Newborns 'at risk' from milk formula Best start … breast-feeding
rates are declining in places. BREAST might be best but 30 years
of product boycotts and regulation has failed to stop big
companies promoting infant formula in ways that put babies and
small children at risk in developing countries, new research
shows. A report by the aid agency Save the Children has named a
clutch of global brands including Nestle, Danone, Mead Johnson,
Abbott, Enfamil and Friso as being involved in questionable
marketing practices. It estimates 95 babies could be saved every
hour, or 830,000 a year, if new mothers across the world
breastfed immediately after giving birth. When babies receive
colostrum - the mother's first milk - within an hour of birth,
it kick-starts the child's immune system, making them three
times more likely to survive. Babies in developing countries
breastfed for six months are up to 15 times less likely to die
from diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea. But the report
says a lack of education in poo