Ban Sought For Ads Of Baby Milk Products Sold In Thailand

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Ban sought for ads of baby milk products

By Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

The Thai Breastfeeding Centre yesterday called on the government to ban the advertising of milk and food products for babies under the age of two. The move comes after the centre discovered that baby food manufacturers were encouraging parents to use their products for newborns and children under the age of two.

"We found that sale representatives from baby milk producers had gone to 20 hospitals and handed out gifts with the company's logo to new parents, encouraging them to use their products," Dr Yupayong Hangchaovanich said.

She was speaking at the three-day National Health Assembly, which kicked off yesterday at the UN building in Bangkok. The event is being attended by more than 1,500 people from 182 health networks nationwide, as well as politicians, health officials and civic groups.

Control over the marketing and promotion of baby milk products was one of the nine main health issues proposed at this year's health assembly. Once the national health commission comes up with a resolution, it will be put to the Cabinet for endorsement and enforced by the related government agencies.

The World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) say that exclusive breastfeeding, with no solid food, formula or water, for at least the first six months offers the best protection for children. After the first six months, mothers can then feed their babies both breast milk and other food for up to two years of age.

However, the rate of breastfeeding has dropped drastically over the past few years, with most mothers using powdered milk to feed their babies. Dr Nipunporn Voramongkol from the Public Health Ministry's Department of Health said baby milk manufacturers were violating the code of marketing by getting their representatives to directly approach new parents.

So far, about Bt20 billion worth of baby milk products have been imported from five international baby food manufacturers, and on average, parents spend about Bt20,000 a year on baby milk products.

Under the new law, Yupayong said, baby milk producers would be prohibited from advertising powdered milk for babies under the age of two. The Public Health Ministry, the Food and Drug Administration as well as independent organisations will also be monitoring marketing and promotion activities of baby milk producers.

-- The Nation 2010-12-16

[ozsamurai]

I concur..... we were almost looked upon as 'parents of neglect' by doctors/nurses when we chose to breastfeed. 'You don't wan't to spend thousands of baht a month for an inferior product?'. We were issued the "induction pack" in hospital, and almost had to force the nurses not to feed him a bottle. It wasn't until we found the Thai Breastfeeding Centre that we gained any support. If any mum's are reading this, look into it, check the dangers of these products, there are lots, not exclusive to the amount of soy bean fillers. Breast is best, its not all roses, but the benefits are enormous, economically, physically, emotionally and health wise for you and the baby.

Oz

[dogleg]

Just add err...Evian.

[asiawatcher]

Best 'law' I have heard - only way to set up your kids' immune systems is by breast milk feeding. The baby milk powder companies need to be constrained from feeding any infant under 6 months old.

[Bagwan]

According to WHO and UNICEF, breast milk is the ideal nourishment – a "super food" – for infants during the first six months of life.It contains all the nutrients, antibodies, hormones and antioxidants that infants need to ward off illnesses and to grow and thrive in childhood. After six months, other foods need to be added to a baby's diet, but mothers can still breastfeed for up to two years and well beyond as long as they still have milk.

Both UN agencies recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, meaning that only breast milk should be fed to babies. No other food or liquid – not even water – is needed during this period.

"In the first six months of life, there is nothing more important that a mother can do for her child than exclusively breastfeed," said Dr. Sopon Mekthon, Deputy Director General of the Department of Health,Ministry of Public Health. "Breast milk is a free and natural gift she should provide to ensure her baby's health."

Edited December 16, 2010 by Bagwan

[Northman061]

I was under the impession everyone understood "Breast is best" for babies?

But lets us not forget, this is a country where Billions is spent on drink advertisments that claim to be able to "Aid clear thinking", "Improve understanding" and will make your child perform "better" at school!!??

Doh!

[scorecard]

I was under the impession everyone understood "Breast is best" for babies?

