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.

Oh and Emmet thanks for thatthink we can safely assume formula in this country has what it says on the tin but do scaremonger a bit more if it makes you feel better.

Polka - as I said, if you think a third of the label is too much for the developed world, then don't sign the petition. Easy!

emmet - I don't think it's sensible to suggest that formula may be labelled incorrectly, with vitamins etc listed that are not there. The scandals you mention did indeed take place, and from time to time formula is withdrawn from the market because of serious manufacturing errors. But these incidents are rare. The main drawback of formula is its lack of 'human' qualities and the fact that it is necessarily a 'non-live' product with no active health-protecting properties, and that in its dried form, it needs to be prepared in a way that stops bacteria proliferating.

Oh I don't know Polkadot, maybe some Romanian horses will turn up in a carton of Aptimil next week.

It could have been a classic "Been there and got the T-shirt"

Sorry, your posts are fascinating - good on you for breastfeeding your babies in such a social climate !

I won't Tiktok as I'm sure others won't for this reason which is a shame as it doesn't need to be in there.

Dreaming

It's appalling if mn associates itself with this,it further demonizes formula feeding
Mn is parenting site,majority mode feeding in uk is formula. Majority uk babies safely formula fed
The insidious implication of this is that formula is somehow bad or inadequate,heaping more anxiety,guilt on mums who do not breast feed

Mn,please not associate your global parenting brand with this,it's divisive - it isn't in spirit of supporting parenting

I wouldn't safely assume anything. Especially in this country where the multinationals rule all & the government do as they are told.

It's not just that Scottish but as a parent who left it too long before starting formula and ended up with a baby in ScBU and one within hours of being admitted I think it could lead to some mums struggling with babies not thriving trying to avoid ffing just that bit longer.

I also think it will lead to higher PND rates.I had PND,attended a fab course and believe you me this kind of thing can make it worse.PND is not to be flippant about,it's bad for mum,bad for baby and crap for a family as a whole. In some cases it can be catastrophic.

Guilt isn't really the most serious issue here.

Well you're going to have a pretty scary road down parenthood Emmet,there are risks in everything,many far bigger.

And it's ridiculous as it doesn't even need to be on there!

And those babies in poorer countries which the petition actually aims to help scottish? Tough on them because UK mums might somehow feel guilty?

In this country we don't have the support to enable formula avoidance when you have a baby not thriving.

Anyhow ,night all!

FF is clearly not that demonised as most people do it and most feel that is is fine.

I agree with scottish that this is all very divisive.

Which might be okay if the proposal might work but given that it probably won't, I think it's a bad call really.

dreaming - except nobody says formula is 'poison'.

very depressed by the people whose message is "not applicable in the UK therefore don't support it"

Shag -- eh? where did I say anything about calling formula poison?

I can't believe anyone really thinks people's feelings in the UK are more important than babies lives in the developing world.

We have the skills and information to make our informed choices here. Other in other places do not even have the money and safety to feed their babies.

This move by a major charity must be supported, imho.

So mumsnet is, as scottish rightly says, a 'global brand'.

Indeed it is.

English-speaking and non-English-speaking mothers use the site, from all countries of the world (thank you, the internet :) )

But we have to remain UK-centric, because for UK mothers, the issue of infant death resulting from unethical marketing of formula, is not sufficiently acute or personal to them.

I don't get it.

I thought the issues were crystal clear: it is marketing and inappropriate formula propaganda that is under discussion; it is mothers in poorly-resourced settings who have neither the money or the environment to make formula a safe choice for them; it is health workers who are induced and bribed to get the 'free' formula to mothers who would otherwise breastfeed; it is support for the 31-year-old WHO Code that prevents all this....plus a demand to make the packaging/labelling even clearer about the risks of unsafe preparation, in order to save infant lives.

Apparently I am wrong. The issues now include formula itself, which is likely to be 'further demonised' in the eyes of mothers who face none of those issues, so the call for a low-cost response to the tragedy of needless infant death should be ignored, as it is 'divisive'.

No. This particular proposal should be ignored as it won't accomplish anything.

