Infant Nutrition Council

World Breastfeeding Week – 1-7 August 2010

editor — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:56:03 +0000

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August in more than 120 countries to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world. It commemorates the Innocenti Declaration made by WHO and UNICEF policy-makers in August 1990 to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

This year the theme is ‘Breastfeeding: Just 10 steps – the Baby-Friendly Way‘ which recognizes the vital role that health care facilities play in the establishment of breastfeeding. The joint WHO/UNICEF statement outlines the Ten Steps as follows:

10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding

Every facility providing maternity services and care for newborn infants should:

Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff
Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy
Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding
Place babies in skin-to-skin contact with their mothers immediately following birth for at least an hour and encourage mothers to recognise when their babies are ready to breastfeed, offering help if needed.
Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation even if they should be separated from their infants
Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breastmilk, unless medically indicated
Practise rooming-in, allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day
Encourage breastfeeding on demand
Give no artificial teats or dummies to breastfeeding infants
Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support and refer mothers on discharge from the facility.

www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org

Infant Nutrition Council Breastfeeding Policy

editor — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:16:04 +0000

Principles

The Infant Nutrition Council recognises;
that breastfeeding is the normal way to feed a baby
that breastfeeding provides valuable short and long-term health benefits for babies and mothers.
the rights of women to breastfeed without discrimination and the rights of infants to receive optimum nutrition from breastmilk.
that it is unlawful to treat a woman less favourably on the basis that she is breastfeeding under anti-discrimination laws (such as the Australia Federal Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and the NZ Human Rights Commission Act 1977 and Employment Relations Act 2000).
that breastfeeding provides long term benefits for employers and communities.

Aim

The Infant Nutrition Council is committed to promoting the value of breastfeeding and improving breastfeeding rates by proactively supporting the protection and promotion of breastfeeding.

Policy

The Infant Nutrition Council supports the aim of the World Health Organisation International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes (WHO 1981) through its members’ voluntary restriction of the marketing of infant formula through the Marketing in Australia of Infant Formulas: Manufacturers and Importers Agreement 1992 (MAIF Agreement) and in New Zealand the Infant Nutrition Council Code of Practice for the Marketing of Infant Formula.

The Infant Nutrition Council and its members are committed to including strategies and activities in their annual strategic planning that support, promote and protect breastfeeding.
The Infant Nutrition Council and its members encourage their employees to breastfeed and are committed to providing ongoing support to their employees to continue to breastfeed after returning to work.

The Infant Nutrition Council will work in collaboration with other breastfeeding advocates such as the Australian Breastfeeding Association, the New Zealand Breastfeeding Authority and other NGOs.

Support to breastfeed will include:

Support of legislation around paid maternity leave and enhancements to paid maternity leave.
The provision of paid maternity leave and further unpaid leave to a total of 12 months.
The offer of flexible working arrangements to more easily enable women to return to work and breastfeed simultaneously.
Workplace support to ensure that breastfeeding employees feel comfortable to breastfeed in the workplace and do not suffer discrimination or harassment as a result of doing so.

Promotion of breastfeeding will include;

Information about breastmilk and breastfeeding on the Infant Nutrition Council website.
Information on breastfeeding, including local resources, to all pregnant and breastfeeding employees.
The positive promotion of breastfeeding in appropriate company workplace areas and in-house communications with staff.
Awareness of the company’s breastfeeding policy to all staff and included in new employee induction.

INC’s members will work towards additional support to breastfeed through:

The provision of lactation breaks to enable mothers to breastfeed their infant or express their breastmilk.
The provision of a suitable facility in which mothers can breastfeed their infant or express and store their breastmilk. The facility will be clean, comfortable and private. It will include hand washing and milk storage facilities and an electrical outlet for mothers who use an electric breast pump.

References

World Health Organization Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding. (WHO 2003)
National Health and Medical Research Council: Dietary guidelines for children and adolescents in Australia: A guide to healthy eating (NHMRC 2003)
Food and Nutrition Guidelines for Healthy Infants and Toddlers (Aged 0-2) – A background paper (Ministry of Health 2008)
World Health Organisation International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (WHO 1981)

Printable PDF version

Mothers’ Experience of Bottle Feeding

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:39:21 +0000

The emphasis in health policy on breastfeeding promotion seems to escalate steadily,and yet in many countries the consequences are disappointing. In Australia and New Zealand mothers have one of the highest initiation rates of breastfeeding but more work needs to be centred on extending the duration.

