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Let’s count the claims that the formula milk industry uses to mislead consumers and undermine breastfeeding.

• Formula products with added ingredients improve brain development and immunity
• Formula products are needed after 12 months of age
• Breast milk is inadequate for the nutrition of older infants and children
• Formula keeps babies fuller for longer and therefore helps them sleep
• The quality of breast milk declines with time

These claims are all untrue, say two champions of women’s health - Helen Clark, former Chair of the United Nations Development Group, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO - commenting on the aggressive marketing tactics used by the industry to promote their products.

Their comments followed the release of the WHO and UNICEF’s new report How the marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding released in February. Watch the report launch here

And if you’re in any doubt about how successful the industry’s tactics are, Helen Clark and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also point out that while exclusive breastfeeding for babies six months and younger has increased only marginally over the past two decades, the sales of formula milk have nearly doubled.

The WHO Report itself also has a message for health professionals including dietitians: “Systematic marketing by formula milk companies seeks to influence health professionals’ understanding of breastfeeding, to convince them of the need for formula, and to use them as channels for marketing,” the report says.

We all know that formula milk has a place when women are unable to breastfeed for a range of reasons - including lack of support from both social and health systems. But we also need to be conscious of industry’s attempts to influence our profession.

As dietitians we need to stand up for breastfeeding, and part of this is to support the WHO Code of Marketing of Breast milk Substitutes - this fact sheet for health professionals shows us how.