I just read this guest blog on PhD In Parenting, and before I was even 1/4 of the way through steam was venting from my ears!!!!

Short version: mom busts her ass to exclusively breastfeed her baby, at 4 weeks post partum appointment she's told congrats for exclusively breastfeeding: she wins a prize!!!

.... wanna guess what it was?!?

A lovely bag with bottle nipples, assorted baby paraphernalia, and of course, a great big can of baby formula!!

Who's formula was it you ask? I'll give you three guesses but I think you'll only need one.

Nestle
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

...and people still think that they are giving away all these freebees for the greater good of the world? That they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts? NO people. They do this to undermine breastfeeding mothers where ever they can. Do you really think they WANT you to breastfeed? This one mother figured out exactly why Nestle gives out these "freebees" and more importantly learns that Nestle/Gerbers "helpful" breastfeeding information is full of lies, and designed to sabotage breastfeeding.

A booby-trapped breastfeeding prize

....“I got this really cute, sporty black diaper bag full of all kinds of stuff. There were Nuk bottle nipples, some breastfeeding pamphlets that look to be full of lots of information, and, oddly enough, a huge can of formula. I mean, I won’t use that… no clue why that’s in there, but the rest seems cool. Can’t believe I got a prize!” she giddily reported.
“Laura, do you remember what brand of formula it was?” I asked.
“Oh, sure. It was Good Start, I think,” she replied.
Of course it was.
It was at that moment that I had to explain Booby Traps to my best friend, and I had to let her know that she had been handed one of the worst Booby Traps I’d ever heard of- a Nestle/Gerber sponsored diaper bag filled with formula, disguised as a “prize” for a mother who has busted her ass to exclusively BREASTFEED her son for the past 4 weeks.....

.....It also includes several pamphlets of information. The back of each one lists a 1-800 number for a line staffed by “registered dieticians” to discuss “breastfeeding and infant nutrition.” The main number is 1-800-811-7500, the Spanish number is 1-800-511-6862. The website given on the back is www.gerber.com.
The pamphlets are titled “Breastfeeding Basics,” “Gerber Generation Health Record,” and “Gerber Generation Nutrition Guide.”
I didn’t have time to discuss the content of each one with her, but we did go through the last one, “Gerber Generation Nutrition Guide,” pretty thoroughly because I was interested to see when they suggested parents begin babies on solids. This pamphlet is dedicated to discussing feeding “stages,” though they don’t break down the stages by assigning an actual age to each one. Instead, they break them down into Birth, Supported Sitter, Sitter, Crawler and Toddler.
The first mention of introducing solids (rice cereal) is made in the Supported Sitter section, specifically stating, “by around the middle of the first year almost all babies can start solid foods…Breastfed babies need certain nutrients from food to compliment breastmilk, such as iron and zinc. These nutrients can be found in fortified infant cereal. Zinc can also be found in pureed meats.”
There is also a handy chart in this section titled, “Transitioning From Breastmilk To Formula,” and breaks it down, eliminating a nursing session and adding a bottle of formula each day over a course of 14 days.
In the Sitter section there is an interesting bit about nursing strikes, titled “If Your Baby Loses Interest In Breastfeeding.” It states, “It may be weaning time if your repeated efforts to get your baby re-interested in breastfeeding don’t succeed. It may be that she’s ready to give up nursing.”
In the Crawler section breastfeeding isn’t even mentioned except on the food groups chart where it recommends 24 oz of breastmilk or formula a day or on demand. It goes on to also recommend 1 oz at 2 times a day of grains and cereal, 1/2cup of veggies, ½ cup of fruit and 1 oz of meat or beans.
Throughout the entire pamphlet there is a lot of emphasis put on the importance of iron, and it states over and over that iron can be found in their formula and iron fortified cereals. Laura even remarked, “As an uniformed consumer of formula, and all around new parent, the impression I get is they are really trying to push the extra iron in their foods and formulas, and make me feel like breastfeeding won’t provide enough (iron).”
I guess I can’t say I’m surprised, but I sure am disheartened to see something so blatantly underhanded given to a good friend who is doing everything in her power to ensure her own breastfeeding success. I’m glad we had the chance to chat while her little boy was nursing. I’m glad I had the opportunity to tell her all about Booby Traps. And though she may have felt a little embarrassed at first, she is empowered and informed now. She’s even taking the Nestle Boycott to heart and anxious to learn more about it… when she comes up for air (a.k.a. when her son starts sleeping more than 3 hour stretches).