Help Restrict the Promotion of Formula milk - Send Email to FSA before May 5th

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This is from the Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition ....

How a baby is fed has profound health implications for both mother and child. It is very important that all parents, those who use formula and who breastfeed, have access to reliable information based on evidence that is free from commercial pressure. Only when this happens will parents be able to make a fully informed decision about how they want to feed their child.

In the UK however, weak laws mean that formula advertising and promotion far outweighs good quality information on feeding. The result of this is that formula feeding mothers find it hard to access reliable information to understand the facts about the various products, including safe preparation and storage of formula milk.,

To improve protection for parents and babies the Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition is calling for the WHO Code of Marketing of Breastmilk substitutes and subsequent resolutions to become the Law in the UK (Objective 7 of the Manifesto). This is something we are committed to, but it can't happen overnight.

However, we do have an opportunity NOW to help move UK legislation in the right direction and strengthen the legislation governing baby milk promotion in the UK. The Food Standards Agency is consulting until February 5th on the new Guidance which the formula milk advertising must follow when promoting, labeling and advertising formula milk.

Please send the email below and play your part in helping to ensure that the new Regulations are as strong and robust as possible. Public pressure makes a real difference so make your voice heard!

www.breastfeedingmanifesto.org.uk/make_your_voice_heard_2.php/

I thouhgt Mumsnet had agreed that vile posts likening people who are concerned about breastfeeding with nazis would be deleted. Vile, vile, vile.

I find it hard to discuss something with someone who denies calling someone an idiot, because (apparently) committing an 'idiocy' is different. I also find it hard to discuss it with someone who mixes up postnatal and antenatal.

Most of all, I find it impossible to discuss the issue with you who are ignoring my valid point - that a midwife cannot know what to recommend based on her own experience because the formulation of formula milk is not constant - in favour of a made-up argument that people like me are trying to take choice away, and trying to make people feel worse.

You are sad that breastfeeding went badly for you, and this is totally understandable - but don't take it out on me! What possible benefit is it to mothers and babies to call bf promotion 'practically Nazi-esque'?

Singing here we go again...........tra la la la............

Hedgewitch - you are being incredibly nasty on this thread.

And TikTok is being incredibly patient!

The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data', so the argument that "My parents/I did X and I'm fine, so Y isn't true" holds no water.

hw, you are priceless. I've just posted on another thread precisely because i think the notion that some women just choose not to bf is smug and hurtful.

but that doesn't stop me having strong views about formula advertising.

And your views, and those of some others on this thread, are not only damaging, they are also misguided. You are using histrionic language and paper tigers. None of the BF promoters who are well-informed about women's needs do this.

Presenting facts and research evidence based on proper general populations (not anecdotal samples) is not nazism.

That comment is offensive and actually makes most of us want to listen to your histrionics even less.

"The fact is, because you promote BF, you're going to knock anyone that FF's whatever they say or think."

Er, how? I formula fed my son and I don't think people who want there to be adequate and accurate information on breast-feeding are having a go at me. I understand that breastfeeding is a very emotive subject - I failed to breastfeed and it was very distressing. But this attitude of "well I formulafed so if you promote breastfeeding you're attacking me" is just utterly bizarre and completely unfounded in my opinion.

I'm also shocked at how many people seem to blindly equate advertising with accurate information, I really don't see what information you get from a formula advert except "Cow & Gate make formula milk - buy it".

And to those who say there is adequate information on formula feeding and its risks and how to do it as safely as possible, I say bullshit. There just isn't - as someone else already pointed out even the instructions on the packet are incorrect.

Youngbutnotdumb - you're not the only one out there. I FF too, initially because of problems but later for DC2 out of choice.

I have a problem with this BF Manifesto. Supporters claim the manifesto is against misleading adverts. I agree misleading is not good.

Problem is, (and I am experienced in compliance, law, and interpreting FSA regs in particular) the concept of "misleading" is sometimes misunderstood.

It's easy to think an ad is misleading just because you dislike the product or lifestyle the product supports. However just because you dislike something is not strong enough evidence to label something misleading.

It is true that mothers who wish to move on from BF can choose a formula. It is probably also true that the manufacturer has tested its product in order to claim it has immune system benefits. If not, that would be misleading.

Try to remove your emotions from this, then reconsider...

I couldn't bf DD1, and cried for weeks about it. I think the point some people have tried to make here is that all the negativity about ff doesn't help people come to terms with the fact that bf didn't work. Yes, bf is better than ff for the baby PROVIDED you are producing enough milk, or the baby is sucking properly. However, given the choice of a contented ff baby or an unhappy, starving bf one then I would ff everytime.

Incidentally, DD2 was bf - probably because by that point I had relaxed enough about ff to know that if bf went tits up (!) ff was an acceptable alternative, and not poison.

