The World Health Organization was working on a resolution to encourage breast-feeding and to have governments pledge to educate their people on how it's better than formulas. Not that our delegation would care, but there is a lot of science behind the preference for mothering like nature. Ecuador planned to sponsor the resolution. Whoops, forgot that American companies make infant formulas.
Our delegation calmly explained:
The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced.
Fortunately for the world babies, the Russians stepped in and sponsored the resolution. It passed after the U.S. ran out of stalling tactics.
As long as it's Russia, what can we say? Russia can invade Ukraine. It can mess with our elections. It can kill people in England. But nothing will stop our president from loving its president.
Certainly not a double-cross on infant formulas.
Yes, American companies make infant forumla. And sales are down in the US and Europe.
ReplyDeleteWhat a weird thing to try to block. I can only think Anne is right.
ReplyDeleteStill, I hate to see formula demonized. Some women (adoptive mothers, women in famine areas, women who work crappy service jobs and have no control over their schedules and a max of six weeks unpaid maternity leave) can't breast feed.
If we gave mother's a year's paid leave, breast feeding would be an easier sell.
No way was I going to do it when I spent most of my maternity leave looking for a new job because Raber had lost his.
Jean, I agree with you, I hate to see formula demonized. I breast fed both of our children for a year each. At that time it was kind of counter-culture. But as usual, the pendulum is swinging too far the other way. My mom got a bad infection when she was trying to breastfeed me, and elected to go with formula after that. Back then it was the homemade kind with Carnation milk and Karo syrup. But we all turned out okay. Just talking to my daughter in law and nieces, the hospitals are pushing breastfeeding on everyone, even in the cases like you mention where it's not going to work out. I've tuned in to some Facebook posts on the subject, and there's some people who brook no discussion, it's like you're a failure as a mother if you bottle feed.
DeleteOf course I realize its different in places where there is no refrigeration or clean water. Not to mention they can't afford formula. There it really can be a matter of life and death. So I don't understand why our administration would work against the WHO resolution, except that it had made a policy of working against of working against any kind of international cooperation. Too bad they have to get shamed by the Russians into doing the right thing.
Wish there was an edit function for comments. It should have read "...except that it has made a policy of working against any kind of international cooperation."
DeleteMy wife tells me we are trying to boycott Nestles dating from a time years ago when they were caught on camera pushing formula at new mothers while they were still in hospitals in countries where the water was sketchy at best. She also says it is amazing how many American products we used to buy are owned by Nestles -- they are Swiss, I guess.
DeleteHer problem is not formulas, which she concedes some women need to use, but the manufacturers following their capitalism-given right to exploit and abuse the poor.
So doesn't Nestle sell enough tea, coffee, and candy bars that they don't need to use exploitive marketing tactics to push formula in the developing world?
DeleteBreast feeding vs. Formula is not an issue for me but it really shows where this country stands on any health issue. On any issue. With the corporations! And it's not just the Repubs.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the story I read, the resolution does not condemn formula everywhere at all times. It instead seeks to educate women everywhere (especially in the developing countries) about the health benefits of breastfeeding for the babies. That message has gotten through loud and clear in the US and Europe - as some have noted, it's become almost an extreme and many young women believe that if they can't breastfeed for one reason or another, that they are "failures". Unfortunately, many third world women think that formula feeding is more "advanced" and "modern" and adopt it even though it is expensive, and, in areas without good refrigeration and pure water, can even represent a threat to babies' well being. Since sales of formula in N. America, Europe and other developed countries have fallen in the last few years, while rising in the developing world, the manufacturers may be anxious to discourage women in the developing world from breastfeeding, since those countries right now represent their only source of rising sales.
ReplyDeleteThreatening to withhold aid from developing countries who wanted to sponsor the resolution is another horrible example of the abuse of power used by this administration to boost corporate profits at the expense of the poor and at the expense of "best practices" in maternal-child health care.
My oldest son spent 10 days in hospital after he was born. Although I tried breastfeeding him, it didn't work out. I was glad that formula was available. I had better luck with the other two.
But the opposition from the US isn't about what is best for babies.
It's all about the money.
Yes, Tom. The nestle boycott continues in our house over their long-ago behavior of pushing formula in countries where the water was deadly for babies! I do think they conceded the point years ago, still we boycott (and they were a Swiss company back then. Shame!
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, there is nothing quite so boring as a breast-feeding enthusiast bullying and bragging.
Let's consider this: Trump is opposed to breast-feeding babies because he dreads its interference with their true purpose...
ReplyDeleteLOL! I can believe that.
DeleteDidn't he once say something like that to either the New York Times or the Daily News? It's a vague memory.
