I have to say that I was a little disappointed after stewing all day through my consultations that 
started at 9 am and the prenatal class that finished at 9:45 pm (after 45 extra minutes of 
questions about the pumping, going back to work issue).  I had expected many more postings and 
cries of outrage over Janice Reynolds post about the changes in UNICEF.

After all those years working in developing countries, the one thing that James Grant had done 
was to set the stage where the rights of infants and young children were firmly established, 
including the primal right to breastfeeding.  HIV has taken a huge toll because it enabled the 
industry to use the excuse of HIV to start marketing in ways that have clearly spilled over into the 
non-HIV population and we now know that exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months is the 
wa to go.  But taking away the support for legislative protection is huge.

Think of the present conditions in New Orleans.  A mix of chemicals and bacteria that are lethal.  
Some of you may think that the environment is less polluted in developing countries. Not true. 
Any large city in any developing country I have visited, except perhaps Niamey in Niger which is a 
sleepy little dusty town with camels roaming down the street, is far more polluted than the worst 
we have in the United States.  I am sure that the slums of most third world countries would be 
equivalent to the present conditions in  New Orleans.  Think of building yourself a shack in New 
Orlens with whatever scraps you could scavenge and then trying to bottle feed your baby 
powdered milk. Voila - that is going to be the basic situation multiplied millions-fold if the 
protection against marketing is withdrawn.  Envision whatever you have watched in the news 
about Katerina after the flooding died down.  The swill swishing through the streets reminds me 
of the slums in Manila - Bangkok - Jakarta - Kinshasa, etc.   Start thinking about bottle feeding 
formula in those conditions all over the globe in third world cities.  That's the scope.

UNICEF is huge. It was the only UN agency that actually implemented interventions and that was 
entirely due to James Grant's work.  WHO basically only does policy and has a few people in each 
country.  UNICEF has huge programs.  If UNICEF withdraws its support, the mortality rates that are 
unacceptably high will sky rocket.

Keep doing what you are doing for Katerina AND please write a letter to UNICEF as well.  While 
you're at it, write to your political representatives and point out how inappropriate it is to have the 
head of UNICEF come from the food industry and cite this particular incident - the withdrawal of 
support for  the WHO code - as an example of why this is a conflict of interest.

Every baby I have held in my arms in those countries that I knew was not going to make it is now 
screaming at me, do something, do something, do something.

Best regards, Susan Burger

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