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.

There is a real issue with FF in areas in some developing countries. But campaigns that are not tied to the cultural context will at best be ignored, and at worst backfire.

For example, what impact will the dire warning have on communities with significant rates on HIV? FF is a really important way to prevent mother to child transmission. If there is significant pressure to BF, then HIV+ mothers could end up BF to avoid being outed and therefore stigmatised.

Personally I would much prefer a supported claim to give women, babies and the rest of the community clean water. This would reduce illness and death for everyone. This would be much more effective that a focus on infact feeding on its own.

I guess it's the wording that would worry me. For the third world wording needs to be stark(even though very few would ever read it) but in this country statwise the risks are absolutely teeny,even more so if other factors are taken into consideration so how on earth would you word something that would apply to both.

Also in this country it is but one of many parenting choices,over inflating this one just gives a totally incorrect message.However in the third world it is probably the most important choice a mother could ever make. How do you marry the two? I don't think you can.

The warning only needs to convey how important it is that the the formula is made according to the exact instructions, and that a failure to do so can be harmful to the baby.

I think that is applicable world wide.

In the developed world a failure to make the formula according to the instructions is more likely to be that water isn't hot enough to kill bacteria in the powder. In the developing world it is more likely to be that the water isn't clean. But in both instances, failure to follow the exact instructions can be harmful to babies. The fact that its likely to be in different ways doesn't matter that much, because all that needs to be got across is that it is not safe to make the formula in any other way than the way specified in the instructions.

Yes! Please support this!

Wholeheartedly support this campaign.

I think it would be a very good thing to have warnings in formula packaging - to correct the misinformation a lot of people have, BOTH in Western countries and in the developing world.

For example, a lot of mothers think that they do not have enough milk. This is something that people here say again and again, and that is what the poor Indonesian mother was also saying in the Guardian article. That is actually very rare, even if you are not eating a lot. The milk will be one of the last things that would go if you were malnourished.

So educating people about facts such as this - in formula packaging or by other means - would be hugely beneficial, both here and in developing countries.

I also think that the debate about BF/FF, as much as most other things to do with childbirth/childrearing, is disproportionately focussed on the feelings of the mother, rather than the comfort, health and wellbeing of the baby, which in my opinion should come first.

I support this campaign.

Right Marianneso women shouldn't work then and just basically cease to be of any importance when a baby is born.

Oh and re supply,it's not just how much but getting it into them.I produced gallons but was blissfully unaware dd was getting buggar all which is why she ended up in SCBU.Sensible mums who switch to formula in this country when they feel things aren't right shouldn't be put off from doing so by a label,medical advice yes,advice from a label no.

Mixed feelings... on the one hand, how dare these rich international companies pour money into misleading mothers and putting babies health at risk, but, on the other hand, what gives a bunch of mums on the internet the right to speak for women everywhere?

I produced gallons but was blissfully unaware dd was getting buggar all

Really? You couldn't feel getting engorged with milk and make the connection with that and your presumably unhappy baby?

Oh and re supply,it's not just how much but getting it into them.

This may be an unpopular view, but really, how hard can it be to feed a baby? I just don't buy the bleating here about it being SO difficult to put your nipple in the baby's mouth and for the baby to feed.

Pmsl Marianne think you need to educate yourself a bit more.

the feelings of the mother, rather than the comfort, health and wellbeing of the baby, which in my opinion should come first.

Surely these are connected?

Marianne, go off and educate yourself a bit, you're not doing yourself - or breastfeeding - any favours here. The work of formula advertising has not only upped bottle feeding rates, but reduced availiblity of breastfeeding support.

Mumsnet, please support this campaign. I've been following the work, and campaigning with Baby Milk Action for years, and although we have had some victories, they've been quiet ones. This isn't quiet. This is a big charity putting themselves in the spot light, something that Nestle cannot hide from, and things need to change. Babies are dying because of profit grabbing £billion businesses. Please help this change.

how hard can it be to feed a baby?

Very very very hard. Just hop on over to the breastfeeding/bottle board and see for yourself.

The warning only needs to convey how important it is that the the formula is made according to the exact instructions, and that a failure to do so can be harmful to the baby.
I think that is applicable world wide.

