Infant feeding and safety

The safety of children is on top of the priority lists of parents, health care providers and governments. Parents are educated and governments try to legislate safety. WHO and UNICEF dedicate a prominent amount of their activities to this cause. In many resolutions and publications over and over again is emphasized that there is one single cheap and easy way to provide all children with a basic safety. A way that provides safe food, protection against infection and other diseases and applicable in all living conditions: to breastfeed children from birth on, much and often. A disadvantage to this apparent panacea is that not alone it does not cost any money, but no-one will financially profit from it. And thus, an intensive lobby from those who will gain from breastfeeding substitutes can cause governments to pay lip service, and even put into writing, to WHO’s visions, but still announce infant feeding a parent’s choice. Other safety interventions are being promoted with a lot more force and persuasiveness, where playing on feelings of guilt in parents is not dreaded. But parents who choose, or are made belief they can’t do anything else, to not breastfeed, choose to feed and care for their children in less safe way. By replacing breastfeeding, they refuse their child the protection human milk and suckling the breast offers, but on top of that expose them to a potential bacteriologic dangerous substance. Powdered infant formula (PIF) is not germ-free and children have died because of bacteriological contamination. Research shows that many parents do not read the labels on the PIF cans well or don’t fully comprehend what they read and many do not follow other hygiene precautions. Parents who care for the safety of their children will choose to breastfeed and they are entitled to all help needed to proceed doing so.
 Labiner-Wolfe J, Fein SB, Shealy KR: Infant Formula-Handling Education and Safety. Pediatrics 2008 122: S85-S90
Carletti C, Cattaneo A: Home preparation of powdered infant formula: is it safe? Acta Pædiatrica, 2008, 97(8):1131-1132