Monday, December 04, 2006

Infant feeding and obesity poster

Well, first yet more media coverage in the Philippines mentioning the international solidarity campaign. You can access this from our press release at http://www.babymilkaction.org/press/press9nov06.html

One of the effects of the attention the media is now giving to this issue is that the idealizing claims made by the baby food companies in the Philippines are being scrutinised. The Philippines Business World ran an article "What the milk companies don't want you to know", the Daily Inquirer "Thumbs down for milk formulas".

The Inquirer states: "Some manufacturers even advertise that their milk formulas can make the infants and children taking them smarter. If one is gullible enough, one would really believe, because of the well-executed ads, that milk formulas can actually change one's genetic IQ." These untrue claims are contrasted with the things the companies do not mention. Such as increased risk of short and long-term illness of artificially-fed infants and that breastfed infants are less likely to be obese.

One of the tasks today was adding our new poster to the website. This is about infant feeding and obesity and was prepared by our Policy Director, Patti Rundall, for the recent WHO Europe meeting on obesity. See our 'Policy Zone' for details at
http://www.babymilkaction.org/policy/policyindex.html

The poster cites various studies on infant feeding and obesity and the policy advice of the US Centre for Disease Control, which suggests a cost-effective intervention that could be put in place immediately to address the obesity epidemic is breastfeeding promotion.

You can download the poster, which is full colour with some great images, from the website or purchase printed copies via our on-line Virtual Shop. See
http://www.babymilkaction.org/shop/posters.html#obesity

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