Commerciogenic Malnutrition

Concerns about the gradual replacement of breastmilk with commercial infant foods in industrialised and developing countries were first voiced in the late 1930s. By the 1960s, breastfeeding was in rapid decline in many parts of the world. By 1967, just one-quarter of babies born in US hospitals were breastfed when their mothers took them home.

The infant food industry used a wide range of promotional methods to increase demand for its products: it stressed that infant formula was equivalent or superior to breastmilk; it played on women's concerns that they did not have enough breastmilk; it depicted healthy-looking babies on its products and promotions; it dressed its salespersons as nurses; it sent large quantities of free supplies of formula to maternity wards; and it worked through the medical profession.

Judith Richter
Briefing No.26
Corner House