Dear Ellen,

I’ve got a bone to pick.  Figuratively, I mean.

I missed your show today as I had to show up at this place called work…I don’t know.  They should really rename that; you do work at work which seems redundant and just makes it sound all the more unappealing.

I digress.  Since I haven’t jumped on the TiVo bandwagon yet, I was just catching up with the days festivities online.  Hillary Swank was a great guest, though clearly needs to practice those animal sounds before returning or likely face another defeat.  Also, if she thinks your show is “hard to be on” then the forecast looks gloomy for just about anyone else because, really, what can’t she do?  And the kids’ Halloween costumes…hilarious.  Poor “balloon boy” looked like he was prancing around the stage just to try and get a direct line of vision through that little peephole in his balloon.

This is all small talk.  Let’s get to the bone… there are advertisements on your website for infant formula.  First, I am a midwife; breastfeeding advocacy and midwifery-yes, it’s a word- go hand-in-hand.  Like, Ellen and Dancing.  Yes, it’s that serious.  Secondly, it is well known and documented- even by formula manufacturers themselves- that breastmilk is the best and most natural food source for babies.  Now, Ellen, it is also well known that you are vegan, prefer to eat organically and locally when possible, and promote healthy, wholesome lifestyle choices.  Perhaps there is nothing more natural on Earth than breastmilk.  As far as breastfeeding on the Ellen show is concerned-which, granted, is not very much at all, and why would it be- I do recall a “Laugh. Dance. Nurse” shirt that was specially created and demonstrated, by you, on your show.

I’m nearly certain that you were unaware of the content of the ads on the Ellen website and I hope I haven’t just opened a can of worms, created job losses or workplace violence. (Thankfully, I highly doubt this as my Blog has yet to reach its maximum influential potential.)

For all of October, we wear pink, we buy pink, we see the world through pink-colored glasses. We support the boob. And, don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing and worthy cause.  Let’s also support the boob in all its original, milk-making glory.

Sincerely,

Katie

Today’s reason #19: Number one on my bucket list: Tickets to the Ellen show.

I’d like to take the marketing execs at Cow & Gate and smack them upside the head. Where do they get off advertising their formula with the slogan

Trust Cow & Gate…because healthy babies are happy babies

FFS, argh and argh again. And rollercoaster, shame on you for sending me such advertising in my email, have you no respect for the International Code at all?

And I’m sorry but who is uploading their babies to be used by a formula company for advertising purposes? There are babies on the site younger than 6 months, but of course it’s not formula advertising, it’s a search for Ireland’s happiest baby, isn’t it? And OMG if I upload my baby I could even win a maternity shirt or baby hat, isn’t that cool. Oh, it is too infuriating.

Rant over, there’s no point really is there. These people have infinite resources to throw at circumventing the Code and our ridiculously weak advertising laws, as long as they don’t actually say “Buy our formula for your newborn” every thing is legal.

So far on Irish forums, we have seen C&G advertising their “baby club” with the slogan “Your newborn’s tummy is only the size of an eggcup” but that was ok, because it was not an ad for formula, it was an ad for a “Baby club”. Okaayyyyyy.

And we had SMA actually sponsoring the entire Mums to be section on rollercoaster.ie, but the FSAI advised that they could do nothing as SMA was just advertising their brand not a specific formula product, gosh if there was ever a loophole that’s a loophole, their brand is predominantly baby formula, duh! Hmmm….

And that C&G laughing babies ad, again perfectly legal according to the FSAI who did admit that

…Your concerns in respect to advertising of follow-on formulae and its impact on breastfeeding are shared by the FSAI. These concerns are supported by recent surveys carried out by the FSAI and also in the U.K, which appear to show that consumers do not differentiate between advertising of infant formulae and follow-on formulae….

And most recently, Nestlé have started sponsoring Childline, at a coincidental time when they are planning to relaunch their formula into the UK market, Nestlé who had this gem to share about the China formula contamination

“All our products are 100 percent safe…Sales in China are rather being favoured,” Peter Brabeck-Letmathe told reporters in India’s capital, when asked whether the scandal would affect the company’s business.

“It’s rather positive than negative,” Brabeck said.

Nice.

Of course, many parents choose to formula feed, this is not an attack on them. It is important that they are given full, unbiased information on all the options available, but there is one source of this information that is shockingly unreliable, and that is the formula companies themselves, each of whom after all is a business, out to make a profit and convince you, the consumer, that their product is best. False advertising and exaggerated claims of wonderfulness should have no place on baby formula, it’s not right and we really shouldn’t stand for it.