'shoved down your throat'?
'beaten round the head'?
'forced at you'?
'militant'?

You must have had a particularly bad experience, because you are projecting a lot of bad feeling there.

Sent.

And that Aptamil ad drives me CRAAAAAAAZY!!

I think trying to 'ban formula advertising'tends to imply that FF is wrong - and brings to mind other forms of advertising bans - alcohol, cigarettes etc. The underlying implication (whether you agree with that implication or not) is that FF is bad and Mothers should not be doing it.
Hedgewitch is just getting jumped on IMO. Anyone not waving the BF flag on here always seems to.

i don't usually get involved in this argument, but FFS hedgewitch. No one here is saying the information about making up bottles and sterilisation shouldn't be available.

No-one is saying that the information on exactly what makes up an individual fromula shouldn't be available.

No-one is saying that fomrula manufacturers shouldn't be made to make the information on thier product ingredients freely available.

What is being said is that promoting their product as CLOSEST to BM is not proven and they shouldn't be allowed to say it.

Carlsberg got into trouble years ago for saying theirs was the best lager in the world as this was a spurious claim that couldn't be proven. they now have to say PROBABLY the best lager in the world.

The formula thing is exactly the same.

there is already a world wide ban on advertising infant formulae. Follow on milk (which is probably not much different in coomposition) was only devised as a way of getting around this ban. This is what annoys people and I think it should annoy people no matter how they choose to feed their baby.

This thread isn't about condeming women who FF, it's about making the relevant nutritional information readily available so that women can make an informed choice.

I BF DS for six weeks then switched to formula. No-one told me X is best because of this quality or Y is best because of that. No-one told me exactly what the ingredients were, or informed me of the nutritional and health benefits or otherwise. No-one gave me ANY information on the product itself. If I'd known then what I do now, it might have made me a little bit more determined to persevere with BFing and to seek out further avenues of help.

And also, considering that formula was first introduced as a medical substitute for BM for mothers who couldn't feed and babies who had no mother, then surely it should be treated to the same stringent rules as other medicines and come with a fact sheet with the ingredients as well as health implications and contra-indications?

I bf my daughter for as long as I could and had to admit defeat when she was 3 months old and hadn't gained weight for 3 weeks. She latched on fine but she wouldn't accept the medication she needed for her reflux and thus she was very sick all the time. I tried expressing and mixing the medication in a bottle with breast milk and this worked fine, however I would be pumping for hours and only get a few ounces out.

I had no information re the different brands of milk and any benefit there might be with a particular brand. I did feel that the lack of information on something so important was terrible, in the end I had to go with a brand that I had seen in the hospital..... Also when you say the information on the packaging is incorrect what do you mean as I followed that and am worried now!!!

I will always jump on someone who accuses others of being nazis when they are clearly not.

Do you know much about what the nazis did?

"No-one is saying that the information on exactly what makes up an individual fromula shouldn't be available.

No-one is saying that fomrula manufacturers shouldn't be made to make the information on thier product ingredients freely available."

In fact, and correct if I'm wrong, but I think people are saying this is exactly the information that should be available, as it would actually be useful to women who intended to formula feed rather than "Oooh Cow & Gate, it's just like breast milk only not".

Lardylumps I BELIEVE the incorrect information on the packet relates to the temperature of the water - most formula packaging does/did (not sure now) say to leave the water to cool for 30 minutes, at which point the water is no longer hot enough to kill any bacteria which may be in the formula powder. I think, anyway, I'm sure if I'm wrong someone will correct me shortly

mindalina, that's exactly what I was saying.....

"no-one is saying it shouldn't" equals it should.

TheHedgeWitch, you are not doing any favours to ffeeding mums. I too struggled and failed to b'feed both my daughters. I wanted to b'feed them because b'feeding is the best way to feed babies (surely there is no argument there?). I moved onto formula, and felt sad and angry at some of the poor support I had received.

Although I knew a little about it,since f'feeding I have tried to find out more about the actions of formula companies, and have been very grateful for some of the links on threads such as these. Of course it makes uncomfortable reading, but surely if you actually use formula you must realise how important it is that it is produced and marketed ethically.

As tiktok said the composition of formula is not constant, so although I gave my dd1 Aptamil, 14 months later when I gave it to dd2, they had added prebiotics, which I think was the reason that she would do huge, explosive, yellow sulphurous, poos (TMI - sorry!).The thing is, who would I have asked about what the prebiotics do, would they be causing her discomfort? Would it be bad to give her a formula without them? The only people I can ask are the formula companies on one of their helplines, this makes me hugely angry.

Personally I wish you wouldnt use the term 'militant' either. However, we will never agree I expect on this as we clearly have opposing views.
I know a lot about what the nazis did too which is why I asked the question if you did as there is no comparison in any shape of form.