Is Breast Feeding Best for all Infants, Everywhere?

Abstract

In discussing the current controversy on the effects of breast feeding and feeding on infant and child health the recent court case in Switzerland in which a larger producer of processed cows milk for infants was involved is examined. took legal action against a Swiss welfare group which maintained that Nestle kills babies by producing processed cows milk and promoting its sale. Discussion is also directed to acceptable infant food an illuminating study of infant feeding in an English provincial town and malnutrition. The manufacture primarily in Europe and North America of infant foods based on processed cows milk has grown into a large industry with sales all around the globe. In countries such as England where rising living standards and better health education allowed for their convenient provision they rapidly replaced breast milk. within a few decades breast feeding became exceptional. Elizabeth and John Newsons (1963) study of infant feeding in an English provincial town reported that the necessary precondition of any large-scale breast feeding decline is the availability and inexpensiveness of appropriate artificial or substitute foods feeding bottles teats and the means of sterilization. The increasing use of processed cows milk and decreasing infant mortality have coincided in affluent countries during the past century. Advocates of breast feeding in developing countries who stress the dangers of artificial feeding rarely give due weight to this fact. It fails to support the idea that the manufacturers and sellers of processed cows milk for bottle feeding are killing babies.