There are many groups worldwide campaigning for more widespread and robust adoption of the International Code, Baby Milk Action, Baby Feeding Law Group & IBFAN are good starting points to learn more. In the meantime, complaining to the relevant authorities (FSAI in Ireland, ASA in the UK) is about all we can do, if they get enough complaints they might take notice, or more than likely, they won’t take notice but at least they’ll have to deal with the complaints!

And if you think this is all storm-in-a-teacup type complaining by “militant” (how I hate that phrase) breastfeeding mums, please take a few minutes to download & look through some of the reports on formula advertising that have been published by Baby Milk Action, it is eye-opening reading. It’s something all parents should be concerned about, regardless of how they choose to feed their babies.

disclaimer: this is not an attack on parents who formula-feed, this is about the companies involved and their often-illegal claims & advertising methods!

I’m passionate about helping other women to breastfeed for many reasons.

First of all, I strongly believe that, all other things being equal, it’s best for babies and for their mothers to have and give breastmilk.

But I also strongly believe that there’s not enough information out there for women to make an informed choice without doing their own research. Healthcare professionals are busy, often have limited knowledge themselves and without knowing where to look, or what to expect, it’s hard to know what you should be researching.

I believe that the UK society isn’t geared up for breastfeeding, certainly not past the first few weeks, and I think that it’s criminal that 90% of women who stop breastfeeding in the first six weeks of their baby’s life do so against their wishes. The fact that only 1 in 4 babies is having any breastmilk at all at six months and more than 90% of babies have formula at one stage or another also demonstrates how ingrained giving formula is.

Formula manufacturers spend almost £20 per newborn baby marketing their product. The Government spends about 80p per baby marketing breastfeeding. So I’m not sure that anyone can complain that breastfeeding is “pushed” on them. And this brings me to what often irritates me about this whole debate – yes, I breastfeed, yes, I support other women to breastfeed where I can, but I don’t do it for any reason other than that I feel that women often get a raw deal with breastfeeding support in this country and if I can help stop that, in some small way, then I will feel quite happy about that, because breastfeeding, when it’s going well, is a really nice thing to do.

But the implication is so often that for some reason I and other supporters of breastfeeding are trying to make women who feed formula feel bad, or wrong in some way.

I have nothing against formula or women who feed their babies with formula. I do wish that the breastfeeding campaign had the spending power of the formula companies, definitely.

I object to formula being advertised for many reasons, not least because the adverts don’t actually tell you anything useful and I don’t think that’s helpful to a woman trying to choose the best nutrition for her baby.

What I would like to see is a total ban on formula advertising (including in professional journals – in fact, especially in professional journals), follow-on and growing up milk banned (they are unnecessary products) and, in my ideal world, all midwives, health visitors, paediatricians, GPs and any other healthcare professional who has contact with babies to have full training on all things breastfeeding.

I would also like to see more information for mothers about the normal course of breastfeeding and give them the confidence to diagnose their own breastfeeding “hiccups” without telling them they ought to top up with formula at the slightest sign of a dodgy weigh-in one week, or stop breastfeeding if they need to take antibiotics of antidepressants, as well as the knowledge of when a problem needs extra help from a professional (such as with a severe case of mastitis or thrush).

Also, if workplaces provided better facilities for women to express and store their expressed milk and there was more information about how to manage working and breastfeeding, more women would have the confidence to start breastfeeding – so often I hear women say there’s not much point doing it, since they’ll have to give formula when they go back to work – I do realise it’s not always possible to keep breastfeeding once you return to work, given the nature of some employment, but more women than currently do would be capable of it, given the right support and knowledge.

What I really object to is this spurious argument that somehow by allowing formula advertising to continue, you’re helping women have a choice, when, in fact, all you’re doing is making very sure the formula manufacturers can use their rather large budget and their very sneaky tactics to undermine women at their most vulnerable time.

But mostly, what I really want, is for women to be able to make decisions they’re comfortable with, based on up-to-date information. I do get very sad reading wistful “I wish I’d known then what I know now” accounts. I don’t want women to regret anything about the early days with their babies – and that 90% figure bothers me greatly, because that’s a lot of regret.

A microscopic glimmer of positive out of the Chinese milk tragedy…  But it’s not just a Chinese thing – whilst other countries don’t tend to put melamine in their milk, don’t imagine for one moment that formula is 100% safe, wherever in the world you are.