^This^ It is SO important to make sure all women/parents in general are getting the message that you HAVE to make it up correctly in order to prevent risks to your baby.

I think Mumsnet should support this campaign.

I do agree with a previous poster though that we should be lobbying governments to make the 'code' a legal (and enforced) requirement in every country. Its staggering that such an important issue is often left up to the discretion of the companies, who will [grudgingly] abide by aspects of the code enforced in one juristiction whilst blatently breaking it where it thinks it can get away with it.

It is not just women and babies in the developing world who are let down by unethical marketing. We might think ourselves sophisticated enough to ignore it and think that the public health messages counteract it, but many more women have difficulties breastfeeding than should physiologically be the case. We're still suffering from the lack of breastfeeding knowledge from the generations who were encouraged to bottlefeed. A large part of the problem is people not knowing what is normal infant nursing behaviour is, and our modern tolerance for neediness in our babies is unrealistically short.

I think a clear warning that if mother's are having problems breastfeeding that they should contact their midwife or one of the genuine helplines for advice because giving formula could interfere with their ability to breastfeed successfully.

To be honest, I think in this country we actually have pretty good numbers of women who want to breastfeed, I think we need to back it up with practical support, in person in those first few weeks, 24 hours if possible. I had a few tricky moments in those first few days, but my local midwives were very approachable and helped me through them. Better support might help women who want to breastfeed do so, and reduce the number of women panicked into using formula because they can't get baby latched on at 3am when their milk comes in.

Something odd happens with the right wing media here btw. If there is a hint that a product could possibly reduce the risk of cancer by a tiny bit in a limited study, it's headline news. But if not using a product could reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by a significant amount, its sidelined behind a bunch of articles about how its our choice to formula feed and how the benefits of breastfeeding are exaggerated, and how its such an imposition on a mum to nurse her baby and on businesses to enable her to express when she returns to work.

I'm asthmatic and have hypothyroidism. I rely on the products of large pharmacutical companies. I still think they can be extremly unethical and wish governments would make them behave more ethically. I don't see attacks on big pharma to be an attack on me as a (somewhat) ill person. I really wish mums who need to (or choose to) formula feed could see that it would benefit EVERYONE if they were made to be honest about their products and stopped unethical promoting/advertising.

You know it's not JUST hygiene issues.

It's the fact that formula use damages breastfeeding, so that once women start using it they often end up having no alternative to continuing with it.

Which is obviously a MASSIVE problem if you have a low income or a fluctuating income.

Because one of the problems with ff babies in developing countries is that they're not only fed formula which is full of germs from dirty water, but that they're fed formula which is too dilute as parents can't afford to make it according to instructions.

"Sensible mums who switch to formula in this country when they feel things aren't right"

Most mums who switch to formula when breastfeeding is a struggle do so without having accessed expert and timely support with breastfeeding. Most breastfeeding problems - even quite difficult ones - can be resolved with the right sort of help. Sadly many mums don't know how to access this help, and are less likely to access it because friends and family often encourage them to feel that breastfeeding can't be rescued and it's pointless to try. And that reflects the fact that in this country we don't think breastfeeding is important enough for babies to be worth struggling for.

As for 'weighing up all the risks' in the UK - we simply can't do this, because it's so incredibly difficult to design research adequate to this complex task. We know that far and away the most significant health benefits with breastfeeding are achieved with exclusively breastfed babies, and such a vanishingly tiny number of babies are not given formula milk in the first six months that its almost impossible for us to assess what this means at a population level and over a person's lifetime.

IMO ff is a massive, population wide, uncontrolled experiment. We really have no idea about the many subtle ways feeding a baby milk chemically altered milk from another species as its sole diet for the first six months of life, during the period of fasted growth, might impact on health and development in the medium or long term. It's wrong to suggest we know everything about it.

Please support the campaign. I was very moved by Zoe Williams. For per existing medical reasons I was unable to supply my daughters with anything other than a bit of colostrum, and used formula from day 1. But that's in England, where we have the facilities to mix it properly. The midwives certainly did not push me onto formula, but simply informed me of the correct way to do it once it became clear I was unable to breast feed. This formula companies are appalling.

