Udder Matters: The breastfeeding controversy
Posted on June 22, 2007 - Filed Under Healthy Living
Someone once quipped, “Breast milk is better because it’s free, ready to drink and usually comes in attractive containers”.
That position is very likely shared by group of Pinays that staged a rally earlier this week in front of the Supreme Court in support of continuing efforts by the Department of Health to ban the advertising of infant milk formula and to encourage breast feeding. But instead of carrying the usual placards and banners, 21 women bared breasts that were painted with such messages as “Infant formula dangerous” and “God’s milk”.
The demonstration was held just a few hours before the start of a hearing on a petition by milk manufacturers questioning the validity of the 1986 Milk Code that bans infant formula ads.
The milk companies insist that the ad ban contravenes international trade and marketing agreements. However, the Department of Health scored the milk companies for using ads to make false claims about their products . . . including implied possibilities that babies raised on fortified cow’s milk could grow up to become Einsteins and Bethovens. Health Undersecretary Alex Padilla also said that milk manufacturers failed to warn mothers about the risks involved in feeding babies with breast milk substitutes . . . citing international studies showing that formula-fed babies are more prone to various diseases than those who were breastfeed during the first 2 years.
While the brouhaha appears to be local, free-flowing debates on the matter have actually been going in other countries from Australia to the UK where similar bans on baby formula ads have been in place for the past several years.
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