Hitting the bottle

Jenny Colgan wasn't the only one last week to notice Jordan's OK! interview and her promotion of bottle feeding. Two charities - Save the Children and the National Childbirth Trust - have joined forces to bring action against SMA Nutrition after Jordan's hearty endorsement of bottle-feeding, accompanied by a picture clearly showing the bottle's label. The company says it has no commercial relationship with Jordan and it was all a coincidence.

I was really moved by a story I read a while back about how formula makers promote their wares in poor countries and the use of formula contributes to the death of babies from diarrhoea (after mothers mix up dry formula or dilute liquid formula with dirty water). A columnist in the Guardian wrote recently about how the UN and the Philippine government condemned formula companies for promoting their wares there.

I'm not anti-formula fanatic - I used formula with my daughter after I went back to work - but the formula companies seem to be treading a very fine line, considering how breast-feeding is related to good health for babies - especially if they use the ignorance or inexperience of women to promote their products.

Comments

[Tash]

I breastfed my daughter for nine months in total, 5½ months exclusively and then mixfed for the last 3½ months.

At the point I wanted to wean my daughter on to formula she developed, a thankfully transient, allergy to cows milk, which made finding a formula she could tolerate very difficult. I did not want to use soya formula as it is mainly sugar, and not particularly healthy.

I spent many hours in our local supermarket studying the backs of formula tubs, trying to work out what ingredients were being used. I discovered that most formulas include cow's milk, soya and fish oils in their ingredients, and some even include egg, even though health visitors recommend that egg should not be given to babies under 12 months!

Although I agree with a ban on advertising to some extent, it would be helpful to have some information on what is contained within the different brands of formula.

While searching for a brand of formula that my daughter would tolerate, I contacted the formula makers asking for samples that I could use for skin tests. It seemed at the time that cow's milk brought her out in a rash that lasted a couple of hours before disappearing mysteriously.

None of the companies I contacted could send me samples due to the government guidelines of not promoting formula for babies under six months.

So although I'd followed the current guidelines regarding breastfeeding for as long a possible, at the point I wanted to switch to formula, I couldn't get any advice on which particular formula might suit her, as the companies were banned from giving me that information!

I think there should be a balance of information available, so that parents can make the right choice for them. We all know breast is best, but we need information on formula too so that when the time to switch comes, we can make an informed choice, not one based on guesswork.

[jane]

This wickedness of formula feed manufactuers (for what else can it be to brainwash people so poor to spend money on what they can't afford and harms their babies??)has been going on for ever - and so have the protests. At least a quarter of a century in my own memory (it used to be the thing to boycot Nestle, I seem to remember). Yet clearly they are still peddling their wares to the third world with callous greed and irresponsibility.

As for the 'great debate', surely the 'rational position' is that yes, breastfeeding is better, that's now a no-brainer, but if it can't be done for good reason (ie, other than the mum doesn't want to 'spoil her breasts' or 'CBA'etc!) then don't beat yourself up over going for bottle. So long as your baby gets love, cuddles and care in abundance, that's all it really needs....

[JC]

When my son was born I had whooping cough. I had not planned on breastfeeding him but did so, on my midwife's advice, to pass on antibodies to the whooping cough. I would of course advise any mother who is able to breastfeed her baby, to do so. The health benefits to the baby are priceless.

[Mumoftwo]

I recently read a statistical article which showed that for HIV positive mothers, there was less risk of the baby dying from AIDS through breast-feeding transmission than if the mother used formula with dirty water, for the reasons pointed out above. It's so sad that often these mothers spend a large amount of their very small income buying formula to protect their children when in fact it places them at risk anyway. I'm so grateful I live in a country where I can choose whether to breasfeed or use formula with clean water as I prefer.