What do we think of Kirstie Allsopp's link with SMA?

[hunkermunker]

I am slightly less than utterly unimpressed You?

And yes, of course, it's her decision, yada-yada, but what a shit decision it was.

Kirstie, I knock walls down in your general direction.

looks good hunker, I had forgotten the drinking milk one - must just be a pipe from throat to nipple...oh hang on, must go through the de-cowmilkifier first.
I think it would be a really good idea to have them more promoted - briefly (with more explanation available) on a sheet you'er given by the hospital, or up on posters in doctors' surgeries etc. You know, as well as the "start of something special" ones. Would be good if they could just sort of worm their way in without you having to read too much.
Anyway, Stealth has spoken...make it happen!

Hey, nice blog, just started browsing, how come no-one's ever mentioned it before?

Mrs Badger: I saw that wording on some information leaflets a while ago (started a thread, natch ) and I wrote to them about it. got a total BS reply. thought about complaining further but never got round to it

oh and, as a matter of interest, the couples I teach almost always say that you need to drink milk to make milk.

i must make fizzy, mil with a slight hint of red wne then

Nooooooo...you need to eat grass to make milk.

Well, cows have to.

Can I reprise my Lactation, Lactation, Lactation joke? No?
I love Kirstie but can MN have a live chat with Tiktok?

I feel like a cow at the moment...

I don't have breasts - I have udders, and they are so sore

am amused at lactation lactation lactation joke.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm grass

We do have a live chat with Tiktok, frequently. Look, there she is! [points]

She is an enigma in manner of Mona Lisa though (only with a trifle more eyebrow, I bet).

LOL at de-cowmilkifier and yes, why has nobody ever mentioned my blog before, hmm?

[chews cud]

Thanks Hunker - I've read the report and I'm dismayed but not altogether shocked to see the lengths these companies will go to to promote their brands.

I headed down the baby aisle in sainsburys today and saw one of the aptamil cartons and ther slogan on the front "inspired by breast milk" ..it should have then said "..but derived from cows udders"

or summat like that.

I feel a fool as I fell for this marketing, much like Aitch when I swapped from b/f to f/f - I chose the most expensive, nicest looking box, knowing some HCPs "recommended" this brand.

Who is the most powerful/persuasive movement wrt trying to change formula branding?

I'd have fallen for it too, I think, when I had DS1, had circumstances been different, Margo. No shame in it, I don't think - the info's not readily available; they don't want it to be. HVs were recommending it when I had DS1 and it was much-touted at M*B groups as "the" formula.

Baby Milk Action very proactive - you could become a member if you were interested. Have a look at the links under Infant Feeding Issues on the right hand side

The Aptamil packaging looks, as Tiktok says, more serious than the others'. And it has "Best Infant Milk" written on it - and not backed up anywhere else.

That's my issue with it as much as anything - they just say stuff and don't back it up - or they say it, but leave it for people to infer that what they're saying refers to their milk.

I'm ressurecting this thread just in case anyone is interested that I read an interview with Kirstie yesterday in which she mentioned she was b/feeding and expressing milk which was being couriered to her baby.

I didn't read this thread before but you know what? If someone had given me cmot's advice in the second post, I wouldn't have a formula fed baby now, I'm sure. Just wanted to say that.

Kirstie Allsop spent the past few years working as a shill, ramping the property market. Last time I heard her on the radio, in her role as a Tory advisor on housing, she insisted that we have all benefitted from the massive increase in the cost of housing. "WE" clearly being people who matter, people who already owned property.

Why would anyone expect her to act in a remotely ethical way?

Wow Eyeballs
I wish that message could get through to the people who need to know it - midwives, HVs, families
(note - my MW was fantastic but a lot of posts on here imply that's not usual)

Returning to the marketing issue. Does anybody have any information about whether the Scandanavian countries that have v high rates of bfing have more stringent restrictions on formula marketing then here?

My knowledge of tobacco advertising bans supports the idea that comprehensive marketing restrictions will reduce consumption - but are there any countries with more comprehensive marketing bans than the UK? And what has happened there?

Not comparing fags with formula, btw - but it is an example of a product where marketing restrictions have been introduced on public health grounds - which would alos be the rationale for an extended formula marketing ban.

I think they do yes (have read it on here before) but don't have any links to back it up at the moment

Scandi countries restrict marketing of formula, yes, but this is just what I have heard from associates. They never were bottle feeding societies - breastfeeding wobbled in the 70s, like everywhere else in Europe, but never went 'out'.....the vast majority of Scandi babies were always breastfed at first and the figures show that formula was often intro'd at about 3 mths (I do have a reference for that, on paper, somewhere on my shelves) which shortened the period of bf.

This state of affairs was nipped in the bud sharpish and started to turn round in the ate 70s and 80s.

My info was that these countries were never thought to be worth marketing to, much. They were small and scattered populations, and until the 1970s, not especially affluent (Norway and Denmark were poor, after WW2, esp Norway).

Ah - thanks tiktok. No need to pursue this line further.

Although I think that the tobacco example shows us that:

a. ad bans change people's behaviour (by reducing comsumption) and improve population health
b. ad bans need to be as comprehensive as possible to have an effect as companies will exploit any loopholes available.

But anybody who's engaged with this debate from a public health perspective will already know this!