Angry - was this unfair treatment?

[123girlsandboys321]

I was in a Boots store today and told that j couldn't pay for a bottle of newborn formula with my Boots points...but I could buy deodorant etc. When I questioned this the assistant said it was a law on formula for 0-6 months to encourage breastfeeding. I'm really angry!! I needed to formula feed my baby as he was losing too much weight, surely this shouldn't be a blanket rule?! Just trying to make people feel bad!!

You can't get angry at the shops for following the law. I'm sure the shops would like to have offers and points etc on formula because for many people it's a necessity and they'd get more customer loyalty if they sold it for less than everywhere else... but there we are. It's important that they don't discourage breastfeeding, hence the law.

The Politics of Breastfeeding is a great book on the subject if anyone wants to learn more.

soapboxqueen I think that was nestle who own aptimel and possibly another formula? That is why many people so the nestle boycott of their products and the companies they now own like body shop, l'oreal etc
Op - don't think of it as a comment on your choice and it's not a formula c breastfeeding debate it is an international policy (I think uniceff countries ) to try to readdress the balance and some of the damage done in other countries

"fair enough then I guess. Maybe just unnecessary for the assistant to mention breastfeeding, she could have just said they can't apply any offers or points to infant formula..."

Don't feel judged, do what's right for you but don't blame others for not being of the same opinion. Everybody parents differently, if bf is not for you, fair enough. marketing of infant formula is restricted for very good reasons.

Find out more if you are interested.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Code_of_Marketing_of_Breast-milk_Substitutes

These laws save babies lives so yabu.

www.unicef.org.uk/BabyFriendly/Parents/What-does-Baby-Friendly-care-look-like/

I agree OP. The assistant didn't need to mention breastfeeding. All that they needed to say was sorry, you can't buy formula with points, it's a blanket policy (actually a blanket law).

In fact buying formula with points itself is neither here nor there, and wouldn't cause any problems directly. It's bigger promotions like free samples which cause issues, it's just that points based promotions also come under the same legal umbrella. To prevent companies from exploiting loopholes they have to make the boundary much larger than it necessarily needs to be to protect babies. It's not a judgement thing. :)

However if the assistant had said "You can't buy this with points" and you asked why not, then it was okay for them to say this is a law which protects breastfeeding. It's perhaps not a very sensitive thing to say to a new mother, but it is at least factually correct.

dyslmimi, nestle don't own or sell any formula in the UK. Aptamil and Cow and Gate are owned by Milupa.

Sorry Bertie
Just checked and yes your right nestle doesn't own formula in the UK I was getting muddled between the kind of marketing in other countries that soapboxqueen mentioned and wrongly assumed that as so many people seem to boycott nestle
But Danone own milupa, aptamil, cow and gate
Nestle owns SMA

Ah you're right too, I'd forgotten they bought SMA.

Nestle didn't own any formula in the UK for a long time as a direct result of the nestle boycott, IIRC.

I know moms who don't like to breastfeed but they do it to save money. Apparently you save £700 first year if you exclusively breasfeed so I think they do have a point. In my area there are people with low incomes and somehow they get formula vouchers or something like that but not from the infant stage and they just stop breastfeeding, found out when my health visitor was surprised I'm still breastfeeding... I would like to pit my DD on her special formula which I get free as well as she's got severe cows milk allergy and she won't take it ( it does taste awful) so I'm on a diet myself and can't eat cakes :(