It is illegal to advertise the sale of baby formula in accordance to WHO guidelines I think and yeah, it's basically to make it harder for the companies to market it to mums. There are quite heavy penalties for breeching this law, so if you do see it, report it. If you go to the main site you can find the link to onegroup (who sells it) and go from there.
Leesa, the WHO guidelines on marketing of infant formula stipulate that it cannot be advertised. Formula manufacturers in Australia signed a voluntary compliance code that states they will not advertise infant formula.
Unfortunately, this is somewhat ineffectual with the advertising of the very similar toddler formulas (and has anyone noticed that specials seem to pop up in supermarket catalogues all of the time now?). It's also a bit of a furphy in that there are no penalties if they do break the code anyway (sorry Trillian, didn't mean to disagree - but it's true!). Hence the reason the boundaries are being stretched and tested.
Good question Leesa. As the others have said it is based on World Health Organisation guidelines. The reason is that infant nutrition is so critical, the information given to parents about infant nutrition should be accurate. There is a very real concern about commercial organisations giving accurate and unbiased "education" to parents, therefore there is a voluntary code about the marketing of formula for babies 6 months and under. This includes advertising and free samples.
Unfortunately as Jennifer said, the companies don't adhere to it and are constantly breaching the code. And as the panel which monitors it has formula company execs on it, they mostly get away with it. Especially in 3rd world countries where babies are actually dying as a result of their actions
However, they don't openly advertise baby formulas on TV etc (which would be a hugely blatant breach), so use the toddler formula ads.
The code is not aimed to stop mums from using formula or to take away choice from mums. The aim is to protect children by trying to ensure that the information reaching mums is of the best quality.
Just relaying this information to DF - and he was wondering what sources (other than fish - DD would only have that maybe once per week) do other families feed their toddlers Omega 3's....and iron from?
Is that Yakult drink the same thing as Fast Tract? Or is that not recommended for littlies??
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