Quote:
Originally posted by JustAmina!
My co-worker is posting right now - she has two very smart, happy, healthy, athletic bottle-fed kids. Here is what she says:
The article based on the boycott is based on the fact that in the third world countries there is not the same standard of living as we have here. They do not have clean water nor the means to provide formula. They get hooked on a product (formula), yet the water is contaminated, there isn't enough formula because there isn't enough money to buy formula for their baby....hence they wind up with 2-3 thousand babies dying per DAY.
These companies lure women into bottle-feeding when these woman clearly can not afford to do so. They do not have WIC in these countries. So, the family spends up to 50% of their income trying to feed their babies.
So, yes, in third world countries, bottle feeding is dangerous. Very dangerous.
My 2 kids are very healthy and they were raised on formula - but I had ENOUGH formula and clean water to mix it with.
-Marie (Amina's co-worker)
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It seems though, that there is this desire to save people from themselves and to save them from the consequences that come from not educating yourself before making choices. It seems there is this push to boycott a product, that seems bad because some people doin't know how to use it, and don't desire to make sure they are using it correctly. Formula in the hands of an educated/intelligent person is perfectly fine.
This type of argument could be made for so many other products. Like baby walkers being dangerous, when the walker itself wasn't dangerous, it was the parents who thought they could stop supervising their moveable child once they placed them in it, that were dangerous. One could say that we should boycott vegetarinism lifestyles because some people do them wrong and put their children's health at risk. Or boycotting all diet programs because there are so many people who decide to do a diet program and then don't do it correctly and put their health at risk. One could say that ANY over the counter or prescription medication shouldn't be marketed, because what if parents use it incorrectly? What if they only give half of a pill to make it last longer because they can't afford to buy more, and the child dies because they needed the full does of medication to get better? What if the parent isn't fully aware of how much to give and the child dies because the parent gives too little or too much?
I'm really not trying to pick one side over another. The picture is indeed sad, and it is indeed sad that babies are dying. But it seems they are dying because parents aren't educating themselves on a product they plan to use to give their baby. Sure they don't live in America and don't have our education level, but why are parents choosing to use a product to feed their baby without making sure they know how to read the directions and follow them, and making sure they can financially keep doing so as the baby ages? There may very well be tons of parents like that here in America who are daily putting their kid's lives at risk for making choices without any common sense behind those choices. But if we keep saving them from their own lack of interest in being educated about what they give their child, we are setting up a lifestyle of them never desiring to be educated. We are telling them, it's okay to not be educated about products, because we'll do all the work and only give you products that can't be used incorrectly. And if it is used incorrectly we won't blame the parent who used it wrong, we'll blame the manufacturers and marketers of that product.