Should prescriptions be required for formula?
Allison over at The Attached Mother has some great thoughts about the whole “should prescriptions be required for formula?” question. I agree with her that requiring a prescription would a little too “militant”. And I love her recommendation that some sort of questionnaire be given to mothers to find out why they are quitting. This could go a long way in helping the breastfeeding community determine how we can best support breastfeeding mothers.
But requiring a prescription? I’d never support that. Make no mistake about it, I have no love at all for the companies that produce and market formula. I’ve made it no secret that their aggressive marketing tactics make me angry, particularly in 3rd countries. But I don’t necessarily fault a mother for using formula. Yeah, I think formula is crap, but I’ll admit it here in front of the world that my kid has had a McDonald’s cheeseburger. Or two. Besides, if we start requiring prescriptions for formula, where else could that lead us? I know folks disagree with me for not having gates on my stairs and that weird molding crap on my fireplace hearth. Even co-sleeping is still a bit controversial and I’ve had more than one person get all squinty-eyed on me as if I was putting my child in mortal danger.
So, no. No prescriptions please.
breastfeeding, formula, prescriptions
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July 6th, 2007 at 9:52 am
I actually disagree. I think making it harder to get formula, rather than the 4 billion free samples passed out by everyone, would help mothers to stick with breastfeeding. It also would help prevent those who get free formula from services such as WIC from not trying because they get formula for free. I think not only should it be harder to get formula, you also have to get the precription from an infant nutritian specialist.
July 6th, 2007 at 9:54 am
I agree that prescriptions are overkill. Enough mothers feel like they are failures when they are unable to breastfeed. I know that a lot of the fanatic breast feeders think that inability to breastfeed is a myth, but it isn’t. When your child is hungry and screaming his lungs out because he’s hungry and you can’t feed him from your body, that is bad enough without having to prove to someone that you need formula to feed him or her. What a slap to the face of a possibly already defeated woman.
To someone that proposes prescriptions, how would you go about getting it? Would you need to schedule an appointment with a screaming kid in your arms and then hope they could get you in on time?
Really, I find such a thought pretty horrifying and even a little offensive.
I’m glad there is formula, sure, I don’t agree with their marketing tactics, but there are a lot of children who have had it because they need it. My mother couldn’t breastfeed, she didn’t produce enough to feed for any of us three kids. Luckily for us, there is formula.