challenging illegal formula packaging - sorry if this has already been posted but this is from the CEO of the NCT

[harpsichordcuddler]

"The NCT has been given a clear view from LACORS (the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services that some infant formula packaging currently on store shelves is illegal under current regulations.

In order for it to be removed from sale there needs to be a prosecution or threatened prosecution. Local Trading Standards Officers are the people who would bring a prosecution, but to do this they need to receive large numbers of complaints from across the UK.

Would you help? This is your chance to make a real difference.

Next time you are in a supermarket or chemist, check out the infant formula packs (this formula is labelled as ?suitable from birth?) and read the wording.

The wording we are informed is illegal is

? Formulated to be nutritionally close to breastmilk
? With omega 3 LCP,s
? Closer Than Ever to Breastmilk
? Inspired by breastmilk

You may find other wording which is similar.

Send photos or a description to your trading standards office (you can locate your nearest using this link)

Scotland www.scotss.org.uk/scotss2.htm

England www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/consumers/clegis.cfm

Wales www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/env_services/tradingstandards/

N Ireland www.detini.gov.uk/cgi-bin/get_builder_page?page=61&site=9&parent=110

Channel islands www.gov.je/EconomicDevelopment/TradingStandards/

With a note to say

?These packs were on display in my local xxxxxxx on date xxxxx and I believe them to be illegal under current legislation because of the wording on the packs.
Please note the words

[INSERT WORDING ON PACK]

My information is that this wording is likely to be illegal. Please would you follow this up for me and let me know the outcome. ?

They will do the rest. You don?t need to explain why you think it is illegal or comment any further ? just report it. The body from whom local TSOs take their lead has already advised us that this packaging is illegal. Your letter will push them to act."

Posted by Hunker

The reason that Aptamil (can never remember if it's Aptimil or not - tis in my pedant blind spot - think it might be, actually) is so heavily recommended is that it's massively advertised in professional journals.

It's also the most expensive, so it's aspirational. Because we all know that the more expensive something is, the better it is.

I used to work for BMW - the phrase is "maintaining exclusivity" - if you make something v expensive, only "the right sort" buy it. Yes, ha ha, the irony with it being BMW, but that was their logic.

Which is another reason I hate the evil hearts of formula companies with every fibre of my being. They know damn well what they're doing by promoting so heavily to health professionals, they know it works (clearly demonstrated time and again on MN "which formula's best" threads).

Posted by Hunker

Well, I pack a Walther PPK.

why, twatling guns of course.

If I'd bought Aptamil I'd sure be kicking myself for it now believe me. I agree, it's a pretty dreadful practice to play on the concerns of new mothers and milk them dry (pardon the pun).

Yes, my first post looked completely unrelated to thread, I agree. However, it was provoked by Moondog's posts at the beginning of the thread which seemed to be saying just stop giving formula and breastfeed. I wish... I admit, I stopped reading and lost my temper at that point. I don't read formula tins except to check the instructions on how to make it up and stuff like that, I don't buy into brand name anything or claims. I didn't choose formula as an option, and I didn't choose the particular brand, that choice was made for us by what the hospital gave when they started feeding him.

OK. look.
I run bf classes for pregnant women.
I support women who are trying to bf, who are failing to bf, who are successfully bf, who don't want to bf at all and start ff straight away.
I hear all the terrible stories and I do my best to support all these women.
I spend hours and hours and hours of my own time. it can be fucking heartbreaking to see how upset these women are and how they have been let down by the system and the culture.
I don't blame the formula companiesfor all of this. but they are not blameless either.

Acknowledged, I think it's only one poster on this thread who made me see very very red. Sorry if anyone else felt my posts were aimed at them.

oh I see.
moondog says something provocative.
all breastfeeding passionates get their arses kicked.
deja vooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Posted by Hunker

With both boys I sobbed over my stubbornness to not give formula. Because I knew if I gave one bottle, one mouthful, to either of them, I would throw myself under a bus, because bfing was the only thing I was anything like any use to them for and if they didn't even need me for that, I may as well be dead.

