Infant Formula

Infant Formula is a product sold as a substitute for breast milk.

International Action

 * "After nearly a decade of controversy on the role of infant formula promotion in changes in Third World breast-feeding behavior, the World Health Assembly adopted the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes on May 21, 1981. Most troublesome among these provisions was Article 6, paragraph 6, stating that "[d]onations or low-price sales to institutions or organizations of supplies of infant formula or other products within the scope of this Code, whether for use in the institutions or for distribution outside them, may be made. Such supplies should only be used for, or distributed to, infants who have to be fed on breast milk substitutes."'


 * "The World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines issued on April 10, 1986, defined "infants who have to be fed on breast milk substitutes "as those who have rare metabolic disorders, cannot suck, or are motherless through death or abandonment as well as those whose mothers have decided not to breast-feed, fully or partially, for whatever reason. The World Health Assembly passed a resolution on May 16, 1986 urging governments to take action "to ensure that the small amounts of breast-milk substitutes needed for the minority of infants who require them in maternity wards and hospitals are made available through the normal procurement channels and not through free or subsidized supplies.""

Related Sourcewatch Articles

 * International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes
 * Infant Formula in the Philippines