Save the Children's new report on marketing practices of formula-milk companies: what do you think?

[RowanMumsnet]

As some of you may have seen from press coverage over the weekend and this morning, Save the Children is today launching a report into the marketing practices of formula milk manufacturers.

The report focuses specifically on marketing in developing countries - where a lack of good sanitation and public health awareness can make formula-feeding precarious - and on the importance of colostrum to a baby's long-term health. You can read more about the campaign and see the petition here.

We've been asked to get behind this campaign - and as ever, in these situations, we need to know what you think!

Is this something MNers would like us to support? As many of you will know, we have long refused advertising from Nestle and its majority-owned subsidiaries. Save the Children's report is also critical of Danone, the second-largest formula manufacturer.

We'd be really interested to hear your views.

Interesting to read about the bacteria thing, I didn't know about that.

jump I simply haven't the words....and there are not biscuits enough in the whole of mumsnet.

I really struggled to drive during the radio 4 interviews I heard. When they said bf rates were low and 1 in 6...(I assumed that would be the BF rate)...but no 1 in 6 babies survive to 5 years.

A mother loses 5 out of 6 children to malnutrition and disease and then tells how their culture currently has it that 'first milk' is not good for babies and breast milk is only for the poor....

But no fine...if you don't want to sign a petition against the formula company practices that compound this problem because it hurts your feelings or exacerbates your insecurities then great. You gotta look after number 1 after all.

I think it is important not to lose sight of the criminal in this situation - the cruel and inhumane and greedy practiceses of big multi national corporations.

Anything that mumsnet or individual people or organisations or charities like www.babymilkaction.org/ can do to bring these companies to account is the really important thing.

I don't think people who cannot breastfeed or who chose not to breastfeed in the UK or minority world are part of this specific issue. Neither are women who, for whatever reason, are unable to breastfeed in any place.

It is about unfair practices that aim to trick and coerce new mums in the poorer majority world, trick them into using these products that they cannot afford and cannot safely make up and supply for their babies.

Of course there will be some mums all over the world who may need these products, and perhaps even tragic cases where a mum dies in child birth and so her baby must be fed etc, so of course there will be situations where formula might be needed. Of course we need companies to make this formula safely and make it available to people but it is the tactics of these companies that are so dangerous.

If you want to sign more petitions go onto Baby milk action info.babymilkaction.org/aboutus/aboutus

There is a very helpful and informative leaflet here at

info.babymilkaction.org/sites/info.babymilkaction.org/files/aboutus2012sm.pdf

As I read this leaflet I was so saddened that companies are out there trying to undermine breast feeding because they want profits!

Yes, please support this campaign.

if, when, but, according to!!!! Please FF in this country is SAFE!!!! As I said before more education is needed in other countries, infant mortality elsewhere is also ue to famine, poverty and disease.

If u want to help - give money, volunteer and sign the petition etc etc!! Do something yourself if you feel so strongly about it!! HOWEVER dont go spouting about some bacteria which serves no purpose other than to make FFeeding mums feel scared and inadequate !!!! I don't know of ONE baby hospitalised in this country from being FF!! NOT ONE!!!!

As for Later links with other diseases please --- We all no very difficult as all other factors have to be the same and most research shows when samples corrected to tie into account family income, education etc THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE in these diseases between FF and BF cases !!!!

I don't want one baby to die NOT one !!! What I would like is better education for all !!

Italiangreyhound a great post !!!!!!

I still maintain that the campaign in principle is a good idea but what will it actually achieve?? In practice? How will it actually stop formula companies from unduly influencing medical staff and mothers in developing countries? Are midwives trained to help mothers bf in those countries, or are we just assuming the mother will have the support of others around her who have bf? The samples need to be stopped, that seems to be the most concrete thing to go after.

As for the risk of gastro etc in kids - it's tiny in developed countries. Tiny. Your child is more likely to be injured in a car accident than get sick from not having the water in the bottle be higher than 70 degrees. You cannot eliminate all risk from all activities associated with children.

It's also a sad fact that you are always going to have higher infant mortality rates in developing countries. This is going to be true even if you stamp out all the bad formula company practices. This is because breastfeeding doesn't always work - babies don't latch, babies are premature and can't feed, milk doesn't come in, babies have allergic reactions to milk. Formula every day saves the lives of children in developed countries who for whatever reason can't breastfeed. We have the luxury these days of not being exposed to as much death from feeding issues.

Also the notion of milk banks being commonplace is structurally and economically ridiculous, except for eg preemies. Formula is good quality, relatively cheap and easy to get hold of, exactly what a large population needs!

You ain't doing to do nothing about changing the reality that lots, nay most women use formula in the developed world. We are not a culture (sadly) where women live close to family and it is acceptable to share bf with others where there are bf problems or the mother is not available for every feed. Someone above said its not realistic to expect one exhausted woman to do all the feeds for 2 years. Why can't we have more realistic targets? The science does show I believe that most bf benefits are conferred in first few weeks. So how about we try to get nearly 100% in the first 6 weeks? And stop banging on about feeding for 6 months, 2 years, whatever. Lets focus our efforts on that. I'm sure you'd have more women carrying on EBF from that point.

Good post Zara1984

"you cannot eliminate all risk from all activities associated with children"

This risk can be eliminated by just using hot waste though, so why wouldn't you? I'd not risk my child getting a serious infection just because it probably wouldn't happen.

I support any campaign that puts pressure on the formula companies to actually comply with the code, not just lie and say that they're doing it. (see Nestle link posted below).

