I'm still in China with my family but thought I would share a conversation
I had last week with some Drs. We were staying in Xuzhou, the city my
daughter comes from. It's a bit of a backwater, in the week we were there I
saw only two non-Chinese, certainly not a tourist place. Anyway, we heard
that they have "English corner" every friday night where people practice
their English so my husband and son and I went along thinking it would be a
good chance to talk to some locals. Well it was interesting, talk about
swamped. Each of us were immediately surrounded by people 5 or 6 deep all
around and the bold would strike up a conversation. It turned out that I
had a group of medical Drs around me, maybe 5 or 6. One of the questions
they asked me concerned what I did for a job. When I described my research
they had more questions for me. They wanted to know "Do you think that
infant formulas are as good as breastfeeding?" "Do you think that science
will ever create a formula that is as good? Why not?" "How long should
women breastfeed for, is 4 months too long?" You can imagine that I enjoyed
these conversations immensely and appreciated their interest in the
subject ;-) They laughed when I told them that they must be sure that their
babies are breastfed. Let hope that that these Drs will be able to
encourage the women that they deal with to breastfeed.
I am currently in Xian. Today I spotted a couple of breaches of the WHO
code, from our favourite Nestle and a Chinese company (giving freebies with
infant formula for <6months). I took photos and got told off for it. They
really do do the cradle to grave and infant formaulas are kept on shelves
with formulas marketed to Pregnant women (Nestle had a lovely one with a
free CD, wonder what that had on it), babies, toddlers, young childre, the
middle aged (or mid senile as mistranslated into Chinglish) and the
elderly. I also sadly saw a woman begging with a little baby with a filthy
bottle beside her :-(
Karleen Gribble
Usually in Australia but currently in China

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