Breaking the Rules, Stretching the Rules 2014: In Brief

This book is available in the Virtual Shop at:

http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#btr14

If you have read it, please leave your comments here.

Breaking the Rules, Stretching the Rules 2010

This book is available in the Virtual Shop at:

http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#btr10

If you have read it, please leave your comments here.

World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative - the State of Breastfeeding in 33 Countries

This book is available in the Virtual Shop at:

http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#wbti

If you have read it, please leave your comments here.

Nestle's UN Global Compact Cover Up

This report can be viewed on line and ordered through the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#globalcompact

If you have read it, leave your comments here.

BFLG quarterly monitoring reports

Baby Milk Action is producing quarterly monitoring reports on formula marketing in the UK.

A free pdf can be downloaded from the Virtual Shop, where printed copies can be ordered:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#bflgreports

If you have read it, leave your comments here. How have you used it in your campaigning?

Breaking the Rules 2007

Breaking the Rules, Stretching the Rules 2007 is a round-up of monitoring evidence from the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN).

Extracts are available as free downloads at:
http://www.ibfan.org/site2005/Pages/article.php?art_id=510&iui=1

Printed copies can be ordered from the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#btr07

If you have read it, leave your comments here. How have you used it in your campaigning?

Protecting breastfeeding - Protecting babies fed on formula

This publication is available in the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#bflgsubmission

If you have read it, please leave your comments here.

It is the Baby Feeding Law Group (BFLG) submission to the UK government's consultation on formula marketing regulations, published by Baby Milk Action.

It contains evidence from the BFLG monitoring project, coordinated by Baby Milk Action - lots of pictures and explanation of how the companies are breaking World Health Assembly marketing requirements and exploiting loopholes in the current law. Plus legal arguments for implementing those requirements in the UK and evidenced-based responses to specific questions from the government about health and economic impact of different options.

You can access a pdf version via the shop, though we ask you to buy a printed copy from us as we have no grant funding for UK work and this is a way to help fund it.

Seeing through the Spin education pack

You can view the exercise from this pack and order it via the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#spin

If you have used the pack, please leave comments here.

Infant Feeding in Emergencies: Policy, Strategy and Practice

This publication is available in the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#policies

It arises from a meeting Baby Milk Action and partners in the Emergency Nutrition Network convened with emergency relief agencies.

Contents are:

Introduction

Policy and Strategy Statement

Activities to Implement Strategy

• HIV and Infant Feeding
• Fact Sheet
• Advertorial
• Triage for Decision Making
• Prioritisation of Alternatives for Feeding Infants
• Cup Feeding

Monitoring and Evaluation

Gaps in Knowledge: Areas for further study

If you have read the report, please leave your comments here.

Infant Feeding in Emergencies

This booklet can be viewed on line and ordered through the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#emergencies

If you have read it, leave your comments here.

The Code Handbook

This is an authoritative guide to implementing the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent, relevant World Health Assembly Resolutions in legislation.

It is used on the week-long training courses on code implementation organised by our partners in the International Code Documentation Centre. Baby Milk Action has used it in training we have delivered for policy makers around the world.

The contents are as follows:

Chapter 1. The International Code: Historical Background

Chapter 2. Marketing in Perspective

Chapter 3. Defining the Scope

Chapter 4. Promotion to the Public

Chapter 5. Promotion to Health Workers and Health Care Facilities

Chapter 6. Information and Education

Chapter 7. Labelling

Chapter 8. Implementing National Measures

Model Law

Appendices

A. Selected National Measures [laws from around the world]

B. The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes

C. Related Resolutions of the World Health Assembly

D. The Innocenti Declaration

E. Roster of National Laws, Regulations and Voluntary Measures

F. Related Reading

---end of contents list

Written by legal expert, Ellen J. Sokol, who has conducted many training courses using the materials, it is fully referenced, legally sound, but also accessible.

Here is a sample:

---extract (page 42/43)

A large number of countries also consider the marketing of follow-up formula (also called follow-on milk) to be particularly harmful to good breastfeediing practices. Follow-up formula is an infant formula that is most often recommended by the manufacturer for babies older than six months, and in some cases, for babies older than four months.

