Should formula milk advertising be completely illegal

[Reallytired]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6933188.stm

I think so. Mums who need to use formula, are better off getting advice from health professionals rather than advertising.

NadBag, she's gotcha

There's no need to advertise for formula, the hospitals are giving it out left right and centre anyway. Breast feeding was some sort of mysterious process to most of the midwives I encountered in the hospital, despite the lip service to "breast is best" before my daughter's birth. All I heard around me, the night my daughter was born: "Cow and Gate or SMA?" over and over again. Which I assume is supplied happily by the companies. Imagine that - access to NHS patients on tap who become in some cases captive customers. You have to admit you can see why people get worked up by the adverts on top of this.

Cutting off adverts won't "marginalise" bottle feeding mothers further - but it might make the formula company's job just SLIGHTLY less easier than it is now, which is a doddle.

I actually get more worked up about the advertising that leads to people using follow on milk - totally unnecessary and a pretty blatant way to cream money off of people (excuse the pun.)

I didn't realise formula wasn't advertised until someone pointed out to me that all those ads were for follow-on milk. I hadn't cottoned-on to that.

Not sure what my point is there though

right - yes my turn but I'm at gobbles and I'm not going to be allowed on here much and that board needs a lot of thought so catch yer later hunks!

mwah!

That's exactly it NoBiggy. The follow-on ads are received/perceived as formula ads.

I haven't got time or energy to read the whole thread so I apologise now for my ignorance of the comments made on here

No FF should not be banned

I think that the BF mums should leave the FF alone and not make them feel that they are harming their children or doing a bad job as a mum

When my DTs were born at 27 weeks and then were fed EBM through the tube one ml at a time that then increased gradually but by the time {3 months later} when Kangaboy came home he was mainly FF

He had SMA in a bottle. Now if the BF mums think about how their comments and glares make a mum like me feel after going through all that I went through etc.

I just wish they would keep their comments and glares to themselves

Why is it their right or duty to tell other mums what they should feed their own children?

Why can't they just keep their comments to themselves?

RTKM - no-one is suggesting banning formula at all.

They are suggesting banning advertising.

Jooooooooools.........gotcha

Oke doke but why can't FF women be treated with some intelligence

Why do BF mums get so wound up about those who can't or don't want to BF?

I think hospitals have to buy in formula. I can check that though (and it may be different in different places, but I think it's governed by the Code).

I have just thought of something else - there are LOADS of threads on here where a woman's been utterly let down by a healthcare professional who is meant to be helping her - they tell them to introduce formula to help with weight gain (weight gain that's perfectly fine anyway), etc, etc - but it can be really hard to say on a thread "you've had really poor advice here" or reference it on another thread and say "this woman had bad advice, look how shit she feels" - but it doesn't mean there are masses of them out there.

Just look at how ill-informed the midwives and paeds were when I had DS2 - a perfectly healthy baby, albeit with blood sugars that didn't rise according to protocol. Had they done some research, they'd have known that bmilk was the best thing for him, they'd have advised me to hand-express (heck, they'd have had facilities for antenatal storage of my colostrum) - but no, less than 24 hours after DS2 was born, I was told I would "have to top him up" - and I said "What with?" because it didn't OCCUR to me that somebody would suggest formula to me on a postnatal ward. I had just given birth, in my defence...!

Then she rolled her eyes and huffed around me, bringing me the USELESS electric breastpump (useless for colostrum, ime) and was deeply unfriendly and disapproving of my refusal of formula.

Luckily, I'm me. I knew enough to know I was doing the right thing. But had DS2 been my first baby, I'm sure I'd have thought that a midwife knew what she was talking about. But no, she'd probably just been reading the Aptimil ads in her latest journal...

I see I meant {typo}

FF adverts should not be banned

It's not about breast feeding mothers vs bottle feeding mothers - this is what i don't understand people find so difficult to grasp (sorry). On a very basic level, it's about companies whose aim is purely financial gain being given access to a captive market of women with the goal of them becoming dependent on a product which in many cases is not something they NEED to pay for.

Please consider how this all started - undoubtedly formula has been a boon to some babies, but talk to your mom/grandma. Some dude had teh 'great marketing idea' to positon formula as scientifically better for babies than breast milk. And they've been making millions ever since.

Excuse me if I'm being a bit slow here, but is there any (legal) product which is not allowed to be advertised at all?

Just wondering if there was a precedent, what would formula companies do to increase their share of the market if ads were banned?

"No FF should not be banned

I think that the BF mums should leave the FF alone and not make them feel that they are harming their children or doing a bad job as a mum"

There is no suggestion that FF should be banned. There are circumstances when FF is best. If a mother chooses to FF then there is no need to justify it.

