How a mum feeds her baby shouldn’t be shaped by money – or lack of it

Families who don’t have enough money to buy formula are often forced into unsafe infant feeding practices (Picture: Getty Images)

I’m sitting down to write this having just given my wee one his bedtime bottle.

It’s a comfort he’s clung onto long beyond the other markers of babyhood have been packed away, and it’s one I allow because I get just as much from it as he does. 

After a day of jigsaws, lightsabers, spilled cups and skinned knees, in this little moment of calm, where my no-longer-a-baby boy snuggles up in my arms, the day’s stresses melt away with the comforting weight of him on my chest. 

This is what feeding your baby should be like, a wee moment of happiness at the end of the day, stress free and satisfying. Unfortunately, feeding my boys wasn’t always like this for me, and it’s not always like this for many mums. 

That’s why, together with my friends Rosie McNee, Kate Wishart and others, I co-founded Feed. We’re an independent charity that puts families at the heart of infant feeding, however they choose to feed their babies. 

As well as offering unbiased, science based information on infant feeding, Feed campaigns for policies that centre mums and babies, because too often one group is prioritised to the detriment of others. We are working hard to change that.

At the moment our key campaign focus is on maximising access to infant formula for families who need it, and our Formula for Change campaign in partnership with Metro.co.uk is a crucial part of that. 

As formula prices rise, this is only going to get worse which is why tackling the cost of formula is one of Feed’s main priorities (Picture: Getty Images)

As formula prices skyrocket, more and more families are finding themselves unable to buy enough to feed their families and current financial support for families is not enough to meet the rising costs of living. 

Our research has shown that alternative routes of accessing formula are a postcode lottery; many Local Authorities have no emergency formula provision scheme and Health Visitors and other family support workers are relying on local foodbanks to provide formula for the families in their care. Food and baby banks are generally discouraged from providing it – though some do, thankfully. 

The upshot is that families who don’t have enough money to buy formula are often forced into unsafe infant feeding practices that put their babies’ health at risk such as formula foraging, or even formula theft in order to access this vital food.

Those with No Recourse to Public Funds, such as families ineligible for benefits and refugee families, are particularly disadvantaged. I don’t think I need to spell out how completely unacceptable this is in 2023 Britain. 

As formula prices rise, this is only going to get worse which is why tackling the cost of formula is one of Feed’s main priorities.

Did you know that UK legislation bans the marketing, advertising, discount and promotion of first infant formula?

This law was adopted by the Government on the recommendation of the WHO to limit the aggressive marketing practices of big formula companies in an effort to protect breastfeeding. 

While this was a laudable goal, the outcome is that the formula companies continue to market themselves via their follow-on products, while enjoying a competition free market on first infant formula. Meanwhile, struggling families pay the price – literally – for this failed exercise. 

Mums are speaking out, urging a change to these rules to help them buy food for their little ones (Picture: Getty Images)

Retailers are bound by the legislation too, so even if they wanted to discount the price of formula, or include it in their promotional activity, they are not allowed to do this in a way that encourages the sale of formula.

What’s not clear is where the law sits on allowing families to buy formula using cash equivalent methods such as loyalty points, grocery vouchers, food bank and local authority vouchers and store gift cards.

Our charity is hearing from more and more food and baby banks, telling us that the vouchers and gift cards they provide to families as part of the cash first approach to food poverty are being rejected by retailers as payment for formula.

Families are also increasingly reporting being barred from buying formula using loyalty points when they do not have enough money. Mums are speaking out, urging a change to these rules to help them buy food for their little ones.

No one’s infant feeding decision should be shaped by money, or lack of it (Credits: Getty Images)

Our legal experts have recently questioned the validity of this application of the law by retailers, so it’s really important that the Government reviews their guidance and gives retailers the green light to accept cash equivalents as payment, or part payment for formula.

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Please support us in our campaign by signing and sharing our petition calling on the UK Government to give this reassurance to retailers, thereby increasing the options available for formula feeding families to access formula.

No woman’s infant feeding decision should be shaped by money, or lack of it. 

At Feed, we want to secure a future where every mum should be able to sit down for that last bedtime feed, turn down the lights and feel the comforting rise and fall of her wee one’s chest in time with hers – free from the worry that her baby will go hungry.

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We want to secure a future where every mum should be able to sit down for a feed, free from the worry that her baby will go hungry.