Dear all:

As a counterpoint, I thought I would share with you some experienes with what I consider 
responsible companies.  Again, some of you may have drawn the line further in the sand than I 
did, and feel free to point out what I might have missed.

Case A:  Mom has a condition that has been rarely documented that caused her milk supply to 
plunge at 5-1/2 months with an exclusively breastfeeding baby that coslept and fed ad libitum.  I 
asked for and received the loan of a product from a company within days of my request.  The 
product has no influence on the ultimate outcome of this case.  I think this company's response 
was fabulous.  I did not  write a Public Relations piece about this instance on Lactnet because I 
have not seen others do this on Lactnet, nor will I do so now but I felt the company handled this in 
an excellent manner.  

Case B:  When I worked in International Nutrition, I worked with the equivalent of a company that I 
thought would meet the WHO Code for marketing of vitamin and mineral supplements if such a 
code existed.  Unlike the other companies, they did not donate expired or almost expired 
supplements.  At that time there was some new "miracle" supplement that frequently hit the 
market.  All the other companies were taking the results of one very shaky study and flagrantly 
advertising this product.  The head of the company felt that the research was not clear enough 
and refused to market it until he was assured that it was safe.  

Finally,  I learned a lot about hidden items in budgets when working in International Nutrition.  
Most of us who work in a technical area feel that budgets are a nuisance.  They can actually be 
quite revealing.  Anytime you donate to any not for profit organization or for profit organization, 
look at the annual report that should have a budget.  Those that have a very high overhead rate 
are probably not getting the money where it should be.  Those with a too low overhead rate are 
probably not very effective.  Look at the staff ratios of administrators to field or technical people.  
Again that can be telling.


Susan E. Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

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