How the marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding - WHO & UN REport
40 years ago, the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes was adopted to regulate the marketing of breast- milk substitutes. Yesterday the WHO and UN released a damming report into how the marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding.
Formula is a $55BN industry. Marketing dollars of infant formula is approximately 10% of revenue. Or roughly $5 BILLION - Which is the equivalent of the ENTIRE Annual WHO Operating Budget.
TO BE VERY CLEAR - This is not a report on the product of infant formula, the use or need for infant formula as medically required or a parents decision to use formula. This is a report on the aggressive tactics undertaken by formula milk companies to deliberately target and undermine mothers.
Formula milk marketing – powered by enormous budgets and the deliberate misuse of science – is driving over-consumption of formula milk and discouraging breastfeeding. It is also undermining women’s confidence and cynically exploiting parents’ instinct to do the best for their children. Scaling up breastfeeding could prevent an estimated 800,000 deaths of children under 5 and 20,000 breast cancer deaths among mothers each year.
The code needs to be completely overhauled to work in line with the current Digital age we now live in. They need to be held to account on the “scientific” claims made to deliberately undermine parents and playing on their anxieties. Health professionals need to be aware and mindful of tactics aggressively targeting them and their influence over parents. Investment in the form of support for new mothers, particularly in the early days and months of breastfeeding needs to be more readily available and accessible by all. Legislation and Regulation of the Code need to be enforced.
To read the full report visit - https://www.who.int/teams/maternal-newborn-child-adolescent-health-and-ageing/formula-milk-industry
#EndExploitativeMarketing
From the moment you tell the world you are having a baby
and start looking for information online
You’re on the radar of formula milk marketing executives
They’re logging you on their future sales spreadsheet
Thinking up ways to take advantage of your fears and insecurities You have a target on your back
Nothing will stop them from reaching you
And it’s not just one formula milk company
It’s all of them
Spinning the truth about what’s in their products
Hiding behind people you trust online and in health care settings Showing up wherever you turn for advice
Piling on pressure to buy their products At a time when what you really need
Is some time to yourself
To just be