Any reasonable NGO type could predict that proposing big warning labels for formula sold in the UK would engender the kind of debate we're seeing about whether formula is the devil's milk or the best thing ever. This debate is divisive and gets us nowhere.

A really clever NGO type would say, hang on, everyone agrees that what's going on in the developing world is awful, so let's have a petition to the UK government to impose sanctions on the formula companies' business in the UK unless they fully implement the Code worldwide.

Voila, I can't think of a single person who would object to this proposal. I don't see how even the Daily Fail could bluster about it.

I understand you want to increase BF in the UK as well, but realistically until you have more resources for postnatal support and a wholesale shift in cultural attitudes, it's going to be a long-term process. So why not focus our attention on areas where babies are dying because of formula? There is overwhelming support here. And in the process of campaigning for this, you will also convert people at home.

Exactly dreaming.

Also I still want to know why warnings on UK tins need to be increased to a third as part of this campaign.Have asked and asked but got no answer.

Countries are supposed to have different labelling and the maj of mothers in the third world won't be able to read let alone anything in English so why is increasing warnings in developed countries to a third of a tin part of this campaign when it could be detrimental?Why?

The problem with the labelling is that if you can't BF there is no alternative but to FF ! And there is nothing you can do about it. To have a label taking up a third of the container serves no purpose for those women. Whilst I categorically don't agree with the marketing of ff in developing countries I believe a label is too simplistic an idea to solve the problem.

I agree that parents should be supportive of each other.

I would support this. I would like a total ban on UK formula milk advertising, and that would include follow on milks, using Bounty to get parents' contact details, parenting clubs, roadshows and the like.

Formula feeding is not demonised - it's the social norm, most parents do it (including myself for my second baby after nine months, if anyone is interested) and most believe it to be fine. And breastfeeding mothers do still occasionally face stares and comments if they feed in public and being asking when they are going to 'move on' to formula (both of which, yes, I have experienced myself).

Formula feeding parents (for whatever reason they are doing so) need impartial advice on how different formulas are tolerated by the majority of babies, which they will not get via aggressive advertising, and cheaper formula , which an advertising ban would go a long way to achieve.

Oh fgs so sod the babies dying less the mothers in the uk might be upset!! you think a bigger label on the box with clearer instructions on how to make up formula and the risks of not doing so safely and the bit (which is already on the current packaging) about bfeeding being best for babies, will give mothers pnd?!!

Ffs having had post natal.psychosis and pnd myself resulting in a stay in psych unit i find that massively fucking offensive. A label wont increase rates of pnd. It gives information for people to.read as they wish it doesnt force you to bfeed.

I have bfed and formula fed and in rl.its not as divisive as made out by the debates on mnet and the media. Mums just get on with it, some bfeed, the majority formula feed. Occasionaly we chat about it or ask advice etc but most of us dont actually care what other mothers do and formula is not demonised ffs, yes all those adverts in magazines and on the tv with happy smiling babies really make it serm demonised...

If anything experience in rl.has been the other way, numerous gp's who told me bfeeding was pointless and hv's who said it was good but you have done a few weeks now and you have a big baby so give formula/solids yada yada.

The probl in the uk.is that the support to bfeed is so crap that many mothers are let down which imo is crap and a campaign to sort out real.support for pist natal.mothers in the uk would be good, but i dont think thats undrr save the childrens remit right now.

And polka you keep going on about how they cant read and yet tiktok and ithers have repeatedly pointed out it will be in local language and symbols/graphics for those that cant read. i think the label.is a small part of the campaign when its about getying these companies to enforce all of the WHO code. The media have picked up.on the label and focused in that and some fool mentioned cigarette style wsrnings?!! Well yes that would make it divisive but yhat is not what they are doing. Just clear labels that it must be made up safely and the bit about breast is best please speak to hcp about using formula
.. Or whatever it is it currently says on
the box in teeny tiny letters.

And yes a broader campaign where the government said we will impose sanctions on formula compamies in the uk (what sanctions exactly?!) woyld be good but its very doubtful they would do that as formula companies/pharmasuticals are big business and have their fingers in a very sticky pot... but i interested in what snctions are proposed ans how they would be ok? You may well find they are accused of deminisimg formula as well..
or that it increases the price to the consumer in the uk?