Even mild iodine deficiency causes intellectual impairment in children

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:37:34 +0000

Several recent studies have shown that New Zealanders again have as high a prevalence of low iodine status as prior to the 1950swith many of all ages across the population being below WHO minimum levels. Since there has been no obvious recurrence of goitre or functional consequences, one might wonder whether the finding is of real significance, although it has been taken sufficiently seriously that as of the end of September 2009 iodine is added to almost all bread.

Bisphenol A (BPA)

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:42:33 +0000

The Infant Nutrition Council (INC) is aware of the latest report from the USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA), released on the 15th January 2010, suggesting that recent studies provide reason for some concern about the potential effects of Bisphenol A (BPA) on the brain, behaviour and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children.

INC supports the FDA recommendation to continue to use infant formula “as the benefit of a stable source of good nutrition outweighs the potential risk from BPA exposure”.

INC and its member companies have been and will continue to work with FSANZ to understand the effects of BPA. INC and FSANZ are currently reviewing the latest developments from the United States so that industry is able to respond to this issue in an appropriate manner.

It should also be noted that the FDA “recognizes substantial uncertainties with respect to the overall interpretation of these studies and their potential implications for human health effects of BPA exposure”. Other studies indicate that if there is any risk, it is extremely minimal.

For more information about BPA see Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ).

Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy 2010-2015

admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:39:09 +0000

The Infant Nutrition Council today offered its support for the Federal Government’s Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy 2010-2015.

The Council’s CEO Jan Carey agreed that breastmilk provided the best nutrition for infants.

“The Infant Nutrition Council recognises that breastmilk is the normal way to feed a baby and is important for baby’s health”, Ms Carey said. “We commend the Strategy’s coordinated and evidenced based approach to increasing breastfeeding rates in Australia.”

The Strategy, which was endorsed by State and Territory Health Ministers on Friday, provides a framework for priorities and action for all governments to address the protection, promotion, support and monitoring of breastfeeding throughout Australia.

But while Ms Carey welcomed the far-reaching Strategy, she said the Government failed to provide important nutritional information on breastmilk substitutes to mothers who can’t or choose not to breastfeed.

“When a baby is not being breastfed a lack of important nutritional information for the mother could result in poor or unsafe food choices for the baby – such as inappropriate breastmilk substitutes,” she said.

“We believe that the promotion of breastfeeding and the provision of information about infant formula need not be mutually exclusive.”

The Infant Nutrition Council supports both breastfeeding and infant formula and represents the major companies manufacturing, importing and marketing their own brands of infant formulas in Australia.

For more information on the Government’s Breastfeeding Strategy see Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy 2010-2015

Infant Nutrition Council Supports Government’s Breastfeeding Strategy

editor — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:33:15 +0000

Infant Nutrition Council Supports Government’s Breastfeeding Strategy (PDF)

Do we need to rethink the protein level of infant formula?

admin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:38:43 +0000

The protein level of ready to feed infant formula is significantly higher than that of human milk. This was a deliberate choice because firstly cow milk protein was considered not to be as well digested as human milk protein, and also the aminoacid composition which can be achieved with a mix of cow milk proteins [currently 60% whey and 40% casein] does not accurately match that of human milk proteins in terms of the blood levels of individual aminoacids produced in the infant. Indeed small amounts of some single aminoacids may be added to formula to try to correct this.

What is normal postnatal weight loss in breastfed infants?

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:57:15 +0000

While “everyone knows” that babies usually lose some weight in the early days of life, the amount of loss and its timing are surprisingly not well documented. This is especially surprising since “failure to gain” is an indication for investigation both of feeding adequacy and for some abnormality of health.

Breastfeeding and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:02:07 +0000

The view that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is a preventable condition has been reinforced by the positive results of numerous campaigns in several countries. Sometimes advice about the relevance of breastfeeding is given, sometimes it isn’t.