An open letter to the attendees of the Nestle Family blogger event

http://www.phdinparenting.com/2009/09/29/an-open-letter-to-the-attendees-of-the-\
nestle-family-blogger-event/


Some interesting quotes from the blog (let us know your thoughts, too!):

"Let me be clear. This is not about what you chose to feed your babies. If you
formula fed, whether by choice or by necessity, that is none of my business.
That said, the marketing and advertising of formula has been linked to the
deaths of millions of babies every year... In developing countries, the
difference between being breastfed and being bottle fed truly is life or death."

My main qualm:

"Advertising formula and providing free samples to women in developing countries
could be likened to advertising free c-sections with a dirty knife and untrained
medical staff."


Here's the rest of the blog...


An open letter to the attendees of the Nestle Family blogger event
by phdinparenting on September 29, 2009

Dear bloggers,

I learned about the Nestle Family blogger event with dismay when a friend e-mailed me about it. I was happy to hear that she had declined their invitation and hoped that many of the other mommy bloggers that I hold in high regard would follow suit. When I later saw the list of people who were attending, I was distressed to see women who I respect and women who are breastfeeding advocates had accepted the invitation. I wanted to believe that they must just not be aware of Nestle’s unethical business practices and that once they found out that they would, of course, decline the invitation and boycott the event. That was not the case. Some of you heard the concerns and said that you didn’t care. Some of you heard the concerns and said you would go anyways because you felt a dialogue with Nestle would be more productive. You are all skilled communicators. But having followed the Nestle fiasco for a long time, I know how ineffective dialogue has been in the past and I know that their public relations people will tell you a good story and try to take you for a ride.

That said, you are going. I can’t change that now. Many of you were tweeting this morning about packing your bags and heading off to the airport. So, in a last ditch effort to help you make a difference, I am writing you a letter outlining the things I would like you to know.

How formula marketing kills

Let me be clear. This is not about what you chose to feed your babies. If you formula fed, whether by choice or by necessity, that is none of my business. That said, the marketing and advertising of formula has been linked to the deaths of millions of babies every year. According to the World Health Organization:

The protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding rank among the most effective interventions to improve child survival. It is estimated that high coverage of optimal breastfeeding practices could avert 13% of the 10.6 million deaths of children under five years occurring globally every year. Exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life is particularly beneficial, and infants who are not breastfed in the first month of life may be as much as 25 times more likely to die than infants who are exclusively breastfed.

In developing countries, the difference between being breastfed and being bottle fed truly is life or death. When women choose to formula feed in developing countries, their babies are at significant risk. They do not have the financial means to keep buying formula, so they water it down and give their babies less than they really need. There is often a lack of clean water, so formula gets mixed with dirty water, which can lead to infections, disease and death. In the developed world, formula feeding isn’t as likely to kill a child, but not breastfeeding does come with a whole host of health risks for both the baby and the mother. It can lead to deaths as well as increased health problems and increased health costs (whether you have a public system or a private insurance system, you do pay for other people’s health care to some extent). Around 1.4 million lives could be saved every year with improved breastfeeding .

Advertising formula and providing free samples to women in developing countries could be likened to advertising free c-sections with a dirty knife and untrained medical staff. Infant formula and c-sections can both be life saving under specific circumstances. But marketing them to the general public as an equal, better, or even close to as good alternative is dangerous, especially in countries where they do not have the means to use it safely.

The International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes
In order to reduce the negative effect of formula marketing and save lives, the World Health Organization developed the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (World Health Organization), which restricts marketing and related practices of the following products:

breast-milk substitutes, including infant formula, other milk products, foods and beverages, including bottle-fed complementary foods
feeding bottles
teats, like bottle nipples and pacifiers
Governments in more than 60 countries have adopted the Code and made it law. Some countries have gone a step further by making formula available only by prescription or requiring warnings on labels. In the absence of legislation, the Code encourages manufacturers and distributors to comply with its provisions. Some do so voluntarily. Some pretend that they do, but instead blatantly lie (Nestle), do not fully disclose ownership (Lanisoh), or make other choices that compromise their compliance. Others just don’t care at all about compliance and care only about profits.