As an exhausted mother who did all the feeds for 2 years, I'd like to point out that its not that many feeds after a year really and cow's milk can be used if you want after that too. I think the first year of having a baby is pretty exhausting anyway!

Formula, while a necessary product, is all about profit and not the health of babies and children. :-( As a poster said below I also wonder how they sleep at night while trying to drive profits at the expense of lives.

Spot on Zara!

That particular bacteria is everywhere folks,as. I sad previous 120 deaths worldwide since 1953 and it is hard to pinpoint on formula so lets keep things in proportion.

Yes mums in the developed world need to prepare formula properly but to be frank I 'd be careful re storing,cleaning any dairy product with very babies/small children.The sippy cups many pre- schools use for milk could do with a far rigorous cleaning system.

Hospital admissions are very small in you factor in the billions of bottles prepared annually.Just 1 of my dc consumed more bottles in a year than the entire admissions figure in the country as a whole.If you follow procedures/guidelines and are not slack with hygiene the risks are beyond tiny.

The risks of formula in this country are minute and it is wrong to put the two under the same umbrella.If I had been living in an undeveloped country or been visiting when I'd had my 3 2 out of 3 of my dc would be dead(well all 3 wouldn't have survived childbirth or even been conceived but that is a whole other thread).

We are so lucky having the facilities and great alternative we have.When you have had very skinny,sick vulnerable babies relying on you to provide food that just isn't working you realise how extremely lucky we are not just in being able to buy sealed formula but in having clean water,quick and easy sterilising facilities,fridges,good supply of bottles etc.We really are very lucky.

The not small amount of research consistently finds very small,hard to pinpoint risks that any scientific bod could argue with and have often been disputed in further research.Yes overall breast is best but so are far more parenting choices which have a far bigger impact longterm and which are easier to pinpoint.The fact is if you provide a healthy lifestyle when raising your children that will have far more of an impact on long term health in this country.You can only try to do your best in everything re making parenting choices but really need to keep some perspective when the best across the board isn't achieved.

My kids only had 6 weeks of breast milk,twin1 I suspect had a lot less than greedy twin 2,in fact I do wonder how much colostrum he actually had but hey I did my best for my circumstances and he eats far more healthy stuff,far less crap,gets far more exercise and far less screen time than many other kids so guilt I most certainly do not feel.

If posters want the term breastapo eradicated then can we not get rid of the terms ishoooos and "guilt", most ffing mums. I know don't have either and both are used to belittle views.

Oh and I don't like BMA for several reasons not least some of their propaganda.

Yes, I support this, and in particular the things Tiktok said regarding packaging make perfect sense throughout the world.

Leanordofquirm - anything that is produced is sold for profit - formula no exception so don't understand that as an argument tbh!!!! Pharecutical companies that produce life saving medicines do so for profit. That doesn't make the products 'bad' !!!!!!

Totally agree along the life long health issue. My best friend EBF her child for the first year of her life. Her daughter has all sorts of issues with food - very picky etc. My FF daughter doesn't have these issues!!! Is their diets now related to FF EBF - no of course not - hundreds of things come into play as they grow up!!!!

No other product constitutes the sole nutrition of tiny infants though, that's why its unethical.

Ionnika have you read 'bad pharma'? Pharma companies are awful as well. Medicine and formula are fantastic where there is a need. Pushing them where there is no need or where they actually harm is wrong.

Mmmmm - but it does provide small babies with nutrition ??

I guess I'd also add that as someone who works for an NGO, I think that the Save The Children campaign suffers from the common problems of Big Rhetoric, Small Details. I know from experience that these campaigns can suffer from a lack of joined up thinking just so it can get out the door and have wide public appeal.

If it kills them because it is made up with dirty water I don't think it is nutrition.

Cleanandclothed - then ban the samples, ban the access of corporate reps to doctors, one country at a time.

There needs to be price ceilings on formula so it's cheaper in the west (but cynically methinks the breastfeeding lobby wouldn't like that).

Ban advertising of formula full stop, no need to advertise as when people need to buy it, they will. All the closer to breast milk/best milk claims etc are just designed to play on the guilt mums feel for not bf, wherever they are in the world.

You could also regulate that a portion of formula company profits have to go towards funding independent feeding support services/postnatal support in hospitals.

But none of this will make a difference unless money is ploughed into postnatal support for mums EVERYWHERE. Not on breastfeeding campaigns. The best, fastest help and advice I got with breastfeeding and formula feeding issues was from the Aptamil helpline, which is ridiculous when you think about it.

The thing about women in developing countries looking to FF as an aspiration because women in the west do it - sorry, that won't change. It's the same as any convenience/benefit of living in a first world country. Western mums need formula because it suits how they live. Women in the developing world want to be like Western mums in lots of ways, so FF will be one of them. Unless you change most western countries so they have Scandanavian levels of maternity leave and postnatal support for bf (good luck selling that one to taxpayers) you will ALWAYS have relatively high rates of FF.

Cleanandclothed if u don't take medication according to the instruction it can become harmful! When used according to the instruction it DOES provide nutrition to a baby !!

Great blog post on all this from Mumsnet Blogger

@ Yuppie Flu

Yes, definitely support.

Zara - I agree. I was one of the first on this thread to say I don't like the labelling idea. I think we should treat formula much more like a drug than we do, with the same no advertising rules etc. And I completely agree re postnatal care.

Ionnika yes of course. But if a doctor was paid to persuade you to take a drug that you didn't need and that had a high likelihood of harming you, that would be wrong. Even when you did need the drug, giving the doctor an inducement to prescribe one over another would also be wrong. That is what we need to stop. Midwives are being paid to push formula where there is no need, and where it actively harms.