...

It is not far-fetched to state that the majority of companies created follow-up milk as an attempt to get around the restrictions of the International Code and recapture the customers they would lose with the end of commercial promotions of standard infant formula. A study in the Philippines showed that in the two years after the Philippine Milk Code was adopted, company distribution to health facilities of normal infant formula fell by 95%. Yet in that same period, 1986-1988, the proportion of facilities receiving formula for older infants increased by 80%.
---

If you have read the book or attended a training course, leave your comments here.

The Code in Cartoons

This is a basic guide to the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent, relevant Resolutions of the World Health Assembly.

As the name suggests, it is illustrated with cartoons of the style shown on the cover.

Text is simple and warns strongly against formula feeding and greedy companies. Here is a sample:

---Extract
So why is bottle-feeding terrible?

Formula is made of cows' milk. That's good for calves but not for babies.

Even mothers who can read and write, make mistakes mixing too much powder with too little water or too little powder in a lot of water.

So, often the baby gets milk which is under or over-diluted. Worse, the water used may be contaminated.

....

What is the aim of the Code?

The Code aims to contribute to the safe feeding and better nutrition of babies and to protect mothers and breastfeeding from aggressive marketing of baby foods.

It is a marketing code. It does not ban the sale of baby foods, but only bans or restricts promotional practices which entice mothers to replace their breastmilk with commercial products.
---extracts end

It can be ordered in the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#cartoons

If you have read it, please leave a comment.

Healthworkers Guide to the Code: Protecting Infant Health

This is a guide to the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent, relevant Resolutions of the World Health Assembly and the importance of promoting and protecting breastfeeding, designed for health workers of any country.

The contents are:

• Foreword
• Introduction and Background
• Why a Marketing Code?
• How was the International Code developed?
• Summary of the International Code
• What can Health Workers do to make the Code work?
• Detailed examination of some of the important provisions of the Code
• Keeping the Code up to date
• HIV, Infant Feeding and the Code
• How the Infant Food Industry views the Code
• The Innocenti Declaration
• Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding
• Health Workers in Action
• The International Code (text in full)
• World Health Assembly Resolutions
• International Code Documentation Centre
• Useful Addresses and Resources

It contains black and white photograhs, examples of marketing and cartoons.

Here is a sample:

----Extract
Health workers have a responsibility to protect and promote breastfeeding

Those who work most closely with mothers and infants should study and discuss the International Code, especially the information intended for mothers and listed in Article 4.2.

No promotion to health workers

Only scientific and factual information about infant feeding products may be supplied to health workers by companies.

All this information should include the points set out in Article 4.2.

This information should emphasise that breastfeeding is far superior to artificial infant feeding.
----extract ends

[Cartoon baby] "I was on starter formula. Then continuation formula. And I hope to graduate to the advanced formula. I'm working my way up the corporate ladder!"

If you have used the guide, leave your comments here.

Checks and Balances in the Global Economy

This report is available as a free pdf download.

It can be ordered from the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#checks

If you have read it, leave your comments here.

State of the Code charts

The State of the Code by Country chart shows how well governments have implemented the International Code and Resolutions.

It is available as a pdf, though a little difficult to print as it gate folds. See:
http://www.ibfan.org/site2005/Pages/article.php?art_id=298&iui=1

Order it in the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#socs

If you have made use of the chart (or the out-of-print State of the Code by company chart) leave your comments here.

Breaking the Rules 2004

Breaking the Rules, Stretching the Rules 2004 is a round-up of monitoring evidence from the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN).

It is available as a free download at:
http://www.ibfan.org/site2005/Pages/article.php?art_id=302&iui=1

Printed copies can be ordered from the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#btr04

There is also a DVD of the launch available and a power-point presentation using some of the examples can be found in the Nestlé-Free Zone.

If you have read it, leave your comments here. How have you used it in your campaigning?

