I\'m Summer, a mouthy, sarcastic bitch. I\'m passionate about natural birth, long term breastfeeding, and living naturally. I curse too much, love tattoos, and will some day be crushed to death by my book collection. I homeschool, dream of gardening, and swing to the left. 
Breastfed Babies In Developing Countries – World Breastfeeding Week 2009
Since World Breastfeeding Week this year focuses on being prepared for all emergencies I wanted to write a little about what it can mean for infants without access to breastmilk. For some every day is an emergency as poverty, corruption, and environmental disasters ravage their land. When water supplies are tainted, when food is scarce, and when you are only surviving each day being able to breastfeed can be a godsend for your children. Back in 2007 I shared this article
Look at what is happening, right now, in the Philippines. This country has many problems, but one stands out: just 16% of children between four and five months old are exclusively breastfed. This is one of the lowest documented rates on earth, and it has fallen by a third since 1998. As 70% of Filipinos have inadequate access to clean water, the result is a public health disaster. Every year, according to the World Health Organization, some 16,000 Filipino children die as a result of “inappropriate feeding practices”.
These are the deaths caused only by acute results of feeding children with substitutes for breastmilk. A summary of peer-reviewed studies compiled by the campaigning groups Infact and Ibfan suggests that breastfeeding also reduces the incidence of asthma, allergies, childhood cancers, diabetes, coeliac disease, Crohn’s, colitis, poor cognitive development, obesity, cardiovascular disease, ear infections and poor dentition. Switching from bottle to breast could prevent 13% of all childhood deaths – a greater impact than any other measure. Panaceas are rare in medicine, but the mammary gland is one.
Both the government of the Philippines and the United Nations blame the manufacturers of baby formula for much of the decline in breastfeeding. These companies spend over $100 million a year on advertising breastmilk substitutes in the Philippines, which equates to more than half the department of health’s annual budget. Those who appear most susceptible to this advertising are the poor, who are also the most likely to be using contaminated water to make up the feed. Some spend as much as one third of their household income on formula. Powdered milk now accounts for more sales than any other consumer product in the Philippines. Almost all of it is produced by companies based in the rich nations
So what can we do? We being those sitting in our comfortable homes, with access to clean water, and proper health care? Sure we can start by refusing to give our money to the companies that tear down breastfeeding in countries that need it most (I’m looking at you Nestlé).
From the Baby Milk Action blog:
One country facing an emergency is Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries, where 13% of the population is infected with HIV.
In conditions of poverty, infants have a better chance of escaping HIV and being protected from other infections if they are exclusively breastfed. Yet in Malawi, Nestlé is promoting its formula with a logo claiming that it ‘protects’. Formula is very expensive and those that believe the claim that the formula ‘protects’ may well use it alongside breastfeeding – mixed feeding is the worst possible scenario for the transmission of the virus.
So what can we do? I’m asking you honestly here. Other than refusing to spend out money on the companies that put babies at risk, what else can we do? What do you do? What do you wish you could do? What more would you like to see done? Share your ideas, thoughts, concerns, fill this space with ideas for action that we can all do.
I think educating our friends & family about Nestle’s practices, as well as updating ourselves on what products are made by Nestle is a worthwhile effort. I first heard about the nestle boycott when I was in 6th grade nearly 30 years ago, yet I don’t think 10% of Americans know that there is a boycott of Nestle or why. WIC in Massachusetts as well as most other states has an exclusive contract with Nestle & only provides Good Start formula vouchers- which just makes me crazy & I could rant for hours on that one.
Summer Reply:
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:01 pm
I was on WIC for a while and while here various formulas were offered the only juice allowed was Juicy Juice, which is owned by Nestle.
My brother’s gf gets WIC fomula for their baby, and I hate that it’s from nestle! They need to do more to encourage and support breastfeeding before they start dishing out formula. My brothers gf had really low supply, (or just wasn’t eating enough, esp of good foods..not sure) and her pediatrician told her to switch to formula or they’d report her as my nephew was showing signs of failure to thrive at 6 weeks