Misleading Marketing of Infant Formula Criticized

Professor Rafael Pérez-Escamilla, an international authority on breastfeeding and early childhood nutrition, joined other scholars in calling for greater enforcement of the unethical marketing of infant formula in a special three-paper Series published in The Lancet earlier this year.

The call for greater marketing controls and enforcement was just one of several interventions and recommendations in the Lancet Series in support of a woman’s right to breastfeed.

“Breastmilk not only provides optimal nutrition to infants, but it is also loaded with bioactive substances that protect the child against infectious and non-infectious diseases,” said Pérez-Escamilla, who served as co-author of the Lancet Series articles and as lead author of the first paper featured entitled, “Breastfeeding: Crucially important, but increasingly challenged in a market-driven world.”

Pérez-Escamilla emphasized that the Series was not meant to be a manifesto against infant formula, a product that is vital for infants who are not breastfed, but rather a call to decision-makers and authorities to stop infant formula companies from undermining mothers’ breastfeeding intentions through misleading marketing that exploits their fears and emotions during a vulnerable period in their lives.

“Infant crying is part of normal infant development; this is how babies communicate their physical and psycho-emotional needs,” Pérez-Escamilla said. “Understandably, parents can get very worried and distressed when their infants cry. Unfortunately, infant formula companies exploit these psycho-emotional sensitivities by marketing their products as helping babies cry less and sleep better, without evidence to support these claims,” he added.

“Additionally, oftentimes health providers tell parents that the baby is crying frequently because the mother is not producing enough milk and advise them to introduce infant formulas right away without even assessing first the baby’s growth and developmental status,” he continued. “Even more worrisome is the fact that these same providers oftentimes benefit from relationships with infant formula companies that are underlined by clear conflicts of interest.”

Globally, the great majority of women are choosing to breastfeed, Pérez-Escamilla said, but unfortunately, most of them cannot breastfeed for as long as they would like due to major social, political, economic, and health care structural barriers.