Fighting an Old Battle in a New World

This history of the baby food campaign is written by Annelies Allain, a founder-member of the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), explaining the strategy employed to protect infants from the aggressive marketing practices of the baby food industry.

Our principal tools are the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent, relevant Resolutions fo the World Health Assembly, which are included as an annex in the book.

Here is an extract from the foreword, written by Halfdan Mahler, Director General of the World Health Organisation for 15 years:

---Extract
IBFAN has been a key player in the movement for greater - and more transparent - corporate responsibility and accountability, by continuing to keep the Code alive, by pushing WHO to keep it visible on its agenda. The Code is a reasonably sensitive and specific instrument to regulate a particular sector of industry, which has 'survived' the clarion call for putting Health First in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I believe that the only reason it did not wither away like many other splendid ideas of those days, is that it was adopted by IBFAN and nursed by them ever since. I am convinced that millions of babies have been saved by IBFAN's efforts to keep a watchful eye on corporate promotion.
---extract ends

Annelies provides insight into the strategies that have helped to save lives and the efforts of the baby food industry to undermine our work, recalling key events through the history of the campaign.

Here is a sample:

---Extract
Nestlé failed to turn up at the first hearing of the European Parliament's Development and Cooperation Committee in November 2000. The Committee had selected the food industry and clothing industry for starters in an effort to set EU Standards for European Enterprises operating in Developing Countries. Although Nestlé had initially welcomed this chance to put its case to the Parliament, it apparently changed its mind, maybe after hearing that IBFAN and UNICEF representatives would also be present. The hearing came on the heels of adverse publicity about Nestlé's unethical marketing practices in Pakistan. It seems likely that the company felt its reputation would be less damaged by its non-appearnace than by being required to answer embarassing questions about bribing doctors, setting sales targets and issuing threats to the whistleblower who denounced all this and provided hard evidence.
---extract ends

Buy the book to find out what happened next...

Order it in the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#oldandnew

If you have read it, leave your comments here.

International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and relevant WHA resolutions

This may look like a small blue book, but it is the most powerful corporate accountability tools in existence.

Implemented to some degree in over 70 countries in legislation and monitored by Baby Milk Action and partners around the world, it is backed by the authority of the World Health Assembly (made up the health ministries of member states).

Where it is enforced, aggressive marketing is stopped. In countries such as Brazil it is part of a strategy that is seeing significant recovery in breastfeeding rates.

While companies claim it is complex and difficult to follow, it is actually very clear. You can find out more and read the text on the website of the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), which has published this compilation.

NOTE: The text of the Code and Resolutions are also included in some other IBFAN publications which you may find of interest, so check those before ordering this item.

Order it at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#code

Leave your comments here.

Risks of Formula Feeding: a Brief Annotated Bibliography

Leave your comments about this 8-page pamplet from INFACT Canada here.

It is a light publication for the money, we admit, but is packed with heavy-weight information describing key studies on infant feeding arranged in 16 themes. Here is a sample:

---Publication extract:
10 Increased risk of diabetes

[4 studies described including...]

Early introduction of infant formula, solids and cow's milk are factors shown to increase the incidence of Type I diabetes later in life. Swedish (517) and Lithuanian (286) children aged 0 to 15 years who were diagnosed with Type I diabetes were compared to non-diabetic controls. The results showed that exclusive breastfeeding for five months and total breastfeeding for longer than seven or nine moths are protective against diabetes.

Sadauskaite-Kuehne V, Ludvigsson J, Padaiga Z, Jasinskiene E, Samuel U. Longer breastfeeding is an independent protective factor against development of type I diabetes mellitus in childhood. Diabet Metab Res Rev 20:150-157, 2004.
---Extract ends

You will find it in the Virtual Shop at:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#risks

Hard Sell Formula: Strategies used by the baby food industry in the UK

You can download this 4-page pamphlet free of charge. It is available to purchase in packs of 10. See:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/publications01.html#hardsell

Leave your comments here. Have you found it interesting? Have you used it in your campaigning to strengthen the UK law?

Find out more about our UK law campaign here:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/action/ukaction07.html