Manufacturers of breast milk substitutes are targeting mothers and health professionals with free gifts and samples, in violation of international codes of practice, in line with new research.
The report by Save the youngsters says marketing campaigns often promote misleading claims in regards to the nutritional advantage of using formula which have no scientific basis. The charity says marketing practices adopted by some manufacturers are a barrier to encouraging more mothers to breastfeed.
The practices violate the international code of selling of breast milk substitutes, which was adopted by the sector Health Assembly in 1981 according to a decline inside the variety of women breastfeeding.
East Asia and the Pacific is seen as a lucrative new marketplace for the child food industry, with the percentage of ladies within the region who breastfeed their babies falling from 45% in 2006 to 29% in 2009. Globally, the newborn food industry is worth about $35bn (£22.6bn) a year, with around $25bn coming from the sale of milk formula for infants.
In a poll of two,400 mothers and 1,200 medical experts in Pakistan, 20% of employees said that they had received gifts and from companies to encourage them to advertise formula, while 11% of mothers said that they had seen or read promotional literature while in hospitals or clinics.
The international code says manufacturers is not going to give samples or gifts to advertise substitutes for breast milk, and health centres shouldn’t be used to advertise them.
“While there’s a recognised need for some infants to be formula-fed now and again, there has long been concern that the selling and promotion activities of a few manufacturers has brought about breast milk substitutes getting used unnecessarily and improperly, ultimately putting children in danger,” says the report Superfood for Babies (pdf), that is officially released on Monday.
The charity is asking on manufacturers to hide no less than a 3rd in their packaging with the health warning that formula is not so good as breast milk. It also wants governments to show the code into law and make sure it’s implemented and monitored.
Breast milk was described because the closest thing there’s to a “silver bullet” to tackle malnutrition and decrease death rates among newborn babies. Save the kids estimates greater than 800,000 deaths might possibly be prevented yearly if infants got breast milk within the first hour of life.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends colostrum, the milk produced on the end of pregnancy, because the ideal food for a newborn baby because it provides key nutrients and boosts immune systems. WHO promotes exclusive breastfeeding of babies for the 1st six months.
But, in addition to criticising the promotion of formula milk, the report cites community and cultural pressures to not breastfeed, a shortage of medical examiners to advise mothers, and shortage of maternity leave and pay as key explanation why some women turn to formula.
According to UN figures, 37% of youngsters globally are exclusively breastfed for the primary six months of life and 43% are breastfed inside the first hour. The realm Health Assembly, the verdict-making body of the WHO, wants by 2025 a minimum of 1/2 under six month olds to be exclusively breastfed.
Some countries have taken huge strides in encouraging more women to breastfeed. Rates in Sri Lanka rose from 17% in 1993 to 76% in 2007, and in Ghana from 7% in 1993 to 63% in 2008. But two-thirds of the 92 million children who’re not exclusively breastfed live in precisely 10 countries – India, China, Nigeria, Indonesia, Philippines, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Democratic Republic of the Congo – seven of that have many of the highest child mortality rates on this planet.
The chief executive of Save the youngsters, Justin Forsyth, said: “Despite the advantages of breastfeeding being well known inside the developed world, and it being a free, natural option to protect a newborn baby, too little attention is being paid to assist mums breastfeed in poorer countries.”
The charity wants the united kingdom government to take advantage of its presidency of the G8 to advertise breastfeeding in its efforts to deal with nutrition and hunger.