How Nestle lies, cheats and deceives
What is Nestle’s role in this problem? According to INFACT Canada, Nestle controls 40% of the worldwide market for baby food and is active in 80 countries. It is the biggest player in this market. Other companies are unethical too, but the size and reach of Nestle makes its violations of the Code especially problematic and especially risky for moms and babies. Nestle has been characterized by experts in the field as the worst of the baby food companies in terms of its breaches of international standards.

Some illustrations of Nestle’s unethical practices include:
Nestle has an Infant Formula Marketing Policy that it says complies with the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, but its scope is much narrower, covering only infant formula (instead of all breast milk substitutes) and covering only developing countries (instead of all countries). Read more here and check out a detailed chart comparing the two here.
Nestle invests in public relations initiatives to divert criticism, instead of making changes to bring its practices in line. Read more.

Monitoring of the baby food industry by NGOs has found many areas where Nestle’s advertising and promotion practices violate the Code. Look here for 13 pages of illustrated and annotated examples of violations.

Nestle systematically violates its own policies as brought to light by a senior Nestle employee in Pakistan who resigned and then wrote a scathing, detailed and well-documented whistleblower report on all of the violations that were both allowed, encouraged and ordered by his superiors. He is pursuing legal action against the company. His family has been threatened.
It is important to note that Nestle will try to tell you that all of this is in the past. That has been their approach all along. According to Baby Milk Action’s report on Nestle’s PR machine, “Nestle’s strategy is to admit to malpractice only years in the past, even though it denied it at the time“.

Beyond the marketing issue, there are other business practices related to its infant formula that have come into question. For example, apparently Nestle is purchasing 1 million litres of milk per year from Grace Mugabe, the wife of the President Robert Mugabe, despite sanctions due to human rights violations by his government and despite the fact that these farms were seized from farmers by Grace Mugabe. As per its usual practice, Nestle came up with some weak excuses for why this was not a problem.

There is so much to say. I feel like there is no way I can do it justice in a few short paragraphs.

What I would like Nestle to do
I think there is an opportunity for Nestle, as a leader in the food industry, to take a leadership role on this issue. At a minimum it should start abiding by the law in all countries where it operates and not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law. But ideally, in order to rectify some of the damage that its past practices have caused, it should go above and beyond what the law requires. Nestle should:

Commit to abiding by the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes in all countries worldwide for all products covered by the Code
Ensure that all of its packaging includes information on:

The risks of formula
Where people can go for breastfeeding help from trained lactation professionals (not Nestle staff)
Provide funding for lactation programs in developing countries and in low income neighbourhoods in the United States as part of its corporate social responsibility program
I think a complete about face is required here. Nestle should shift from trying to circumvent the law and the Code to proactively trying to encourage the safest nutrition for infants.

What I would like you to do

At a minimum, while you are there, I hope you’ll listen with a critical ear and not take everything at face value. Nestle’s public relations machine is well oiled and they will find a way to “address” your concerns without really doing so. I would like you to tell Nestle in no uncertain terms that you do not support its unethical business practices. I would like you to tell them that you will not be using your blog, your twitter presence, or any other platform you are on to help market their products. I would like you to tell Nestle that you are going to boycott its products and ask your friends and family to do so too. Above all, I would like you to ask yourself how you feel about supporting a company that puts profits ahead of the lives and health of babies.

I’ll be watching your blogs with interest and a critical eye following this event.

Safe travels,

Annie

Aggressive push for baby formula in Vietnam

HANOI, Vietnam - Multinational companies in Vietnam sell baby formula so aggressively that they routinely stretch and sometimes break laws designed to promote breastfeeding, an AP investigation has found.

