Tommy G. Thompson, Secretary
Department of Health & Human Services
200 Independence Avenue. SW
Washington. DC 20201

Dear Secretary Thompson:

It is my understanding that formula manufacturers have complained that 
the Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign is critical of infant formula, and 
are petitioning to have the Campaign modified to suit their own agenda. 
  Formula manufacturers would prefer to have information about the risks 
of formula withheld from the public.

The U.S. Government has been promoting breastfeeding for over thirty 
years.  In 1984, C. Everett Koop, MD, ScD, US Surgeon General said, 
““We know that breastfeeding gives babies complete nutrition plus 
immunological benefits to launch them on a healthy life. Breastfeeding 
also provides its particular benefits at low cost.”   In 2001,  David 
Satcher, MD, US Surgeon General  said, “when new or expectant parents 
are not educated about the benefits of breastfeeding, that’s a 
community responsibility.”

We have been using the term “benefits of breastfeeding” for three 
consecutive ten-year Healthy People goals, and yet we have never 
reached even the minimum breastfeeding recommendations—not in 1990, not 
in 2000, and at the present rate, we will not in 2010. Talking about 
the “benefits” of breastfeeding may be inoffensive to all, but it is 
also ineffective.

The formula companies like the disingenuous approach of “breast is 
best,” because it serves them well, implying that formula is the 
standard by which other methods are measured. While the formula 
manufacturers profit by this misperception, American babies and 
American women do not. We need a sea change in the nation’s attitude 
toward infant feeding, because the common belief that formula feeding 
carries no risk has become a major barrier to breastfeeding, and to 
infant health.

The U.S. government’s report, “The Economic Benefits of Breastfeeding,” 
examined the impact of formula feeding on three childhood illnesses.  
The report concluded that if only we could reach the minimum 
recommendations of the Surgeon General for breastfeeding rates and 
duration, we could save at least $3.6 billion per year—and that on only 
three illnesses. Dr. Miriam Labbok estimates our health care system 
would save at least $2-4 billion per year if we could increase US 
breastfeeding duration alone to as little as twelve weeks out of the 52 
minimum recommended.  Formula is even more expensive than parents 
realize.

Breastfeeding plays a vital role in withstanding illness.  For example: 
  breastfed babies are less than half as likely to be hospitalized for 
RSV as formula fed babies; the difference in RSV morbidity and 
mortality between these two groups is caused by formula feeding.  If, 
as has been estimated based on the three major childhood illnesses, 
formula feeding is responsible for at least 6,000 US deaths annually, 
then formula-feeding is responsible for over one-fifth of our infant 
mortality.  No matter what number one uses, the conclusion is the same: 
  artificial feeding is responsible for illness and death in the U.S.  
The choice carries significant risk.

I urge you not to allow the campaign to be rendered ineffective in the 
interests of the formula industry.  To modify the campaign to “formula 
good, breastmilk better” and thereby withhold what we know about the 
risks of infant formula would be deliberately misleading.  It would 
deny parents the right of informed consent when they choose a feeding 
method. The U.S. government is pledged to support, promote, and protect 
breastfeeding—but not to attempt to perform this service for the 
formula industry at the same time.

Women who are denied the right to breastfeeding by a combination of 
circumstances and cultural barriers, including the withholding of 
information by trusted authorities such as their medical providers and 
their government, are understandably angry.  They are victims of the 
formula industry advertising, and other disinformation campaigns.  We 
can do better for America’s mothers and children.  We can tell the 
truth without equivocation.

Yours truly,



Arly Helm, MS, Nutrition and Food Sciences; IBCLC


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