Sympathy Pain

I wrote a few days ago about the boycott on Nestle. I continued to read up on the issue. We have continued to use Nestle Good Start formula with Natural Culture. It seems to be the best fir for Tony. I did send Nestle corporate an e-mail, and here’s the response:

Dear Mr. Comer,
you may want to check our dedicated website www.babymilk.nestle.com
Be reminded that the information available on Wikis about the Nestlé boycott is about half urban legend.
You may also want to check reference documents as this one from the WHO : www.who.int/nutrition/publications/code_english.

regards,
Nestlé Student Information

I waded through some of the pamphlets and such. Now, all of this is on the Nestle web site, so there may be a polishing of the truth to make them look better. Maybe not, but here are a couple of the “myths” as they put it, and their response:

Myth: Some mothers have received free samples of infant
formula from Nestlé in South Africa.
Reality: A campaign group report stated that three mothers had received free Nestlé infant formula. This is true, but does not give the whole picture. The Nestlé formula actually came from the Government Department of Health as part of its initiative to address protein energy malnutrition. This government programme involved procuring infant formula on tender from manufacturers including Nestlé and, where deemed necessary by health officials,giving it free to mothers whose children were suffering from protein energy malnutrition.

The boycott pages made it seem like the mothers of poorer area were using Nestle because it was been given to them and spun as the only substitute. Here’s a clip:

Even though some rural mothers are illiterate, they are intelligent enough to know that breastfeeding is the best way to feed a baby and that it costs nothing. If for any reason a mother cannot breast-feed (as it is sometimes the case), alternatives are found. For mothers with very limited income, infant formula is not even a consideration. Mothers use alternatives such as fresh cow’s milk, rooibos (bush tea), maize-meal porridge and samp water (water drained from cooked, crushed corn). Whether these are the best alternatives to breast-milk is questionable, but they are used out of necessity and are introduced immediately the mother’s milk is insufficient or unavailable.

So I guess I am not sure what the issue rally is. If all I read on Nestle’s page is true, I don’t see why the boycott continues.