Baby Formula Swag

Sometimes it can feel like we're swimming up the river here in Paleo Land.  A big river.  So it's nice once in awhile to find an article which has some positive undertones.   I spotted this one at Reuters today about Hospitals being pressured to end free baby formula.  Oh, we could go on about to what extent it will happen, or maybe how it should've never been allowed to happen in the first place, but hey, it's a drop of good news in a big ocean.

From the article:

In a letter to more than 2,600 hospitals, dozens of consumer and health organizations called on the facilities to stop distributing free samples of formula that they say entangles healthcare providers in pharmaceutical and food manufacturers' marketing and could be seen as an endorsement.

Dozens of organizations huh?  That's a good sign.  I think unlike the 'Nutritional Battle' we fight so valiantly (or is that vainly) against Conventional Wisdom, breastfeeding when possible is seen as ideal by everyone.  The only problem, of course, is running into the $$$ - again from the article:

They are also petitioning the $4 billion infant formula industry's leaders - Abbott Laboratories, Mead Johnson Nutrition Co and Nestle SA - to halt the practice.

Hard to fight Big Boy's like that ... they don't take kindly to people taking from their pockets.  I mean profits.  I heard a long time ago about Nestle giving these 'swag' bags of formula to new mothers in Africa.  People actually started the Nestle boycott over this issue in 1977.

Anyway,  besides groups pressuring hospitals to drop the free formula practice, the article tells us that breastfeeding is on the rise here in the USA.  That's more good news.  However, with only 14% of six month old infants currently being exclusively breast fed, hopefully, we have no where to go but up.

Ah Breast milk, the ORIGINAL Paleo food.