not looking for a row, but has anyone seen the new SMA logo? the one that looks like the mum is bf?

[harpsichordcarrier]

here's the logo

you tube clip here

sma site

way to get round the new advertising rules, which forbid them from saying "close to breastmilk" &c
anyone like to complain? I would like them, very much, to have to change their logo and slogan again. especially as they have clearly spent quite a bit of wonga on it.

urban - because saying i give rusks beacuse "i'm really stupid" is extremely rude, i am not suprised they didn't post it !

people may give rusks at 7 weeks because they are not well-informed, not because they are stupid

being militant (not sure if that gives a good impression to f feeders) is not the same as being deliberately rude/unkind

Fio and zippi - you have led sheltered lives, that's all I can say.

These views are not unusual.

The notion that formula milk is almost as good as breastmilk is quite common, even here on mumsnet.

The idea that it is 'better' is less common but the idea exists.

Many people are not aware that 'baby milk' is actually dried cows milk.

Here's a test: next time you are with a bunch of people (maybe choose a bunch who doesn't read a lot or investigate much), ask them 'what is baby milk made from?' and you may be surprised. I predict that answers will include, 'um, well, it's special milk for babies' and if you press them, and then someone says, 'well, cows milk, I suppose,' someone will say 'oh, I never really thought of that.'

I have not personally come across anyone who thought it was breastmilk in a tin, but I have met other people who have reported this.

tiktok, will any one BUY my breastmilk in a tin ?

being mumsnet we could have a who has or hasn't led a sheltered life competition but i find that comment so patronising i shall bow out for now

you'll be pleased

do however start a thread on the idea of prescription only formula it would be interesting i hope

you are right, most people seem to think that formula is some kind of magic formula (hence the name formula ?) to feed babies when in fact it is mainly cow's milk with added "engineered" components

Hi everyone, I have been emailed this by Baby Milk Action, thought you might be interested:

Crackdown on UK baby food marketing and Wyeth/SMA response

You are being sent this email as you have signed up to receive alerts
when new information is posted on the website of the Baby Feeding Law
Group (BFLG):
www.babyfeedinglawgroup.org.uk/

The UK Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula Regulations 1995 are
currently being revised, following the adoption of a revised European
Union Directive last year. This will take about a year. In the
meantime, thanks to the work of the Baby Feeding Law Group, the Food
Standards Agency and Trading Standards are cracking down on practices
that are illegal under the existing law. In particular supermarkets
have been told to stop promotions of infant formula and baby food
companies to remove claims (other than those explicitly permitted by
the law) from labels of infant formula.

You can find further details on the Baby Milk Action press release by
following the link from the BFLG website or going direct to:
www.babymilkaction.org/press/press12march07.html

Companies have agreed to change labels and the first to do so is
Wyeth, producer of SMA formula. While dropping most health claims and
its 'Now even closer to breastmilk' slogan, its newly launched labels
have a new logo, with a stylised breastfeeding mother, and a new
slogan: "Love the milk you give".

For further details follow the link from the BFLG website or go
direct to:
boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/04/sma-plans-new-close-to-
breastmilk.html

You might also like to see the YouTube clip that Baby Milk Action has
produced about the new logo and slogan at:
boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/04/love-milk.html

Best wishes,

Mike Brady
Campaigns and Networking Coordinator
Baby Milk Action
Secretariat for BFLG

Didn't mean to be patronising - it's a jokey way of saying 'there are people out there you may not have met'.

Shd have put a in, I suppose.

Here's one now

Do you not think it's a bit lame to say I don't believe people think that because I have never met anyone who thought that, though?

some people defo. DO think that bm and formula are excatly the same or very nearly the same, i have met a few, but even if i hadn't i would still believe that to be true - it is the actual basis of formula marketing and the resaon why it is so successful

What do you mean by 'the reaons itr has become so successful?" My aunt fed her 4 kids on boiled up cows milk, my friend (aged 32) was fed on carnation. I supect its become succesful because the alternatives for bottlefeeding were worse.

