Mailing from Similac

[starwishful]

We all already know the formula companies are sneaky, but I wondered what you all would make of something I noticed in one of their mailings. I'm on their mailing list and they even seem to know when my son was born (not sure why? Registries? Ped's office?). I always read mail from them before throwing it out to see what kind of nonsense they're currently spewing. I got a mailing today that talks about starting solid foods and gives a sample daily menu for your baby for when you start solids. In a few places in the mailing, they talked about how formula or breast milk (putting formula first of course!) should still be your baby's main source of nutrition for the whole first year, but every time they mentioned breast milk, they said "expressed breast milk." It was the oddest thing to me and I wondered if there was some motivation to it. It read as though their perception was that if your baby was still getting any breast milk at all, it would only be "expressed breast milk," not milk from the tap. Why do you think they added the word "expressed"? I feel like they're up to something with that, but I can't quite figure it out! And it wasn't just when talking about mixing cereal with formula or breast milk... it was EVERY TIME they talked about breast milk at all. Hmmmm...

[EarthyMamaofDaisy]

I noticed this too, and it really irritated me. I meant to email Similac and I forgot too. As if breastfeeding moms would really choose to sit around and pump all day instead of nurse. I had mentioned it to my Mom and she suggested that maybe they assumed that most moms work and have to give their babies bottles of pumped milk. But still... even a working mom would nurse when not working.

[evlu]

There's definitely motivation behind pretty much everything in marketing materials. My guess for the "expressed breastmilk" line is that they're trying to imply (to mamas who don't know any better) that "by now, baby should be drinking from a bottle! You don't feed babies this old straight from the breast!" They are trying to separate breastmilk from breastfeeding, which (1) puts breastmilk on a more equal footing with formula, by taking mom out of the equation and making breastmilk just one of many options of what to put in baby's bottle, and (2) makes bottle-feeding the norm: babies are supposed to be bottle-fed; the only difference is what's in the bottle. If the subtle hints to mom work, she'll get the message that the "developmentally appropriate" and "normal" thing to do is to start giving expressed breastmilk rather than direct breastfeeding, which generally requires (a) buying bottles -- another way to make money! and (b) pumping. Of course exclusive pumping is more time-consuming and a lot less convenient than direct breastfeeding, and can be difficult for some women to both pump enough milk and keep up supply: all of this makes it more likely that mom will give up breastfeeding and switch to formula. Which, obviously, is the company's ultimate goal.

[TattoMomK]

evlu is awesome with her assessment -- here all I thought of was:

which bottle company shares a parent company with Similac.

By the way, in Mothering's latest issue it says Evenflo is the FIRST bottle company to become WHO compliant in support of breastfeeding!

[Perdita_in_Ontario]

Originally Posted by evlu

There's definitely motivation behind pretty much everything in marketing materials.

I agree. From what I've learned about marketing, especially marketing when there's a lot of money behind it, is that every. single. word. is evaluated and chosen carefully. And I think the reasons here are exactly what evlu suggested.

P