When you breastfeed, you control the milk production – from the beginning of the process to the end.  You know what you eat, you know what your baby eats.  You’re not reliant on a multinational who, chances are, will be putting profit ahead of ideal.  Of course, formula manufacturers don’t want to kill the end user of their product – that would be commercial suicide, if it was to happen on a regular basis.  However, formula can and does kill babies, worldwide.  Problems such as enterobacter sakazakii and salmonella, which can be found in powdered formula (one study found it in 14% of samples taken), is seemingly considered by the industry to be a manageable risk.  Tell that to the babies it affects – mortality rates for babies who succumb to this infection are between 20 and 50% – and that doesn’t include the babies who are left permanently disabled by it.  And that’s something that kills babies in developed countries – I’ve not even touched on

Before you panic, the risk of these bugs can be minimised by either using ready-to-feed cartons or by making up formula with recently-boiled water (no less than 70 degrees) and discarding any your baby doesn’t drink within an hour.  But the fact remains that these fluffy companies, the ones that tell you, with cutesy slogans (SMA’s “Love the milk you give”, Aptamil’s “Inspired by breastmilk” and “Best infant milk” and Cow & Gate’s “Complete nutrition”) and pictures of teddies and ducks, are NOT there to help you, they are there to make money.  There is no mention on the packs that infant formula isn’t sterile, not one of them explains the reason you need to use water of no less than 70 degrees to reconstitute the formula and their websites and marketing material frequently undermine breastfeeding – in fact, the very existence of any of it by definition undermines breastfeeding.

This is why I support calls by Baby Milk Action for all advertising of infant formula to cease.  Advertising doesn’t tell us anything useful about the product, which in turn doesn’t allow parents to make informed choices about what they’re feeding their babies.  I know many people who visit this site find their way here because they’re feeling guilty about feeding their babies formula (I see the search engine terms people use to land on this site).  If formula wasn’t advertised, many people say this guilt would increase, but I see it differently.

One of the things you do when you’re pregnant, particularly for the first time, is read pregnancy and birth magazines.  In these magazines are adverts for formula and related products (bottles, teats, sterilisers, etc).  OK, fair enough, free country.  However, the very presence of those adverts affects the content of the magazines.  After all, as a magazine editor, do you bite the hand that feeds you by writing articles with a “these are the risks of formula feeding” tone?  Or do you write “balanced” articles, ignoring the fact that you’re comparing apples with oranges when you do a comparison of breastmilk and formula?  In fact, even apples and oranges aren’t a decent analogy – breastmilk is a living substance that alters in response to your baby’s needs throughout the feed, throughout the day, depending on the weather, the age of your baby, etc.  Formula is the same stuff, whether you feed it on day one or day 365 or day 700 to your baby.  It contains nothing living.  It tastes identical at every feed.  But you’ll never see that in a baby magazine…

I’m going to post this, then revisit it when other things occur to me and edit it, I think!

I got a reply from the FSAI (Food Safety Authority of Ireland) today to my recent Cow & Gate complaint. And just in case I felt even a little bit special and listened-to, I soon discovered that many of my online buddies got the exact same, word-for-word, reply today. And it doesn’t really say much, what do you think? I’ve bolded the bits I think are especially interesting…

Thank you for your e-mail of complaint in respect to the current Cow and Gate advertisement for follow-on formula. The FSAI supports the National Breast Feeding Policy and recognizes the importance of breastfeeding in public health.

Infant formulae are breast-milk substitutes for infants in good health during the first four to six months of life and are designed to satisfy all the nutritional requirements of infants of this age. Follow-on formulae are intended for children over this age and as such form part of an increasingly diverse diet.

Although there are stringent regulations in respect to the advertising of infant formula these do not apply to follow on formula as long as it provides appropriate information the use of the product and does not discourage breast feeding.

Your concerns in respect to advertising of follow-on formulae and its impact on breastfeeding are shared by the FSAI. These concerns are supported by recent surveys carried out by the FSAI and also in the U.K, which appear to show that consumers do not differentiate between advertising of infant formulae and follow-on formulae. While further work is needed to investigate these concerns, the FSAI does not advocate the showing of advertisements which would serve to undermine a woman’s wish to breastfeed or National policy on the promotion of breastfeeding.

