Azara Blog: Some groups think baby milk should be treated like tobacco

Date published: 2007/08/07

A coalition of charities is demanding baby milk be treated like tobacco and subjected to a total advertising ban.
The National Childbirth Trust, Save The Children and Unicef blame adverts for many mothers abandoning breast feeding before the recommended six months.
They want the government to extend a ban on infant milk adverts to include "follow-on" milks for older babies.
England's policy on the promotion of formula milk is currently being reviewed by the Food Standards Agency.
At present, companies are not allowed to advertise formula milk for babies under six months.
But they are allowed to promote so-called follow-on milks, a range for children aged between six months and two years.
The charities accuse baby milk companies of using their follow-on milks to promote their products for younger infants by giving them the same name and logo so as to make them "virtually indistinguishable" to parents.
...
But Dr Ellie Lee of the University of Kent who has researched women's experiences of infant feeding said the impact of advertising on the decision to switch from breast to bottle was "negligible".
In a study of mothers commissioned by The Infant and Dietetic Foods Association (IDFA), Dr Lee found that the decision to bottle feed was a "pragmatic decision based on personal circumstances".

The middle class control freaks in action yet again. How patronising can you get to assert that women are so stupid that they need to be protected against advertising in this way. Of course the middle class control freaks always think that they know best about how the world should be run. And usually they are wrong. And the idea that baby milk is as harmful as tobacco is ridiculous (and there was no great reason for tobacco advertising to be banned either). Next they will want to ban ads for crisps, chocolate, etc. Heck, just ban all ads, how dare companies try to sell us anything.

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