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View Full Version : WSJ Article on BF vs. FF in the Hispanic Population



kfcboston
03-04-2004, 04:42 PM
There's an interesting article on page B1 of today's Wall Street Journal on Nestle's (as in Carnation Good Start) new campaign targeting Hispanic moms. It cites statistics on the rate of BFing in the US broken down by ethnicity, and discusses the factors of ethnicity and income in BFing. And, not surprisingly, as with gambling, the people who can least afford the extra expense of formula (or bets) tend to be the ones who use it more often.

Here's an interesting quote:

"....at the Anaheim baby fair, Rosie Sanchez, who works as a clerk, has formula-fed her two American-born children, and plans to do the same witht he third on the way. 'Women only breastfeed in Latin
America because they can't afford to buy formula,' she says."

This is cited as a result of formula companies' targeted marketing efforts and sparks concern among many medical professionals here in the US, esp. in light of an upcomg public service campaign to promote BF.

If anyone can copy and paste the text here, please do! I don't have access to their site.

sntm
03-04-2004, 05:45 PM
How awful! It's like, "let's take disadvantaged groups and disadvantage them even more."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03

farsk
03-04-2004, 06:42 PM
Hello!

There is very good reason why I have boycotted all Nestle products since I found out that they engage in this practice. I have even written them to tell them of our families boycott and I got back a form letter of how they were in complete compliance with the WHO code. Maybe in the backwards universe are they in compliance, but not here!

Rachels
03-04-2004, 09:24 PM
That's just disgustingly unethical. How do they sleep at night?

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

sntm
03-05-2004, 10:48 AM
Do you have a list of what products are made by Nestle? I know there are hundreds. This is the last straw with me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03

kfcboston
03-05-2004, 03:24 PM
Here you go.

http://www.nestle.com/Html/Brands/index.asp

Imperia
03-05-2004, 03:55 PM
I know people have gotten upset when I compared the formula manufacturers tactics to those of cigarette companies, but honestly, they are slimy, and they try to get babies and mothers hooked on the stuff which isn't good for babies! Nestle has a bad past too, they were one of the companies which gave out free samples of formula to underpriviledged mothers in 3rd world countries and then when once the babies were hooked on formula and the mother's milk had dried up the families could not afford to buy any many of the babies starved to DEATH! This supposedly lead to teh formula companies agreeing they wouldn't do direct marketing anymore...well they still DO! they should be ashamed of themselves. This makes me want to cry; these women could have BF for free, instead they were exploited just so the companies could make a little more money. A lot people don't know about this whole scandal since it happened a number of years ago.

My DH and I had a conversation about this recently in fact, about how they seem to market to the most disadvantaged people. The idea that "only poor people BF" I find frightening. I read something similar as a mention as to why Americans find co-sleeping distatsteful (only poor people need to share a bed). I wish the government would offer women on WIC free LCs instead of free formula, now there is something I would like to see my tax dollars going towards! Just think how much cheaper it would be in the end...a LC is much cheaper than formula for a year, plus the lower costs of medical care for a BF infant etc etc!

Imperia