SpiritedWolf - I really wish people would take on board that formula use in the first few weeks with a newborn - something which is casual and endemic in the UK - really damages breastfeeding. It's not usually necessary for babies to be supplemented with formula - if mums have proper help with breastfeeding. But SO many mothers do it, and then breastfeeding goes shit-shaped.

There is just too much acceptance that formula and bottles are a routine and normal part of a newborn baby's care. Even breastfed babies. It's buggering up breastfeeding for so many women. (and to pre-empt, yes, I know that SOME breastfed babies need formula. But it's a very, very small number. Vastly fewer than the number who currently get it).

Completely agree with you, Shagmundfreud.

We see it as an equal choice, but the odds are stacked against us from day one. And because of that, when there is a problem, even a small one that could be fixed within a meeting with a breastfeeding supporter of some kind, the immediate reaction is to give formula, not to address the problem, because we have now almost forgotten how to do it. Breastfeeding is made more difficult that it needs to be because the support networks that used to exist when everyone breastfed are now significantly reduced.

Things like the myths you hear regularly repeated about breastfeeding... That all comes down to the work of these companies. There is no money is breastfeeding. They make no money from someone who breastfeeds. So how can you make money from them? Knock their confidence before they even start. Invent a product specifically named so they feel they 'have' to move on to formula at some point in time.

Honestly wonder if the people at the top of these companies are psychopaths.

Lets get this straight, cigarette style warning labels on boxes of baby milk. On a packet of fags it's a diseased lung or someone dying of cancel. Smoking causes cancer. So we are saying we should have THOSE on the boxes of baby milk? Feeding your new baby formula milk is shit. You are a crap mother, you will cause your child to be ill and it will all be your fault????? If you feed your child formula milk it's going to die?

I have never heard such a load of rubbish in my life. I am raging about the fact that yet again some woolley do-gooder is getting involved in things that are NOT the cause of the problem!!!!!
Please third world country mothers carry on living with no sanitation whatsoever with your baby bundled up in mud slum but for god sake breast feed them or they'll die immediately??? Er no? Do people HONESTLY think putting a warning label on the box is going to stop this happening?? Really?? Then you are kidding yourselves. It's not even scratching the surface of the problems these people are facing. The mothers aren't going to go home and get their pocket translators to work out what the stupid label says.

As per the daily mail today they think the label should be on all boxes even in Europe, why? Why do I need telling that breast is best? In the uk we can afford to choose? Feeding your baby formula here does not put them at risk but filling new mothers heads with breast is best and formula is shit when you have tried and failed to breast feed is wrong. There is enough going on as a new mother with out people judging you and making you feel guilty.

Whilst I don't agree with heavy handed marketing techniques this is hardly the main problem these people have. Why don't we concentrate on charities that help with clean water supply, schooling etc. otherwise all the breast is best mantra is never going to help when the child is then older, living in a sewer with nothing to eat????????

Because changing sanitation is a huge problem that will take years to change. Reducing the power of formula companies and the accessibility to formula in unsafe conditions will instantly save the lives of babies. And that is something that can happen much quicker.

And we need to get past the 'breast is best' and start remembering that breast is normal.

cubtrouble

"Please third world country mothers carry on living with no sanitation whatsoever with your baby bundled up in mud slum but for god sake breast feed them or they'll die immediately??? "

If a mother is living in a mud slum with no sanitation, what do you suppose are the chances of her being able to provide her baby with pure water and a sterilised bottle, day in, day out?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality "Generally the most common cause worldwide was dehydration from diarrhea"

Pigletjohn, yes I know. I am aware they cannot provide the water and the bottles. I am also fairly sure they probably don't eat the recommended balanced diet to breast feed in the preferred way like we do here.

My point is that by putting stupid warning labels all over the boxes like they do on cigarettes they will not solve the problem!!

More than that to put the warning labels on the box in this country is WRONG. Some people cannot breast feed, even if they try until they bleed, even if they are desperate to, they can't. Why should those people be made to feel like they have failed as a mother at the most basic thing every time they buy a box of milk? It's not some kind of status symbol, people buy it because they need to.

Ban marketing in third world countries. Leave the formula alone here. Unless you are going to stick warning labels on every product.