Not to mention that Nestle has taken out patents on components of human milk
- won't it be great when they own what our bodies produce?

Ingrid 

Ingrid Tilstra
La Leche League Canada Leader
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant


-----Original Message-----
From: Lactation Information and Discussion
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Renee Hefti
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 7:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Bottle Baby Scandal

Greetings fellow Lactnetters:

Have had a couple off - line emails from people saying, "We should cut
Nestle some slack and that they are no longer the "bad boys" they once
were".  Respectfully, these people have had their heads buried in the sand.
What has changed over the years is, that along with continuing all their
marketing tactics of the past, they have become more aggressive, more
unethical, more blatant and they are buying their way into our
organizations, universities, hospitals, health programs, medical schools,
cities, states and governmental departments. 

Nestle have increased their profits dramatically since 1977 but they want to
control "more, more and more!!  Bad news for women trying to breastfeed.
Nestle seems unstoppable but we can lobby our decision makers to be ethical
and say "NO" to Nestle!

35 years later and Nestle is even worse  (The Bottle Baby Scandal, published
in 1977)

        "The Bottle Baby Scandal - Milking the 3rd World for All Its Worth"

        Infant formula manufacturers (Nestle and Bristol-Myers in the
forefront; also Abbot and American Home Products) are pushing their products
on the Third World in order to ensure their continued profit, since the
birthrate in the United States is declining. They rely on exploitive and
deceptive tactics to sell their products. Some of these include: giving free
samples to mothers so their own milk will dry up, leaving them dependent
upon the expensive formulas; enticement toward "modernization and heightened
status" through use of the formulas, as encouraged by their well-financed
media campaigns (which include radio and television spots, calendars,
billboards, and baby contests); telling new mothers that their own milk is
"inappropriate" or may be "unsuccessfully" given to their baby, etc.

        The majority of the Third World mothers wind up watering down the
formulas, using contaminated water (in Chile, an investigation in 1973
revealed a bottle contamination rate of 80 percent), and otherwise
malnourishing and infecting their children because they cannot afford to
administer the formulas in the prescribed way. Parents would have to (and
sometimes do) spend 30-40 percent of their average daily wage to feed their
babies on this (almost always) unnecessary mother's milk substitute.
Malnutrition and denial of natural immunities (which would have been
provided had the mother breast-fed) caused by infant formula feeding account
for 35,000 deaths and untold brain damage in babies of predominantly Third
World countries.

        Meanwhile, the profit margins on infant formulas have been
documented at as high as 72 percent. A billion dollars a year are taken from
the Third World countries from the import of these formulas.

        Teaching, by U.S. and Swiss corporations, of the "repugnance and
backwardness" of breast feeding is accounting for what has been termed
"commerciogenic malnutrition" on a massive scale in Third World countries.
The unethical and shocking impact of this practice makes this story a
nominee for one of the "Ten Best Censored Stories of 1977."

        SOURCES: 

        "The Bottle Baby Scandal -- Milking the Third World for All It's
Worth," by Barbara Garson, Mother Jones magazine, December 1977, pp. 33-44+.

        "Into the Mouths of Babes," by Leah Margulies, Interfaith Center on
Corporate Responsibility, Seven Days magazine, April 19, 1976, pp. 23-24.

     

Renee (Vancouver, Canada)

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