In addition to current regulation the World Health Organization’s International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes provides more rigorous standards and many individuals and organizations have signed up to these on a voluntary basis. The FSAI continues to work with industry with the objective of achieving best practice in this area.

The FSAI has considered the issues raised in your letter and in the first instance will write to the company seeking a response to these concerns.

So does that say “we agree with your complaint, surveys agree on how misleading follow-on formula advertising is and yet all we are going to do is write to Cow & Gate and ask them nicely for their opinion?” or am I reading it wrong? And I’m fairly sure that the industry’s concept of “best practice” would differ significantly from the WHO’s! Hmmmm….

Ah well, we shall keep on complaining! And supporting the groups that put in so much effort to highlight these issues and push for legislation changes, such as Baby Milk Action & The Baby Feeding Law Group in the UK. Why not pop over to Baby Milk Action and buy something nice from their store, they have t-shirts, mugs, fridge magnets, calendars and lots, lots more – you might find some lovely Christmas presents there!

disclaimer: this is not an attack on parents who bottle-feed, this is about the companies involved and their often-illegal claims & advertising methods!

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I’m sure most of you folks in the UK & Ireland have seen Cow & Gate’s latest tv advertisement with the laughing babies. It’s on YouTube if you haven’t (is everything in the world on YouTube now one wonders?). It’s been around for a few weeks now, but we don’t have broadcast tv so I only saw it last week.

Basically, it’s more of the same, only now Cow & Gate are essentially making a mockery of all the known facts about formula feeding. Formula fed babies are more likely to experience tummy problems, catch more bugs & experience a range of health issues which breastfed babies are not as susceptible to.

This ad is using “idealising imagery” to push C&G’s formula and with all the lines “Do I look like my tummy’s unhappy” etc. along with the voiceover is implying that formula is best for babies.

Now I realise they are advertising their Follow-On formula which, although it is nearly identical in packaging to the their newborn formula, is allowed under Irish Law, but if you watch this ad I think you’ll agree some of these babies look very young, and very close to the 6 month threshold. And we all know that Follow-On milk was only created to circumvent the ban on advertising formula for newborns.

These kinds of formula ads perpetuate the idea that formula is as good as breastmilk, it’s not, and it should not be allowed to be marketed as such. This type of advertisement is not a source of reliable information for parents, it is more akin to a Coke or Pepsi ad, trying to sell their brand based on a feel-good factor.

The argument that parents need advertising in order to be informed consumers just doesn’t wash, especially when it comes to formula, have a look at Baby Milk Action’s analysis of the claims of the major formula brands.

Cow & Gate are clearly doing what all of the formula companies are doing and are skirting around our insanely weak formula advertising laws. Do you remember the recent SMA ads that were on a popular Irish parenting forum? The FSAI were unable to stop those ads as despite the fact that they were targeting pregnant women, they made no mention of the word “formula”, so the ads were ok!

Anyway, if you haven’t done so already, please take a minute to watch the ad and pop an email to your relevant advertising standards group to complain. In Ireland this is the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (The FSAI handles all issues to do with formula advertising in Ireland) and in the UK it’s the Advertising Standards Authority.

The FSAI responded to my complaint with the following:

Thank you for contacting the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.  We have received other complaints regarding the Cow & Gate advertisement and are currently looking into this.  We will get back to you as soon as the matter has been reviewed.

In the UK, the Baby Feeding Law Group is actively monitoring the marketing practices of the various formula companies. Their most recent report was in May 2008, and is well worth a read (pdf).

As well as lodging an official complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority, the BFLG asks people to let them know about dubious formula marketing through their monitoring page.

The BFLG is coordinated by Baby Milk Action who are currently pursuing a complaint about this ad with the Advertising Standards Authority and Trading Standards in the UK.

This is all an uphill struggle, the formula companies have massive advertising budgets and are constantly skirting around any new restrictions, just think of SMA’s logo change last year!

If you’re reading this and wondering what all the fuss is about, please pop on over to IBFAN’s website and read their guide to the International Code, both Ireland and the UK’s laws are based on extremely watered-down versions of this Code.

Still though, a watered-down version of the code is at least a starting point, have a look here for some advertising from the US, which has no such restrictions, it is absolutely astonishing the claims that are made over there!

I’ll keep you all posted if I hear anything more from the FSAI, hopefully if enough people complain about these ads, they may be eventually inclined to strengthen the laws here!

disclaimer: this is not an attack on parents who bottle-feed, this is about the companies involved and their often-illegal claims & advertising methods!

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