This argument is all back to front. Rather than tell peple how crap formula is why not encourage breastfeeding a) by giving guilt free breastfeeding counselling- I had some dreadful breastfeeding counselling with ds1. b) by putting this sort of energy into extending things like maternity leave c) by putting this sort of energy into getting extra midwives on the postnatal wards. I bet that would make the biggest difference.

i agree
breastfeedin ebagelism just turns you off( and i s peak as a breastfeeder)

god I agree cod- I spent over 3 years breastfeeding, but reading a lot of this sort of stuff would have wanted to make me bottlefeed.

I do think I fed ds1 for over a year despite the breastfeeding counsellors advice- if I'd followed her way of doing it we would have stopped before 6 weeks. But by would she have piled the guilt on.

gess, i said the marketing of formula is "successful", i.e they sell billions worth of products, that is a FACT of capitalism not a value judgement re. whether bf/ff is better

please tell me how what i said was a judgement that puts people off ? i am confused !

and I DO spend an awful lot of time and energy discussing crap maternity/crap bf support, etc in this country, both those things have effected me as the mother of a young child as much as any one else, i always say the reason i was able to bf was DESPITE the support of mw/hv/gp not BECAUSE of it - lol

What have the undoubted shortcomings of some breastfeeding counselling got to do with the hope that formula milk is marketed ethically and honestly? So that all mothers, formula feeders and breastfeeders, know the information they need and are not restricted to choosing what their mum or their friend used, or what is on sale locally - because the only other way of choosing is between pretty colours?

Do you not mind being advertised to and sloganised to in this way?

Surely that's more patronising than anything....

i don't just talk and have no trousers either, i am a member of LLL and BMA and support women here who have qusetions re. bf - not a saint but at least i don't sit on my hands !

You said that the marketing campaign from the evil formula companies was the reason that people used formula (I'm not talking developing countries btw). The marketing campaign that says that breat and formula is almost the same.

My point was before the evil formula companies people were still not breastfeeding. They were boiling up milk or giving evaporated milk. Low rates of breastfeeding wer ein place before evil formula companies.

But really I am not getting drawin onto a breastfeeding/ff debate. cod where's nobabies.com?

"ethically and honestly" - yes quite !

I'm advertised and sloganised to all the time. I think I have the ability to see beyond the advertising for any product. I'd rather be sloganised to than lectured at to be honest.

sorry gess, but please with due respect i NEVER used the word EVIL ! please get your facts right before you start making accusations.

yes, i agree that formula milk is a necessary product and that it has been vastly improved since the days people boiled up cow's milk (my mother was fed boiled up cow's milk). does anyone here dispute that ?

the giving of facts is not the same as lecturing

that is like saying you are not interested in the facts of what formula contains ?

gess, throughout history people have not universally breastfed their babies - but the marketing of infant formula contributed to the major falling off of breastfeeding in the 1960s and 1970s in the UK.

It was not until the 1970s that the majority of women in the UK started to formula feed.

Substitutes for breastmilk have been sold to women as being good for their babies for about 150 years, and that includes Carnation milk which you mentioned.

i will puit my hands up, as i recall seeing the words 'closer to breastmilk' and that swayed my decision

yellowrose, yes, I do dispute that - I don't see evidence of 'vast improvement' since the days of boiling up milk, diliuting it and adding sugar. That's basically what formula is, though it has some added vitamins and stuff. So I suppose it is better - the protein content in it is pre-digested, too (in 'first stage milks') so in theory that would be an improvement. But 'vast'? I dunno....

"but reading a lot of this sort of stuff would have wanted to make me bottlefeed."
er, what??????
Is that supposed to be a joke? because that is one of the silliest things I have heard in a long time.
and bearing in mind I spend all day with toddlers, that is saying something honestly, feel free not to care about bf rates. feel free to only care about how you bf your own babies, but please could you try to be a little tolerant of other POV? if we care about increasing bf rates, why is it any skin off your nose? apart from making you want to bottlefeed of course