1.5 million babies die every year from not being BF - true or false?

[minkajane]

I see this number tossed around a lot as a WHO estimate of the number of babies who die every year as a direct result of not being breastfed. Nestle denies that the WHO ever said this. I've never seen an actual quote of it, just hearsay.

Anyone have actual documentation of this estimate?

[mamajake]

Originally Posted by minkajane

I see this number tossed around a lot as a WHO estimate of the number of babies who die every year as a direct result of not being breastfed. Nestle denies that the WHO ever said this. I've never seen an actual quote of it, just hearsay.

Anyone have actual documentation of this estimate?

Can't pull up the cite but I believe it is both WHO andUNICEF. I think one says a million and one says a million and a half.

[frenchie]

How on earth do they come up with that estimate. How is it determined that they die from not being breastfed?

[mamajake]

Originally Posted by frenchie

How on earth do they come up with that estimate. How is it determined that they die from not being breastfed?

The numbers are usually described as deaths from formula use. There are the direct numbers derived from formula mixed with contaminated water in developing countries. Easiest way to find the number is comparing mortalitiy rates between breastfed and formula fed kids in the same environments. Not hard to do.

[~Heyokha~]

I was just reading about this yesterday.


http://www.babymilkaction.org/resour...e.html#13aug01




Hopefully this will help. I'm still trying to read through all this myself

[nyxx]

Originally Posted by minkajane

I see this number tossed around a lot as a WHO estimate of the number of babies who die every year as a direct result of not being breastfed. Nestle denies that the WHO ever said this. I've never seen an actual quote of it, just hearsay.

there's a very interesting article from babymilkaction about the historical background of your question:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/resour...e.html#13aug01

Anyone have actual documentation of this estimate?

WHO, 2006:
WHY IS BREASTFEEDING IMPORTANT?
(...) The protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding rank among the most effective interventions to improve child survival. It is estimated that high coverage of optimal breastfeeding practices could avert 13% of the 10.6 million deaths of children under five years occurring globally every year. Exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life is particularly beneficial, and infants who are not breastfed in the first month of life may be as much as 25 times more likely to die than infants who are exclusively breastfed.
http://www.who.int/nutrition/publica...tionalcode.pdf


UNICEF, 2005:
Exclusive breastfeeding also minimises an infant’s exposure to potentially unsafe food or water, and now saves an estimated six million lives every year.
But too many babies are still dying because they’re not being breast fed.
“Research shows that exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months – with continued breastfeeding for the first year – could save 1.3 million lives every year,” says Miriam Labbok, UNICEF Senior Advisor on Infant and Young Child Feeding.
“This is well over 3,000 lives each and every day. And if breastfeeding is continued alongside appropriate complementary feeding until at least age two – we could be saving 5,500 additional lives each and every day of every year.”
http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_30006.html

[siobhang]

If you want good resources on the value of breastfeeding in developing countries, visit http://www.linkagesproject.org/techn...astfeeding.php

[tuansprincess]

indigo and nyxx - that is a great site! hopefully millions will take advantage of the boycott week :

[jeanine123]

Here's another link with some more info

http://www.babyreference.com/InfantDeaths.htm

Scroll down to the bottom for all of the references. You can plug them into Google or another search engine to find the original documents.

[baltic_ballet]

I think I remember reading somewhere that mothers where not using the correct dose (i.e. using a much smaller amount of formula than recomended) to make the can of formula stretch out and last longer but I can't remember where i heard it from

Was it true Nestle were/are sending out of date fomula overseas to poor countires to get rid of it?

[snowbunny]

I think that's actually an old estimate and the current estimate is closer to 2 million.

[blissful_maia]

Doesn't seem far off. I think I remember reading about this when I read "The Politics of Breastfeeding" for school... when you think about it, not only does breastfeeding offer them tremendous antibiotic protection that they wouldn't get with formula, but the formula is prepared in extremely unsanitary conditions with contaminated water. Poor babies.