DeleteTrump was in a deposition about a failed real estate deal with lawyer Elizabeth Beck. She requested a break so that she could breastfeed (or pump, I forget which it was). He and his legal counsel didn't want to break, but Ms. Beck prevailed. Trump's remark to her was, "You're disgusting!" He was probably also mad if he wasn't "winning". His modus operandi is always to fling some poo if he is getting the worst of a dispute.
DeleteI don't think we buy anything from Nestles. But who knows. I guess I'll have to look at labels. I was not aware of their hard-sell tactics.
ReplyDeleteWe got a big bag from the hospital guild with diapers, formula, coupons, a blanket, and a guide to infant day care providers, and some scary stuff about SIDS and car seats. I swapped f formula for diaper coupons with the nursing mothers in the "rocker room," where you were supposed to take the baby for family visits so as not to bother your roommate.
A very nice older nurse gave me the basics on bathing, diapering, feeding schedules, naps, cord care, etc.
Still astounded that they let us take the baby home without supervision, formula or not. We were SO stupid.
Jean, I was big sister to 4 sibs, and had a lot of hands-on with the youngest one. But I was still stupid when our oldest was born. That 24/7 thing is pretty intense, nothing prepares you for that. And even though we followed accepted care standards at the time, a lot of things changed later. It was supposed to be better to lay babies on their stomach, which is a big no-no now. We brought the baby home from the hospital with me holding him, no car seat. And blankets. Everybody gave us blankets for a gift. Now they say they're a danger. Its a wonder he survived.
DeleteI said, tongue in cheek, to my husband a while back, I'm glad we had kids before they got so delicate.
DeleteAnd baby boomers were tougher still, Katherine. I saw my feet bones on a Buster Brown fluoroscope. I was such a good child patient, my dentist rewarded me with a capsule of mercury which I promptly opened at home and played with until it evaporated. Then there were those toys made from sharp metal designed to hurt and maim. "Don't do this at home." You gotta be kidding. Such fun.
Delete"I was such a good child patient, my dentist rewarded me with a capsule of mercury which I promptly opened at home and played with until it evaporated. "
DeleteThat is very funny!
Was it a Buster Brown Fluoroscope? Didn't know that.
DeleteI spent many happy hours watching my feet, wiggling toes, etc., while my mother shopped for shoes. The salesman would say, "Now little girl, that's not a toy." Of course, it wasn't a toy; it was a wonderful piece of scientific equipment for looking at bones, which you couldn't otherwise see.
So far, my feet haven't fallen off--which is what he predicted if I kept sticking my feet in the opening and pressing the button. But I'm still young.
I'm pretty sure it was Buster Brown, Peggy. Not sure if they had exclusive rights to irradiate the kiddies. It'll take a lot more than a few x-rays to take us out.
DeleteWhat with our pre-fifties strontium-free bones.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAlas, I was born in 1954, so plenty of strontium. Plus I lived about two miles from where they made Agent Orange and napalm, elements that are now suspected causes of the blood cancer I share with many Vietnam Era veterans.
DeleteGood ol' Dow Chemical.
In those pre EPA days, we'd wake up to coal ash all over the window sill. Dow would off-gas the effluence early in the morning, about the time we walked to high school. By the time we got there, our hair reeked of chlorine.
Lord knows what godawful cocktail of horrors The Boy inherited from that.
Mercury. Good times! Our sixth grade teacher used to make a thermometer by pouring a bunch of it into a glass tube. But she would inspect the hands of student helpers to make sure there were no cuts for the mercury to get into.
Safety first!
I confess I'd never heard of fluoroscopes nor seen them in use at shoe stores, but as this is the Information Age, info was a click or so away. Seems the shoe salespersons were exposed to radiation all day so the industry got rid of them:
Deletehttps://americacomesalive.com/2016/09/06/x-ray-shoe-fitting-machine/
From the article:
"IN 1946 the American Standards Association established a “safe standard” for X-ray use for the feet. It specified that a person should be exposed to no more than 2R (röntgen) in a 5-second exposure. This ruling dampened the enthusiasm of manufacturers. Going forward, they knew they would be subject to a regulatory process.
"A study done in Detroit in 1948 indicated that the exposure rate to feet was more generally 16-75 R per minute. But the exposure rate to employees was much higher because of the exposure day after day to scatter or leakage from the machine day after day. The individual was probably not harmed by an occasional step into the fluoroscope but the sales people were receiving a substantial amount because of leaking cabinets.
"In the early 1950s, professional medical associations issued healthy warnings about exposure. Manufacturers became increasingly worried, and shoe store owners knew it was time to get rid of them.
"In 1957, Pennsylvania became the first state to ban the machines. By the mid-1960s, most stores in the U.S. no longer had them. Today there are a few on display in museums."