Parents Right to Information

IFM Position
Supporting Parent’s Right to Information

• IFM member companies support a policy of providing parents and other caregivers with objective and consistent information on optimal feeding practices. Choosing a method for infant or young child feeding is ultimately the parent’s decision. However, in making this decision, parents should rely on the advice of physicians, nutritionists, and other health professionals who are extensively trained in this area and that will take the unique nutritional needs of the individual infant or young child into consideration when advising them. 
  
  
• The World Health Organization (WHO) also stresses the need for parents to be able to make informed feeding choices. This can include such important decisions as whether to breastfeed or formula feed their infant or the appropriate age at which to introduce complementary foods.
  
  
• Breastfeeding is the ideal and recommended method of infant feeding. However, mothers who are unable, or choose not to, should be supported in accordance with the conclusions of the WHO’s Expert Consultation on the Optimal Duration of Exclusive Breastfeeding: “The Expert Consultation recognizes that some mothers will be unable to, or choose not to, follow this recommendation [to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months, with the introduction of complementary foods and continued breastfeeding thereafter]. These mothers should also be supported to optimize their infants’ nutrition.”
  
  
• Infant formulas play a critical public health role in fulfilling the nutritional needs of babies whose mothers do not breastfeed. No other breast-milk substitute is as safe or nutritious as infant formula developed according to national legislation and standards set by international bodies such as the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission.
  
  
• A recent study of new mothers, which probed their experience of, and attitudes toward, using infant formula reveals the majority of mothers receive information about breastfeeding (80%), while less than half receive information about formula feeding (47%). It is noted that mothers “often have to work hard to find information about formula feeding, sometimes when in a state of anxiety because they had not planned to formula feed.”
  
  
• Many mothers who cannot or choose not to breastfeed report feelings of failure and guilt; however, these mothers also have a strong desire for more information and support. Providing these mothers with accurate information about all appropriate forms of infant feeding would help alleviate their feelings of worry, frustration, anger, resentment and lack of trust in their health care professional.
  
  
• Parents should receive accurate information about all infant feeding options from health care professionals. This will ensure they feel confident that their child’s well being is not at stake, regardless of whether they choose to breastfeed or formula-feed their infant.
  
  
• The infant formula industry serves as a valuable educational resource for health care professionals and ensures that they have accurate information about infant and young child feeding practices. Accurately informed, health care workers can best help parents to exercise their right to make informed choices about what works best for their personal situation.

Posted September 11, 2006.