But lets us not forget, this is a country where Billions is spent on drink advertisments that claim to be able to "Aid clear thinking", "Improve understanding" and will make your child perform "better" at school!!??

Doh!

about two years ago I asked a childrens specialist at the big B in soi Nana about all the claims on the babyfood boxes on the supermarkets shelves, with lots of adverstising like E+D, brain improvement claims etc. etc.

The doctor said, it's bacically all rubbish, 99% of these claims have no basis whatever in properly conducted testing, some is just plain lies etc., and in some cases the claims are printed in gold ink, deliberately because some people buy ust because there is gold writing on the pack.

He also shared that his medical society had been campaiging the Thai Healh Minisry for years to have all this baseless advertising banned, with lots of proof that the calims on the boxes were baseless, untruthful, etc.

He also mentioned that they had made zero progress because of 'big money' lobbying by the manufacturers.

[EdDantes]

It's not so long ago that the west banned the marketing of these products for babies.

Now we've ads for 'growing up milk'...

[Caliguy]

There are women out there that cannot produce any or sufficient amounts of natural breastmilk, so substitutes have to be made.

[ozsamurai]

I don't think anyone is disputing that fact, it was created as a 'back up' or substitute for such women, NOT as a primary nutrition as the advertisers would have you believe. The marketing is so intense it makes women feel as if they are being a poor mother if they don't spend the cash to get the one with the gold lettering. For those who can't breast feed, then there are also much better solutions than half the crap that fills at least a whole aisle in a supermarket (Costs a lot to do that you know).

Oz

[housepainter]

The issue is one of a lack of ethics being applied.

Business has no morality. Hence, the telling of a lie. Goerbels believed if you were going to tell a lie make it a big one.

Hence the nonsense of having babies fed by bottle.

The power of advertising is dangerous and the budget to combat this nonsense will be insignificant compared with the company's advertising budget to sell its product to those for whom it is clearly unsuitable yet intended.

[Thunder26]

I have a daughter and she is almost 2 years old. She was exclusively breastfed until now and I can see the difference. She is by far physically and intellectually more advanced than the kids of her age who were fed with artificial milk.

[cm das]

I'm going to play a little devil's advocate. Of course, breast milk is best. I just don't see the situation as that dire. When my daughter was born in Chiang Mai, the doctors & nurses discussed both breastfeeding & bottle (formula) with my wife. The nursery certainly favored a certain brand of baby formula, but I can't say it was pushed on us. In fact, the first question the doctor asked at checkups was whether my wife was still breastfeeding (she was). I feel that marketers of baby milk products should definitely not have direct, personal access to new mothers. But going so far as to say that these companies cannot advertise at all is taking things too far. If they are producing a legal product, one for which there is a medical need in some cases, they should be able to advertise. It's up to doctors and public health officials to educate new parents. And we should always mistrust the health claims of huge agribusiness corporations. Lastly, I highly doubt some of the figures in the original article. Where is the source for the claim that "most mothers" use formula? And that "on average, parents spend about Bt20,000 a year on baby milk products"? That's an awful lot of money for a great many Thai parents, and even for those who can afford it that means spending almost 1700 Baht per month on formula. Even if my daughter drank formula exclusively, she couldn't drink that much.

[BuddhistDruid]

I have no problem with this as a general policy.

I only request that they not disallow the free samples of formula given out at hospitals and clinics throughout the country. For those of us who must use formula because of insufficient milk production, those samples save us a bunch of money. My wife and I have received at least 3000 baht worth of formula samples from various hospital visits and other engagements. We get twice the samples everyone else gets because we have twins.

I admit that we may be a special case, and I don't really like advertising in general, so I would not be against this law. I am smart enough to do my own research without having advertisers play mind games with me. But free samples need to be excluded from the law. That goes to my straight to my pocketbook.

[BuddhistDruid]

And that "on average, parents spend about Bt20,000 a year on baby milk products"? That's an awful lot of money for a great many Thai parents, and even for those who can afford it that means spending almost 1700 Baht per month on formula. Even if my daughter drank formula exclusively, she couldn't drink that much.

