman who is unable to breastfeed has no choice - she has to pay the cost of formula regardless of her financial state.

I find it interesting that one of the key arguments against nestle is the fact that they sell formula at such an increased rate in the 3rd world, thus ensuring that women who cannot afford it fail to make it up properly, yet in this country we actively encourage it to be sold at an increased rate. So what advice does one then give to a woman who cannot afford it?

There has to be a simple rule in place to stop any promotion or marketing of first stage milk.

Actually, iirc, in countries where formula advertising has been banned (can't remember offhand, will look later), there have been huge increases in BFing.
Formula companies only developed follow on milk and toddler milk to bypass the advertising laws that apply to first milk.

For those of you who don't understand, can I recommend reading The Politics of Breastfeeding. A very interesting read, but it certainly doesn't show formula companies in very good light.

pmsl at "nasty". Having an opposing opinion does not equal being nasty, but perhaps you'd like to start a thread in ibu if you want to see what nast really looks like.

But it's two different things.

Price per se of first milk is one thing.

Not promoting or marketing first milk is another.

Do posters seriously think it's acceptable to promote and market first milk?

Having an opposing opinion isn't nasty, no. Some of the response here are though.

That's what I thought gribble :) no one even knows if the poor shop owner has any idea he is breaking a law. If it's just a local shop then it's possible. God knows there r so many laws and regulations regarding sales of various products it must be hard to remember them all. If he does know then I'm sure someone at somepoint will hold him accountable but if he doesn't then I'd have thought maybe just politely informing him would be a first step rather than jumping to report to trading standards/ authorities or whatever.

Wow, what a lively thread!

So what about hospitals who provide milk (such as special care units)? Are they promoting milk as well? My daughter was in special care and I was given Aptamil in little bottles to give her; sure enough I carried on using Aptamil after discharge, partic as the staff told me it was 'the best'.

Loveisagirlnameddaisy - I don't think hospitals are allowed to promote certain brands over others no. I thought they had to offer a choice. But it varies hugely as to what actually does happen in reality.

Often why midwives say "I'm not really supposed to say but x is the best"

Catching up with other posts, I don't think many people realise how persuasive and downright manipulative formula companies are.

In an ideal world, there would be the support to enable women to BFeed, but today there isn't - midwives, GP's and HV's are largely ignorant to how BFing works, and how to effectively solve problems. This is largely due to the undermining marketing practices of formula companies.

For the women who want to BFeed, it's vital that people such as the OP are willing to report price reductions in first milks, because if they didn't, I'm sure it wouldn't be too long before the formula companies would find other subtle ways to get FFing even more normalised than it is now.
In the 60's women were told by mw's that FFing was best for their babies, and handed out free bottles of milk - provided by the formula companies, in maternity wards designed in part by formula companies, designed to split up mother and baby, and generally make BFing unlikely.

There wasn't a choice at my hospital and my friend who was in a London hospital was given SMA and continued to use SMA at home. I was led to believe that Aptamil was more expensive than the others because it was 'better' i.e. the formula was the closest to breast milk out of all the milks. I think it even says this on the packaging.