Since I had my baby in March, the cost of formula has hugely increased – some brands by as much as 22%. The vast majority of babies in Britain, mine included, are fed at least some formula by the age of six weeks, so inflation will have widespread repercussions. I wonder how those parents who rely solely on formula for their babies must be feeling if they are unable to pay.
Healthy start vouchers no longer cover the cost. Charities are warning that vulnerable parents may be forced to resort to unsafe practices, such as watering down formula or giving infants porridge. Parents tell me this is already happening. “I get £94 a week maternity pay. That’s not even my rent,” says one, who is struggling to afford formula.
So, cheaper formula would be a good idea. Great thought there, Love. At which point, The Blob:
Despite this, many food banks will not give out formula. Formula sales across Europe are governed by strict advertising regulations, in support of the World Health Organization’s breastfeeding promotion guidelines, which encourage exclusive breastfeeding for at least the first six months and continued breastfeeding for two years or longer. As such, initiatives that could be seen to encourage formula feeding are often met with strong resistance. Supermarkets cannot put it on special offer, and you can’t use loyalty points to buy it; one father told me of his humiliation at discovering this when he had no money and needed to feed his child.
Formula companies are not exactly known for their scrupulousness, as US shortages have demonstrated, and their marketing tactics can be aggressive. Why prices are being raised must be scrutinised. But nevertheless, I feel grateful for baby formula. Throughout human history, babies have needed supplementary feeding. To contemplate that parents in 2022 could be concocting their own, unsafe alternatives is heartbreaking.
Look around the office you work in, Dear. They’re the cunts responsible for this.
“concocting their own, unsafe alternatives ”
Is there still a recipe for an alternative on the side of a tin of Carnation milk? Would that be unsafe or would it just undermine the basis of today’s moan?
Oh, and who does she think should pay?
If there only there were some simple, straightforward, eco-friendly, preferably cheap solution to this!
Rhoda Klapp
This is the issue with (among many other things) The COVID response and really while I feel that ultimately anyone involved in it will need to be test subjects for a multi person gallows. By offering up a completely unaffordable level of support without the wherewithal to pay for it you have created an expectation that the response to any crisis should be that the state steps in to support. Now we see the consequences. They don’t care who should pay for it, as long as they don’t have to. It’s as the great BiS points out (alongside many others) – money has been completely divorced from the production of goods and services.
Formula companies aggressively marketed their product in countries without safe water supplies leading to lots of dead babies. That’s why they are now regulated with extreme prejudice. Scum.
To be fair, there is a healthy competitive market in formula milk for ages 6mo+. The manufacturers appear to rely on the halo effect from the older age groups to promote their 0-6mo milks. As evidence, the price of 6mo+ milk is identical to the price of newborn milk for any given brand.
Sadly there are regular calls for advertising of 6mo+ milk to be banned too. They even want plain packaging for baby milk – because it’s just like cigarettes?
Link: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/baby-milk-should-be-supplied-in-plain-packaging-because-marketing-can-exploit-parents-who-warns/ar-AA15ajfu
I get £94 a week maternity pay. That’s not even my rent,” says one, who is struggling to afford formula.
Should have used protection then. Or at least a spreadsheet to do a budget. No sympathy.
Peter MacFarlane—Accrington Stanley! the baby elephant in the room.
After my first child was born, we were in a cubicle next to a young girl who had also just given birth and who was refusing to breastfeed because she thought it would spoil her figure. After a mildly pleading and science-based exhortation from a couple of white male doctors, the ward matron was summoned to have a word with her. A formidable old-school West Indian lady, she marched up to the cubicle, flung back the curtain, and barked “Why you tink God gave you dem tings?!!”
This bit is quite funny “formula companies are not exactly known for their scrupulousness, as US shortages have demonstrated”. Sorry luv, but the formula shortages in the U.S. are pretty much the result of gov’t intervention.
Of course, the answer is MOAR GOV’T!
Rhoda – yarp, I don’t think her gran would be impressed. If keeping tiny people alive was that difficult, most of us wouldn’t be here.
But from her perspective, she’s right. I doubt anybody showed her how to take care of the wee ones during her formative years. I bet she knows a lot about feminist theory tho.
Anon – Should have used protection then.
We used to call them “husbands”.
It’s her truth, so it’s her real truth.
Steve,
I would just cut child benefit at this point.
Like the government came up with the CSA, the idea being that fathers pay for their kids, but in truth, it never got Gazza to pay for the kids, because Gazza is unemployed. The only solution is to put the onus on women. Shaznay gets no child benefit.
Now, how is Shaznay going to survive? That’s her problem. If she’s unskilled but liberal with favours, I suggest escorting. She wants some men to pay for her bastard spawn, I think it’s only fair that those men get something in return. Why should some guy who goes to work every day, but struggle to get a girlfriend pay for unemployed men to get their jollies.
It would quickly create 3 incentives: 1) Shaznay would not treat her vagina as a clown car, as she’d realise she had to suck even more cock each time she had a kid 2) Shaznay would seek out more responsible types rather than exciting types 3) Gazza would have to stop living on the dole and start working hard, in order to get some.
“It’s as the great BiS points out (alongside many others) – money has been completely divorced from the production of goods and services.”
Something that was approved of by our host when he supported QE starting in 2009…….
Don’t think I’ve ever read him supporting it, Jim. Explaining it maybe.