We spend 1200 baht per week on formula for our twins. I think you should redo your math if you believe 1700 baht per month for 1 is out of the question. I suspect only someone who doesn't need to purchase formula would make such an egregiously wrong statement....

[ozsamurai]

I agree you have to be way out of touch with price to think 1700 a lot for formula, it can go well over the 3000 a month quite easily. Have you never noticed the security bands around the packages? Anti theft measures for high ticket items, mums stealing this stuff because they can't afford to buy 'the best' for baby Somchai....

There are 'mother forums' that share/give breast milk away gladly to those in short supply, just go and pick it up, all the free samples you need, the other end of the stick is some women also over produce and it is quite painful unless expressed. In Japan they have now homogenized and packaged it for sale, perhaps this is the way it should be going, helping each other out in a true sense, not paying an inflated price for potential junk.

Oz

[cm das]

I do need to purchase formula for my daughter and I keep good track of all her expenses. Sure I may be a little off but hardly "egregious" or "way out of touch". And even if some folks on here are spending 2000 baht or more per month on formula, I still doubt that parents in Thailand on average spend nearly as much as the article claims.

[ozsamurai]

Again, I don't use formula. My experiences are first hand with my family, who are average Thai and their monthly costs (3 couples). Sister-in-law was duped to thinking formula was the better of the two, now back at work to pay for it. Children develop likes and dislikes to certain product as much as pets do their own brand of food, they are hooking the mum's in with guilt, making the baby perform if it doesn't get its fix, its a vicious cycle. But then again aren't most things in this world..... I just think it should be kept out of child raising, at least wait until they are 4 or 5 to start jamming garbage into them!

Oz

[BuddhistDruid]

I agree you have to be way out of touch with price to think 1700 a lot for formula, it can go well over the 3000 a month quite easily. Have you never noticed the security bands around the packages? Anti theft measures for high ticket items, mums stealing this stuff because they can't afford to buy 'the best' for baby Somchai....

There are 'mother forums' that share/give breast milk away gladly to those in short supply, just go and pick it up, all the free samples you need, the other end of the stick is some women also over produce and it is quite painful unless expressed. In Japan they have now homogenized and packaged it for sale, perhaps this is the way it should be going, helping each other out in a true sense, not paying an inflated price for potential junk.

Oz

We did this for a while. In fact, we met some wonderful people who were quite thrilled to help us out at http://www.thaibreastfeeding.org. However, Thailand has no official milk bank. You will find that the milk is not screened for potential contaminants such as HIV. And we also found that donations by different mothers taste different, and there were some donations which were incredibly difficult to convince the babies to drink.

It is also quite burdensome trying to drive all over Bangkok to find someone who has milk available at the time you need it. When you have twins, the amount of milk required is substantial, and freezer space is limited. The lack of logistics in Thailand for breast milk donations is such that it is very inconvenient, despite the very deeply helpful intentions of those mothers who wish to donate.

And yes, you are correct, everyone who participates in this system donates for free, and we met some wonderful mother's in the process with beautiful children. At some point though, the uncertainty of the whole process just became too much for us, so after we met the 3 month milestone we decided that both we and the children needed some structure we could count on.

Perhaps the government, at the same time they impose the advertising ban, should simultaneously allocate funding for setting up an official breast milk donation center? And also reeducation for some nurses we have come across (particularly maybe a head nurse at the NICU at Chulalongkorn) who don't seem to grasp that the benefits of using donated breast milk far outweigh any potential issues.

[bkkjames]

While we are in the banning mode, let's get rid of all those sugar/junk food ads that are a fixture during children's programmes on tv here.

Next let's hide all the chocolate bars and potato chips behind the counter as your nearest convenience store_only to be sold between 11-2pm, after 5pm.

While we are at it, don't forget to ban....