Thursday, October 28, 2010



A “Start Healthy Stay Healthy” branded changing pad



A Gerber bib



A Nuk bottle nipple



A “big” can of Good Start formula



Various coupons for Gerber products and a photo session at Sears



I love when great bloggers guest post for me. Today, I have a wonderful guest poster, Jill from Baby Rabies , with a post that I wish she didn't have to write and that I didn't have to share, because I wish that ridiculous things like this didn't happen. Please read Jill's story about the prize her friend Laura got for breastfeeding.My friend Laura is one of the smartest people I know, and we’re not just talking book smart (though there are many letters behind her name to reflect the advanced degrees she’s obtained). She’s proactive and involved. She educates herself and never accepts the status quo.She approached her recent pregnancy with the same drive to research and learn everything she could to keep herself and her baby as healthy as possible, and to set themselves up for a lifetime of healthy habits. Naturally, she was, from the very beginning, determined to make breastfeeding work.She asked me and other friends who breastfed our children many questions, she made it clear to her OB and her other friends and family that she expected support, and she took a breastfeeding class. Her birth plan revolved around ultimately having a safe and healthy baby who would have as few obstacles to overcome while learning to breastfeed.So far, he’s been a breastfeeding champ and so has she. Her son just turned a month old, and though they’ve been through your typical breastfeeding trials, like a delay in her milk coming in and the exhaustion that cluster feeding can bring on, they’ve worked through them all, and Laura is always happy to report that they are still going strong on the Exclusive Breastfeeding Train.It was with this enthusiasm that she answered the lab technician at her son’s 4 week checkup last week when asked if she was formula feeding, breastfeeding or both. After she told the lab tech that she was still exclusively breastfeeding, the lab tech lit up, congratulated her and told her she got a prize.I learned of this last Friday as we caught up over the phone. As soon as she mentioned the “breastfeeding prize pack,” my attention peaked. What on earth could they be rewarding breastfeeding mothers with? Maybe a gift certificate to a local boutique that sells nursing bras? A nice tube of nipple cream? How cool! I was intrigued and asked her what it was. The minute she started describing it, my mouth fell open…“I got this really cute, sporty black diaper bag full of all kinds of stuff. There were Nuk bottle nipples, some breastfeeding pamphlets that look to be full of lots of information, and, oddly enough, a huge can of formula. I mean, I won’t use that… no clue why that’s in there, but the rest seems cool. Can’t believe I got a prize!” she giddily reported.“Laura, do you remember what brand of formula it was?” I asked.“Oh, sure. It was Good Start, I think,” she replied.Of course it was.It was at that moment that I had to explain Booby Traps to my best friend, and I had to let her know that she had been handed one of the worst Booby Traps I’d ever heard of- a Nestle/Gerber sponsored diaper bag filled with formula, disguised as a “prize” for a mother who has busted her ass to exclusively BREASTFEED her son for the past 4 weeks.Laura lives in Austin, one of the most breastfeeding friendly cities I’ve ever been in. Her OB’s office was, what she would call, “super crunchy.” She never received a formula welcome kit throughout her pregnancy. She wasn’t even sent home with one from her hospital. I can’t fault her a bit for not knowing what one looked like when her son’s pediatrician’s office handed this to her.Upon learning the truth about her “prize,” she expressed to me that she was “embarrassed.” She prides herself on seeing through these sorts of tactics. She refuses dinner with, and other incentives from, pharmaceutical reps at her place of work on a regular basis because she’s disgusted by the high price of drugs and the money spent by pharma companies to woo medical professionals.“That’s the thing, Laura. It’s not YOUR fault. YOU shouldn’t be embarrassed. Nestle is very sneaky in their marketing. Booby Traps are tricky that way.” I continued to explain to her a little bit about what I’ve learned about formula companies’ questionable marketing tactics. I talked to her about the Nestle Boycott. Then I explained how there’s no such thing as free formula.“So they ARE just like the pharma companies, huh?” she muttered during her “aha!” moment. I just silently nodded on the other end of the phone.She was more than happy to describe to me in detail what all was included in this “prize.” Her diaper bag includes the following:It also includes several pamphlets of information. The back of each one lists a 1-800 number for a line staffed by “registered dieticians” to discuss “breastfeeding and infant nutrition.” The main number is 1-800-811-7500, the Spanish number is 1-800-511-6862. The website given on the back is www.gerber.com.The pamphlets are titled “Breastfeeding Basics,” “Gerber Generation Health Record,” and “Gerber Generation Nutrition Guide.”I didn’t have time to discuss the content of each one with her, but we did go through the last one, “Gerber Generation Nutrition Guide,” pretty thoroughly because I was interested to see when they suggested parents begin babies on solids. This pamphlet is dedicated to discussing feeding “stages,” though they don’t break down the stages by assigning an actual age to each one. Instead, they break them down into Birth, Supported Sitter, Sitter, Crawler and Toddler.The first mention of introducing solids (rice cereal) is made in the Supported Sitter section, specifically stating, “by around the middle of the first year almost all babies can start solid foods…Breastfed babies need certain nutrients from food to compliment breastmilk, such as iron and zinc. These nutrients can be found in fortified infant cereal. Zinc can also be found in pureed meats.”There is also a handy chart in this section titled, “Transitioning From Breastmilk To Formula,” and breaks it down, eliminating a nursing session and adding a bottle of formula each day over a course of 14 days.In the Sitter section there is an interesting bit about nursing strikes, titled “If Your Baby Loses Interest In Breastfeeding.” It states, “It may be weaning time if your repeated efforts to get your baby re-interested in breastfeeding don’t succeed. It may be that she’s ready to give up nursing.”In the Crawler section breastfeeding isn’t even mentioned except on the food groups chart where it recommends 24 oz of breastmilk or formula a day or on demand. It goes on to also recommend 1 oz at 2 times a day of grains and cereal, 1/2cup of veggies, ½ cup of fruit and 1 oz of meat or beans.Throughout the entire pamphlet there is a lot of emphasis put on the importance of iron, and it states over and over that iron can be found in their formula and iron fortified cereals. Laura even remarked, “As an uniformed consumer of formula, and all around new parent, the impression I get is they are really trying to push the extra iron in their foods and formulas, and make me feel like breastfeeding won’t provide enough (iron).”I guess I can’t say I’m surprised, but I sure am disheartened to see something so blatantly underhanded given to a good friend who is doing everything in her power to ensure her own breastfeeding success. I’m glad we had the chance to chat while her little boy was nursing. I’m glad I had the opportunity to tell her all about Booby Traps. And though she may have felt a little embarrassed at first, she is empowered and informed now. She’s even taking the Nestle Boycott to heart and anxious to learn more about it… when she comes up for air (a.k.a. when her son starts sleeping more than 3 hour stretches).Jill is mother to a 2 year old with another on the way. She spends much of her time making fun of herself and making light of life over on BabyRabies.com , but she's serious when it comes to protecting women's rights to be informed and supported when it comes to breastfeeding.