Nestle milk scandel

[Love51]

My 10 year old was asking why people don't like Nestle. My actual knowledge and understanding of the milk scandel is a bit vague - I think they got new mums in 3rd world countries to use formula then hiked up the prices. Is there more to it? I think water supply came into it somehow. What were the countries / regions concerned. Does anyone have a link to a fairly simple article that explains it? Thanks.

The politics of breastfeeding is well worth a read, and is surprisingly readable. Though maybe not for DS.
By encouraging health visitors, or posing Nestle workers as health staff and then pushing formula samples, women’s own milk supply dries up and they become dependent on formula. Now add on the difficulty of making up formula when water might not be potable, you may be using firewood to cook over, more often than not in dire poverty, women would be watering down the formula, maybe with unsanitary water.
There is so much to say on this, but must start work!

I'd take this as an opportunity to discuss that many big companies use practises (or have used - the nestle milk scandal was a lot of years ago now!) that are not great, and it's why it's important to know who you're buying from. Oxfam did a fab independent comparison called 'behind the brands' which unfortunately looks like it hasn't been updated since 2016 but might be a good place to start - it discusses the ethical practises etc of 10 big companies - interestingly Nestle were one of the better ones!

www.behindthebrands.org/company-scorecard/

Also could be used as an opportunity to discuss researching what you hear/read about. The current world of social media is such an echo chamber and therefore one company getting known for something bad can be very public, with many others doing things just as bad if not worse behind the scenes!

Encouraging women in countries with poor access to safe water to use formula milk which resulted in ill babies.
Unethical, though it was many years ago.
Nestle CEO stating that access to drinking water shouldn't be a human right.
This was going on back when I was at uni in the mid 90s.

This was 50 years ago. They didn't tell mums that they needed to boil the water, and the safest thing for the mother and baby, was for the mother to spend money on food for herself, then she would be able to breastfeed her baby.

I remember the film When Breasts Are Bad For Business which was tragic. The film doesn't seem to be available anymore.

Babies died because of Nestle peddling their formula. The women had no clean water, no means of boiling it and no way of sterilising bottles.

They couldn't afford the formula, either, so when they used it, they generally put one or two scoops of powder in with 8 oz dirty water.

It was a fucking scandal.

Here you go @Love51

https://www.babymilkaction.org/nestlefree

Yes, there was the historic aggressive marketing and disinformation.

Much more recently, 2019, they were in trouble for conducting research on premature babies. The research had no ethical approval and had not been approved by the regulator.

Knowing the likely effects of giving premature babies formula, this story broke me. I've avoided their products ever since.

https://cen.acs.org/food/Nestlunder-fire-India-clinical-research/97/i32#:~:text=The%20registry%20lists%20Nestl%C3%A9%20India,intolerance%20observed%E2%80%9D%20in%20the%20infants.

It may have started 50 years ago but similar practices are still going on.

This is worth a read https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/16/health/brazil-obesity-nestle.html

As well as killing babies by encouraging mothers to formula feed their children in places where they couldn’t afford to heat the water up, they were also instrumental in undermining breastfeeding in US and other western countries.

They developed a system where babies were taken away from mothers and put in nurseries, where they were given free bottles of milk.

When they were banned from advertising first milks they developed follow on milk - whose only purpose was to get round this ban, and used these adverts to subtly push how breastfeeding is hard, that you can’t relax or enjoy time with your baby.

The Politics of Breastfeeding is an excellent read.

The Politics of. Breastfeeding is excellent but as the PP says above their, and other, companies production of follow on milk, plus their advertising is all unethical.

Sorry copied a post by mistake so my comment doesn’t match.

It's another example of Nestle's marketing that so many people think this is a historical issue rather than current. The link shared above for Baby Milk Action shows that they continue to breach the international code around promoting baby formula. In addition, there is controversy around their extraction of water in areas where local residents have no access to clean water www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/global/2018/oct/04/ontario-six-nations-nestle-running-water. I've been boycotting them for over 20 years - I'd love to stop as they own so many products but for now, I can't see they've improved in any meaningful way.

The book Ultra Processed People has a chapter on unethical practices of Nestle and others in pushing their crap onto indigenous communities, disrupting traditional food practices. It was horrifying, I couldn't bear to read it, along with the environmental impact of UPF.

There’s a Dark History video on this, not sure if child friendly but worth a listen

I've boycotted Nestle for about 40 years because of this scandal.

Were they historically pushing formula feeding in the UK back in the 50s/60s? My mum said that when she had my brother in hospital in the mid 60s, it was assumed that all mothers would bottle feed. The nurses were a bit taken aback when my mum refused the injection to 'dry your milk up'.

I think I will get hold of a copy of The Politics of Breastfeeding.

Formula is big, big business.

The continuing scandal

https://www.babymilkaction.org/nestlefree

I read an article recently that exposes how certain products don't have added sugar in Europe but do in less developed countries.

Link :
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/apr/17/nestle-adds-sugar-to-infant-milk-sold-in-poorer-countries-report-finds

They are still at it.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/apr/17/nestle-adds-sugar-to-infant-milk-sold-in-poorer-countries-report-finds

Sugar and honey added to products contrary to international guidelines.

😆cross post

Nestle company is owned by a group with questionable morals anyway...so I'd boycott that company for this alone.

Were they historically pushing formula feeding in the UK back in the 50s/60s? My mum said that when she had my brother in hospital in the mid 60s, it was assumed that all mothers would bottle feed. The nurses were a bit taken aback when my mum refused the injection to 'dry your milk up'.

In the late 70s when dh was born, midwives, doctors and nurses came to view the "mad" Irishwoman who was breastfeeding. He was born in a reasonably big Scottish teaching hospital. My mil was apparently the only one breastfeeding at that point.

I was born in the 70's. My breastfeeding mum was put at the far end of the ward with screens around her so that the other women on the ward wouldn't get "silly ideas".

Formula companies still run CPD and training days for paediatricians. Many doctors have poor understanding of breastfeeding because there isn't the same amount of free training as pharma and formula companies can afford to run.