With DS1, it was at the start when I was sobbing over his failure to latch on properly for six weeks, then again when I went back to work and he was drinking masses of EBM and I was a dried husk from producing it and I ached for him to be able to drink something else, something my poor knackered body didn't have to produce.

With DS2, I had mastitis at the start several times and I was beside myself with PND and I was having all sorts of mad fanciful notions.

And I know that I was one of the lucky ones, I fully appreciate that. So I do have a small inkling of the agonies women go through, you know.

Posted by Hunker

elkiedee, how old is the baby now? i felt terrible for a while, but it got better when she started having solids i'd have to say.

lol, yes, elkie. my first MN run-in was on a moony bfing thread.

Ditto to Aitch's post.

elkiedee sorry I am just being sarky and narky.
and yes I had a crappy time bf with dd1 at the beginning.
bleeding nipples.
agonising latch.
vomitting blood.
in fact at one point a bit of my nipple fell off
I wish I had kept it

The first one, not the second one lol (though that might be true as well come to think of it).

right,I must go to bed before I get any narkier .
apols for narkiness. still smarting over various nasty anti bf comments on here this weekend.
off to sew some swastikas onto my bras

Harpsi - I didn't believe you really when you commented on the anti-breastfeeding posts from failed breastfeeders (for want of a better expression).

I've witnessed them now on another thread as well as this one and have been pretty shocked and saddened by them. Sorry for not believing you before.

He's 11 weeks and 2 days, and I hope I'll feel less bad as his diet starts to include solids.

You will Elkiedee, because you'll get some control back. Trust me.

Elkie, it is for posts like yours that i am a big advocate of educating women to bf successfully. My own bf experience was almost wrecked by my hospital and my hv in two wks. it was sobbing my heart out on MN that got me back on track. By some of the same characters on this thread who can be abrasive, funny, supportive and empathetic, all in the same hour (if not the same post)

As i slowly got my head around this bf malarky, I became very angry that the health service in this country which maybe with the best intentions in the world, still sets us up to fail at bf. And when we do fail, the same 'promotion' of bf which they do antenatally is what makes us wrack with guilt.

here is a little known fact about breastfeeding: the NHS spends 80 pence per baby on 'supporting' breastfeeding. Formula companies spend £20 per baby on advertising and promotion.

I suspect that if the NHS spent, say, £5 per baby on proper breastfeeding support instead of lipservice, this country would have breastfeeding rates similar to those of Scandanavia. It is a crying shame. all that disappointment and heartbreak for nowt.

if my experience is anything to go by, elkie, you will do. giving dd solids made me feel like less of a freakazoid, especially out in public. (although i went super-freaky and did baby-led weaning so no purees. it felt like keeping things along demand-feeding lines so i liked it).

oh god, I remember ringing up the BFN (Thats BreastFeeding Network, not BreastFeeding Nazi's ) when DS was about 5 weeks old, because I Just Couldnt Face Another Breastfeed, and he was due a feed 20 minutes away. I sobbed and sobbed down the phone at this poor woman, who was in the middle of doing her family's dinner and organising her children to do tasks so she could deal with me.

It was her that suggested I might have thrush. Finally. For five weeks I'd suffered thrush and mastitis because the mw's and the HV's thought it was latch and nothing else. It took 3 weeks to clear, and the whole time I was batting away comments along the lines of "why dont you just give formula, it will save you all this stress and hassle". I felt like no-one was on my side.

Truly awful when I think back.

Eh?
I never said just stop giving formula and breastfeed!
FFS!

I pointed out that breastfeeding is free.
Which it is.
Many companies would like you to buy things that you don't need or want.

If you want it or need it great,but is it too much to ask that huge multi-nationals don't fucking trick people into parting with their cash?????

I read it that way Moondog, though as I kind of know you (in a MN way) I presumed you were being ironic. I'm not surprised that Elkiedee did as well.

calma calma, moony.