I am now 4 weeks into my new job as a LC coordinator in a community  
hospital.  This week I was informed that there was a "free" lunch available  from the 
Ross rep in our lounge.  I took the opportunity to meet with him  (I had my 
own lunch).  He was just there to give out pens and other items  with the Ross 
products on them for staff to have.
He went on to say how he thinks breastfeeding is important and that he can  
offer me any breastfeeding material I wanted.  I told him that I would  never 
want any literature from him.  He asked me to at least look it over  and I told 
him to keep it.  I told him that his bottom line was to have  mothers buy his 
product and he admitted (in front of a room of staff) that if a  mother could 
not breastfeed that he would like her to use his product.
The discussion went onto the diaper bag.  Is everyone aware that the  formula 
companies now have a seal on their bags that are not to be broken prior  to 
giving it to mothers?  They are getting wise to some hospitals emptying  out 
the contents and then handing the bags to mothers.  Anyway, he stated  that the 
sample of formula in a "breastfeeding" bag has a sign on it instructing  the 
mother not to use until she contact her health care provider first.   Now, come 
on, is that for real?!  What mother is going to do this?   Very few and they 
know it.  When staff asked him about BFH that do not give  out bags he smiled 
and said that the mothers are getting formula sent to them  from other sources 
so the company is not worried.  This is where we need to  be vigilant in 
teaching mothers that any time they give any  personal information out prenatally 
this can then be sold to many  companies.  :-(
He went on to talk about how they have Dr. Meeks book to give to  mothers.  
He implied that they had the auther's permission  to give these books out to 
hospitals to then give to mothers and that this was  such an important thing for 
all breastfeeding mothers to have.  I pointed  out that it was not Dr. Meeks 
who gave permission to give out her book with Ross  on the front and back of 
the book.  He said the AAP gave them  permission.  I said sure after Ross gave 
them big bucks for the book.   I then asked him how does he get a book he 
wants.  He finally said at a  book store.  That was my point exactly.  There are 
many wonderful  books that we can guide mothers to if they would like to have 
the  reference.  What the Ross rep wants the staff and mothers to think is that 
 to breastfeed, one needs lots of literature and help otherwise it is just 
too  difficult.  Whereas formula feeding is just so simple, easy and almost as  
good as breast milk.
Here comes the zinger -- he told me that Ross has bought up a bunch of  Tom 
Hale's books and offering them to hospitals!  He asked if I wanted  any.  I 
said we were just fine and if I wanted more I would buy them.   Is Tom aware of 
this?
As he left and asked me if there is anything he could do for me, I said I  
would like him to bring literature on how to bottle feed.  This would  include 
not over feeding, proper preparation of formula, using feeding cues,  obesity 
and reflux.  He smiled.  I am not holding my breath on getting  this literature 
but everytime he comes around I will remind him and keep him on  that subject 
only.
I feel like Daniel against the giant.
Ann Perry, RN IBCLC
Boston, MA

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html