Baby Milk Action - The Nestle Boycott

http://www.babymilkaction.org/pages/boycott.html



This page tells you about the Nestlé boycott and the different ways you can support it. Bookmark this page for its useful links.

Nestlé is targeted with the boycott because monitoring conducted by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) finds it to be responsible for more violations of the World Health Assembly marketing requirements for baby foods than any other company (see the codewatch section for profiles of the different companies to target their malpractice).

As UNICEF has said:

"Marketing practices that undermine breastfeeding are potentially hazardous wherever they are pursued: in the developing world, WHO estimates that some 1.5 million children die each year because they are not adequately breastfed. These facts are not in dispute."

Although Nestlé does dispute the facts. See the Your Questions Answered section for responses to Nestlé's denials and deception. The boycott will continue until Nestlé accepts and complies with Baby Milk Action's four-point plan for saving infant lives and ultimately ending the boycott.

Formula feeding and early puberty

Formula feeding and early puberty



The Breast Cancer Fund commissioned ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber to write The Falling Age of Puberty, the first comprehensive review of the literature on the timing of puberty to help us better understand this phenomenon so we can protect our daughters health.

http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=3266509

Excerpted from the report:

Several studies show that formula-fed infants have higher body fat than breastfed babies, a difference that persists into adolescence. Breastfed infants tend to self-regulate their energy intake and are less likely to overeat (Novotny, 2003). Formula feeding in infancy
also alters lipid metabolism in ways that have life-long consequences.


Individuals who were formula-fed in infancy have higher blood cholesterol levels in adulthood (Bergstrom, 1995). A recent national study of overweight among three-year-olds found that prolonged bottle-feeding was an important predictor of childhood obesity (Kimbro, 2007). There are deep racial disparities in breastfeeding rates among U.S. mothers. In 2004, 71.5 percent of U.S. white infants were ever breastfed, as compared to only 50.1 percent of U.S. black infants. Differences between black and white breastfeeding rates existed within most socio-economic subgroups studied (Centers for Disease Control, 2006).

Is formula feeding a risk factor for early puberty? Only one study has pursued this question directly. In an investigation of 300 girls in Hawaii, those who were formula-fed as infants deposited more fat as adolescents and reached menarche significantly sooner (Novotny, 2003). Supporting evidence for this study comes from the veterinary literature. In the U.S. dairy industry, precocious puberty among heifers is a desirable outcome. It is accomplished by early weaning of infants followed by confinement and continuous feeding of a high-calorie diet (Gasser, 2006). These feeding practices are roughly mimicked by many human families in the United States, which has the lowest rate of breastfeeding in the developed world and the highest rate of childhood obesity.

…………………….

CONCLUSIONS


The contribution of formula feeding on pubertal timing is a critical question that deserves further study. Breastfeeding appears to protect against early sexual maturation in two ways: certainly because it contributes fewer calories during infancy; and, quite possibly, because it contain hormones and other growth factors that may program the development of the HPG axis in ways that inhibit its premature activation. Lower rates of breastfeeding in black families may partially explain the earlier maturation of U.S. black girls when compared to whites. Cultural and economic barriers to breastfeeding within communities of color need to be identified and addressed.


http://www.ibfan.org/site2005/Pages/article.php?art_id=501&iui=1

Mothers challenge taboo at 'Big Breastfeed' demo

Mothers challenge taboo at 'Big Breastfeed' demo

(AFP)
Updated: 2006-10-23 16:18

PARIS - One hundred young mothers gathered to breastfeed their babies in central Paris afternoon to campaign against the taboo on nursing in public.

"There are lots of prejudices against breastfeeding, especially in professional environments," said Marie-France Astoin, coordinator for the Big Breastfeed demonstration outside Paris's Sainte Eustache church, one of several taking place simultaneously in France's major cities.

Mothers breastfeed their babies in Paris during a gathering to show that breasfeeding still exist in France. [AFP]

Astoin decried France's level of breastfeeding, which at around 50 percent, is the lowest in Europe.

During the World Health Organisation's International Breastfeeding Week, the UN body and partner organisations are trying to promote mother's milk as a newborn's best defence against diarrhoea and respiratory infection.

"It's not at all a new feminist fight," said Monica, mother of Raphael.

"Nothing beats a mother's milk, it's natural, so why give something artificial in its place?"

Nearby, a young father ambled past wearing a placard marked "breast is best".

The Big Breastfeed movement kicked off in Manilla, the Philippines, six months ago, where Unicef gathered 5,000 mothers with their babies in an attempt to beat the world record for simultaneous nursing.

"The photo of this gathering has travelled around the world and a young woman from (the southern French port city) Marseille, Perle Hugot, decided to do the same thing here," said Astoin.

I just have to say that this is great! And isn't that sling in the very front right gorgeous!