The toy company Fisher Price ran a promotional campaign aimed at new mothers and part of the promotion involved giving away free formula.
In a letter to the president of Fisher Price, the director of public relations, Laurie Oravec, expressed her concerns over running the formula promotion. Oravec stated that the promotion implied that formula was the healthiest choice for feeding children.
She also referred to the American Academy of Pediatrics who had recommended that breastfeeding was superior to using formula.
The benefits of breastfeeding include:
Another problem Oravec had with the promotion was that it undermined the potential success mothers would have bonding with their child through breastfeeding. She requested the free formula be removed from the promotion and that the company refrain from using it as a prize in future promotions.
Mothering.com May, 2004
In an effort to market their toys, Fisher-Price is now giving away six-week supplies of infant formula as part of a prize package in their current "Ready. Set. Grow." sweepstakes. They state the sweepstakes provides "a chance to win developmental prizes for you and baby," but either they didn't do their homework on infant formula, or they decided that their potential gain outweighed the risks of formula to babies.
Formula was designed to be a replacement for babies who are unable to breastfeed, not a replacement for those who can.
It does not fully meet the nutritional needs of babies, who do not have mature immune systems, leaving them susceptible to illness. In fact, according to Dr. Linda Folden Palmer in the must-read article The Deadly Influence of Formula in America, the "use of infant formula doubles the risk of infant death for American babies."
The Fisher-Price sweepstakes will award "your choice of formula," but while any type of infant formula is a poor substitute for breastfeeding, the worst choice would be soy-based formula.
In addition to high levels of aluminum in soy and the high levels of estrogens in soy (a soy-fed baby receives the equivalent of five birth control pills' worth of estrogen every day), recent research suggests that high concentrations of manganese in soy can lead to brain damage in infants and altered behavior in adolescents.
Soy formula can also reduce testosterone levels and impair thyroid function through isoflavones present in the formula.
A mother's breast milk is nature's perfect food for infants and can't even come close to being reproduced, so my highest recommendation to mothers is to breastfeed if they can. If the mother or baby are unable to breastfeed for clinical reasons, I encourage you to consider the Infant Formula Fortification Protocol.
You can also contact Fisher-Price to voice your concerns about their irresponsible promotion of infant formula.
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