Manufacturers of baby milk are faced with falling sales and restricted marketing as the UK government introduces recommendations on breastfeeding for the first six months of a baby’s life. Bernice Hurst looks at the controversial subject of advertising breastmilk substitutes, and asks whether manufacturers are ignoring ethics or simply supplying a demand.
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Manufacturers of baby milk, infant formulas, infant milk and first food, to give them their various names, may have blinked and paused for a moment this spring when the UK Department of Health decided to conform to recommendations that babies should be fed exclusively on breast milk for the first six months of their lives. But it didn’t take long for them to think through the potential impact on their sales if mothers chose to stop buying alternative products for several months longer than previously.
Faced with the possibility of falling, or at least postponed, sales and restrictions on marketing that appeared in any way to contradict the guidelines, emphasis is instead placed on the added value of infant milks which make it resemble breast milk.
It is now generally acknowledged that “breast is best” and that babies, whose digestive systems are not fully developed for the first six months of their lives, should be fed exclusively on mother’s milk for at least that long. Indeed, since the WHO/UNICEF International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes was first adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 1981, manufacturers have been required by law to include specific wording on their packs and have been prohibited from very specific forms of promoting their products.
Manufacturers versus consumer watchdogs
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By GlobalDataBut the industry is adept at simultaneously toeing the line and paying lip service to recommendations. Ever since 1981, there has been a tug of war between manufacturers and consumer watchdogs. The classic line taken by marketers has been, yes, breast is best, but it doesn’t suit every mother and child. For those who choose to bottle-feed, we will provide the best possible alternative. So easy was it to exploit loopholes in the original regulations that amendments have been issued every two years since 1982.
According to Baby Milk Action, the British non-profit organisation whose sole aim is the prevention of unethical practices, some companies have never stopped violating the code’s provisions.
Yet, while the WHO and WHA guidelines are implemented worldwide, and packaging and websites are being amended as necessary, there is also widespread acceptance that not all mothers will play by the rules. And if there is demand for safe, breast milk substitutes, preferably fortified with additives that will encourage development, what manufacturer is likely to refuse to supply that demand?
An individual decision
Mothers anxious to return to work rarely postpone that date until their suckling infant is officially old enough to wean. They may hear the advice and read the labels but if they are convinced that a bottle or a few spoonfuls of solids will make their children healthy and intelligent then they are simply going to make their own decisions about when to stop breastfeeding. Personal circumstances and the baby’s weight and hunger will help in making those individual decisions.
Even companies like Baby Organix, which pride themselves on the organic ingredients used for their baby foods, and focuses on babies’ first solids rather than formula milks, does not expect sales to suffer once the latest government advice becomes mandatory. After all, they are mandatory for sellers only, not for buyers.
As a spokeswoman for Baby Organix told just-food.com, mothers of hungry babies are not likely to let them cry while waiting an extra two months to introduce solids. Although the company is poised to change its packaging as soon as the law dictates, they know that each mother will make her own decision based on her baby’s needs and behaviour.
Consumer education
Most people would have thought the government message was clear, concise and unambiguous: “breast is best for six months” as Sarah Boseley, health editor of The Guardian put it.
Response from the Infant and Dietetic Foods Association to the latest guidelines was predictably dubious, however. Rather than being concerned that mothers would adhere to the guidelines and carry on breastfeeding for longer rather than bottle-feeding and/or weaning their children prior to six months, the Association asserts that the guidelines have created confusion through their lack of clarity. Heather Honour, IDFA secretary general, says that calls to manufacturers’ carelines, health visitors and even the Food Standards Agency (FSA) indicate that there is insufficient information for mothers who are not breastfeeding.
“Those who are bottle-feeding their babies don’t know when to wean,” she says. “The new guidelines don’t give mothers as much information as they need if they are not breastfeeding.” This somewhat illogical argument overlooks the fact that simply by addressing different information to mothers who bottle-feed, the Department of Health would automatically be contradicting its own advice that all mothers should be breastfeeding.
Ethical marketing practices?
There is also resistance to a ‘one size fits all’ policy. Some babies are bigger and hungrier than others and need more than milk in order to satisfy them. As long as their welfare can be assured by the addition of ingredients described by Enfamil, for example, as “nutrients important to babies’ mental and visual development”, mothers and their doctors or health visitors should decide whether it is safe and appropriate to substitute bottle for breast or to supplement liquid feeds with solid food.
As to whether more mothers are being influenced by the guidelines, Honour insists that there are no figures available. The IDFA line is that their members provide specialist nutrition products and are encouraged to abide by high manufacturing standards and ethical marketing practices.
All baby milk manufacturers include the requisite warnings and instructions on their labels; they do not promote their products as better than breast milk. What they do is promote their products as acceptable alternatives for mothers who choose to use them.
As with most food policy at the moment, the link must be made between stating it and implementing it, with consumer education and understanding the best route to acceptance.
