Scotland’s poor record on breastfeeding

Sir,

I wrote to Tesco in Oban about the large aisle sign hanging from the ceiling which said ‘Baby Milk’ as a locator for infant formula feed.

I asked Tesco if it would re-word this dominant misleading sign to ‘Artificial Baby Milk’ because that is exactly what it is. Baby milk is human breast milk, not formula, and Tesco is thus contributing to the normalisation of artificially feeding infants which sadly runs throughout the UK.

In fact, we have just about the worst rate of breastfeeding in the world and Scotland is no exception. Oban Tesco failed to respond so I wrote to the customer services manager in Dundee who replied that the term ‘baby milk’ is within the bounds of its policies.

I daresay it is as it suits its profits but where are its ethics? Tesco also sent me a £10 voucher, probably to try to silence me, but I returned it unused.

The BBC announced last week that the UK had the highest obesity rate in Europe and this is no wonder with the highest rate of artificially feeding our infants, certainly a proven contributing factor.

Yes, we do need more professional and peer support to help mothers to breastfeed for longer (and to want to start in the first place) but also community support and curtailing misleading advertising would go a long way too.

In this season of the BBC’s Children in Need, perhaps we may also think about all the children in need of breastfeeding. Valerie Cleave, Lochgilphead.