International guidelines and Vietnamese law recognize breast milk as superior to formula for an infant's health. Yet dozens of interviews with mothers, doctors, health officials and shopkeepers suggest that formula companies pay doctors to peddle their products, promote it for infants under age one and approach mothers and health care workers at health facilities — all of which are against the law...

(To Read More, click here)

FDA Warning on Shock Risk of Breast Pumps

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203917304574415441993714918.html

By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN

The Food and Drug Administration said baby-products maker Evenflo Co. failed to properly investigate some complaints involving women who reported receiving electrical shocks while using the company's breast pumps. In an Aug. 25 warning letter released by the agency Tuesday, the FDA said it found manufacturing violations at two Ohio plants that make pumps used by women to express breast milk. The breast pumps are sold nationwide under the "Comfort Select" brand name. Evenflo, of Miamisburg, Ohio, is private firm that makes a variety of baby products including toys, high chairs, car seats and strollers.

The FDA warning letter stemmed from inspections of two Evenflo facilities in January and February. Since then, the FDA and the company have worked to address violations of FDA manufacturing rules, with Evenflo providing monthly updates to the agency.

During the inspections, the FDA found Evenflo wasn't in compliance with the agency's manufacturing practice rules, including "failure to review and evaluate all complaints" and for failing "to establish medical device reporting procedures for your breast pumps." Companies are required to report problems with devices to the FDA.

The agency said it reviewed 37 complaints and, of those, 18 weren't investigated by the company, including at least three reports of women receiving an electrical shock when using the breast pumps. The FDA said companies are required to investigate complaints that involve "the possible failure of a device to meet any of its specifications."

Amy Neff, Evenflo's associate general counsel, said the company does investigate its consumer complaints but said the problem was a "documentation issue." In its letter, the FDA said the company's response to the complaint-investigation problem is now "adequate." However, on the medical-device reporting problem, the FDA said the company has yet to fully address the agency's concerns.

Lindsay Harris, Evenflo's vice president of quality and product integrity, said, "We are working cooperatively with the FDA" to address the agency's concerns. He said the company reports all device complaints to the agency.

Write to Jennifer Corbett Dooren at jennifer.corbett-dooren@dowjones.com

Media Release:La Leche League International Encourages Mothers to Recognize Importance of Vitamin D

(October 16, 2008) Schaumburg, IL - La Leche League International encourages all mothers to recognize the importance of vitamin D to the health of their children. Recent research shows that due to current lifestyles, breastfeeding mothers may not have enough vitamin D in their own bodies to pass to their infants through breastmilk.

In October 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that infants receive 400 IU a day of vitamin D, beginning in the first few days of life. Children who do not receive enough vitamin D are at risk for rickets and increased risk for infections, autoimmune diseases, cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

Vitamin D is mainly acquired through exposure to sunlight and secondarily through food. Research shows that the adoption of indoor lifestyles and the use of sunscreen have seriously depleted vitamin D in most women. The ability to acquire adequate amounts of vitamin D through sunlight depends on skin color and geographic location. Dark-skinned people can require up to six times the amount of sunlight as light-skinned people. People living near the equator can obtain vitamin D for 12 months of the year while those living in northern and southern climates may only absorb vitamin D for six or fewer months of the year.

For many years, La Leche League International has offered the research-based recommendation that exclusively breastfed babies received all the vitamin D necessary through mother’s milk. Health care professionals now have a better understanding of the function of vitamin D and the amounts required, and the newest research shows this is only true when mothers themselves have enough vitamin D. Statistics indicate that a large percentage of women do not have adequate amounts of vitamin D in their bodies.

La Leche League International acknowledges that breastfeeding mothers who have adequate amounts of vitamin D in their bodies can successfully provide enough vitamin D to their children through breastmilk. It is recommended that pregnant and nursing mothers obtain adequate vitamin D or supplement as necessary. Health care providers may recommend that women who are unsure of their vitamin D status undergo a simple blood test before choosing not to supplement.