How would a lack of adverts for follow on milk make a formula feeder feel guilty?

Someone who is formula feeding does not need to buy follow on milk. Adverts for infant formula have been banned for years. Advertising follow on milk is just a way of getting round the law. This loophole needs to be closed.

Keep ensuring their products are widely distributed on postnatal wards I suspect.

Formula feeding advocates were at least as unpleasant, by the sound of things, as any woman who advocates breast feeding today. This is also why people get so worked up about it. My aunt described having to squirrel herself away - even in her own home right after the baby was born - because her family was put off she would think of doing something so bizarre as feed her own baby.

but why does it annoy BF mums?

They are not the ones paying for the Formula are they?

How many FF mums complain about having to buy Formula?

I don't understand why BF mums feel they have to complain about the adverts?

It is like me complaing about alcohol adverts - I don't drink so I couldn't care less what alcohol adverts are around me - they are of no interest to me

So why are formula adverts of any interest to BF mums?

unless they are wanting to influence other mums?

RTKM, nobody's judging anyone for ffing.

Personally, I'm angry that women are undermined by the very people who are meant to be there to support them. The midwife who saw me after DS2 was born, for instance - why wasn't she more supportive of me? The paediatricians who came to check on DS2 - they all shook their heads and said, in grave tones, that I was putting him at risk and should give formula, but not one of them could explain to me why it was going to be better to give him formula than to hand express and feed him my colostrum, as well as breastfeed him (I hand expressed because he was using up too much energy solely breastfeeding for his sugars to rise more quickly).

And why are they so quick to give formula? Because it's advertised, it's more medicalised (you give a "dose" of formula, you can measure it, you can see how much they're getting, you can add medicine to it if you need to, etc, etc) - it's not the mysterious biological process that breastfeeding is for lots of the medical profession.

NoBiggy, infant formula's not allowed to be advertised.

Nor are cigarettes, but I'm NOT comparing cigs with formula!

"Excuse me if I'm being a bit slow here, but is there any (legal) product which is not allowed to be advertised at all? "

Prescription medicines.

There are rules about the advertising of junk food at certain times of day. Ciggerettes are legal, but advertising is limited.

"Just wondering if there was a precedent, what would formula companies do to increase their share of the market if ads were banned?"

They would have to work hard to make their product better. The formula companies would provide a summary of nutritional information that could be passed to an interested mother by a health professional.

There is a difference between making a decision about buying a product on information that has been asked for and blanket advertising to everyone in the UK.

but why should it bother BF mums if formula is advertised?

Why should the irritation be exclusive to FF mums?

Why should "BF mums" not care about their fellow mothers?

Oh Hunker, you too! When I dared to say I didn't want to top ds up (this was on day 4 of his life FFS, my milk was only just in, nobody had mentioned expressing and his bilirubin wasn't dangerous) the doctor said 'do you want him to be well?' Oh, and they were obsessed with test weighing. The how-much-is-the-baby-getting thing is a powerful argument both for HCPs (it seems) and mothers - just think of how often amount expressed is equated with amount taken at breast. That, too, is part (and consequence) of bottlefeeding culture.

Kanga - it doesn't 'annoy' me when women ff. It does upset me when they struggle with bf and reluctantly give up. I took ds to a local M&T group once when he was nearly a year. Bf him while there and was the subject of admiring to astonished looks and comments. I'll bet several of those mothers came under inordinate pressure to top up too.

Let's turn this whole thing on its head.

Why SHOULD it be advertised?

If you don't want to breastfeed or you make the decision to move to formula after breastfeeding as long as you want to, you're already aware that there's a product called formula.

The adverts can't contain "closer to breastmilk" claims or promise anything such as genius babies, given that the formula manufacturers don't want to tell you what their research findings are about their ingredients, so what are mums getting from adverts being allowed that a trip to the supermarket or chemist can't tell them?

VVVQ wasn't actually trying to make a point was actually very interested in having an honest answer to my question. Have to be truthful and say never really noticed formula advertising much, when either pregnant or a mother, probably because I'd already made my choice on which formula to use. I agree that the advertising should be truthful and balanced with pro-breastfeeding advertising. But disagree with a ban.

Ok I am just remembering the reaction I got at NCT post natal support group when I FF kangaboy

and that was deffo not supportive of FF

IMHO it would be far more important for the people who are concerned with how other people behave in pregnancy or when they have a baby to worry about those who smoke and drink when pregnant or have a new baby

Why is that not seen as important whereas if mums are influenced by adverts to FF their baby it is the end of the world?

If companies make a product to feed babies and mums and dads want to buy it then let them, why get so wound up about it?