Parents or health care providers who want more information on rickets, vitamin D in human milk, or other information on breastfeeding issues may call La Leche League International at (847) 519-7730 or visit our Web site at www.llli.org.

CDC and Swine Flu and Breastfeeding

Recomendations (from CDC)
&
from Breastfeeding Pharmacology
Thomas W. Hale, R.Ph. Ph.D.Professor of Pediatrics)

Infants who are not breastfeeding are particularly vulnerable to infection and hospitalization for severe respiratory illness. Women who deliver should be encouraged to initiate breastfeeding early and feed frequently. Ideally, babies should receive most of their nutrition from breast milk. Eliminate unnecessary formula supplementation, so the infant can receive as much maternal antibodies as possible.

If a woman is ill, she should continue breastfeeding and increase feeding frequency. If maternal illness prevents safe feeding at the breast, but she can still pump, encourage her to do so. The risk for swine influenza transmission through breast milk is unknown. However, reports of viremia with seasonal influenza infection are rare.

Expressed milk should be used for infants too ill to feed at the breast. In certain situations, infants may be able to use donor human milk from a certified milk bank.

Antiviral medication treatment or prophylaxis is not a contraindication for breastfeeding.

False alarms that may cause some moms to worry that their milk supply is low:

False alarms that may cause some moms to worry that their milk supply is low:

1. Baby nurses often... Many babies have a strong need to suck or be in frequent contact with their mothers. If baby is nursing effectively, frequent nursing means that the baby is getting enough--not that there's a lack of milk.

2. Baby seems hungry an hour after or so after being fed... Human milk digests more quickly than formula and places less strain on a baby's immature digestive system, so the breastfed baby needs to be fed more frequently than the formula-fed baby.

3. The baby suddenly increases the frequency and/or length of his nursings... Babies who are very sleepy newborns often "wake up" at about 2-3 weeks of age and begin nursing more frequently. Babies also go through occasional growth spurts more often than usual to bring in more milk to meet their needs.

4. Fussy Babies... Many babies have a fussy period each day, often at about the same time of the day. Some babies are fussy much of the time. Fussiness can be caused by many things other than hunger, but often there is no discernible reason. Many moms are concerned that their babies are fussy because they aren't getting enough milk, but it's the quiet, calm, easygoing baby who is more likely to go longer between feedings, take in less milk and gain weight slowly.

5. The baby was weighed before and after a feeding... Then the mom is told her baby didn't get enough to eat. As mentioned previously, studies have shown that test weighing is not a reliable indicator of whether a baby has breastfed well, because **most** baby scales are not sensitive enough to record such a small change in weight accurately.

6. Baby takes a bottle after nursing... Many babies will suck on a bottle even when they are full, because they like to suck. This is not necessarily a sign that the baby did not get enough at the breast.

7. The Mother cannot express much milk... Milk expression is a learned skill and the amount of milk expressed will increase with practice and the mother's ability to let down her milk to the pump. Pumping effectiveness may also vary depending on the type of pump used, etc. The amount of milk expressed may be totally unrelated to her milk supply.

A to Z: 26 Reasons to Nurse Your Baby

A to Z: 26 Reasons to Nurse Your Baby

from www.llli.org (La Leche League)

• Amenorrhea
• Bonding
• Colostrum... the perfect first food
• Decreased risk of breast cancer
• Easy baby care
• Few allergies
• Good for the whole family
• Human milk is specially designed for human babies
• Immunities
• Jaw development
• Kids get lots of attention when the new baby is breastfed
• Laundry is a breeze
• Mental development
• Natural
• Oxytocin and prolactin
• Protection against many diseases
• Quick weight loss for mother
• Rest
• Saves money
• Traveling is easy
• Understanding the baby's needs
• Vitamins and minerals
• Working goes smoothly when the nursing relationship is maintained
• eXactly what baby needs
• You get to take care of your baby
• Zero waste

Only the Best Is Good Enough - Breastfeed!