Formula advertising on my niece's hospital crib? Is this normal? - Page 2

[miche28]

I'm not sure about isolette cards in general (the ones I have are generic), but I know that in the hospital, all the little pads they use for scales were Isomil and the tape measure (that they send home with every baby as a keepsake) was Enfamil.

BLECH!

[Ruthla]

Originally Posted by julie128

Y'know, it's not any more moral for Medela to use advertising in an isolette than a formula company. Product placement is product placement, and the hospital shouldn't be advertising for anyone. Period. There is no reason the hospital couldn't have generic isolette cards.

Ah, but if it's product placement, the hospital gets them for free from Similac or Medela. If they're generic cards, the hospital needs to pay for them.

Medela offering "BF baby cards" gives the hospitals a free, convenient alternative to the formula company cards.

[annethcz]

Originally Posted by julie128

Y'know, it's not any more moral for Medela to use advertising in an isolette than a formula company. Product placement is product placement, and the hospital shouldn't be advertising for anyone. Period. There is no reason the hospital couldn't have generic isolette cards.

I agree with you. It's not common, but hospitals are starting to change their ways. My DH works for a health care company, and last year they instituted a policy that employees are no longer allowed to accept gifts of any kind. So while it's a bummer that DH (who works in IT) can't go to sports events and sit in the Microsoft corporate box, it also means that doctors and nurses can't accept pens, bags, lunches, measuring tapes, growth charts, etc. from pharma reps either. I think this is progress

[shanti1]

Interesting. My kids all had little signs w/name/birthdate/weight/length and a "I'm a breastfed baby. No artificial nipples please."

It was made by Medela.

[MyIzumi]

Huh. Nothing like that on dd2's but she was in the NICU : and they were super-pro-bf. (Like, even if you pump two drops bring in it for your baby, please!! Had 2 LCs working there too. ) Darn $$$$ formula companies. I'm reading that Milk, Money, and Madness book now, about a similar theme. Very enlightening read, if really disturbing facts....

[darkviolets]

I don't remember if DS's stats card had a similar phrase, but I do remember that it had the little Ross bear on it, which obviously implies sponsoring. I know I have it saved somewhere, I should dig it out to see.

The thing that irked me even more than that tho was those damn Enfamil bags! I had to shove mine back at the nurse 4 times before she'd take it back.. She kept insisting I needed to take it, even tho I told her 80 billion times I didn't want it and wouldn't use it.

[ramama]

My DDs only has a generic card on their bassinet. In addition to an abnormally large sign that said "no pacifiers" and another that said "no bottles of water" or something like that. There was a separate sign, again generic that said "I'm a breastfed baby."

I don't like seeing advertisements anywhere, Medela or Enfamil alike. But I'm a flawed human and would rather see a BF-friendly logo than a formula company logo. Hypocritical, I know.

Originally Posted by MyIzumi

I'm reading that Milk, Money, and Madness book now, about a similar theme. Very enlightening read, if really disturbing facts....

OT, but if you haven't already I highly recommend picking up Mother's Milk by Bernice Hausman. Milk, Money, and Madness really got my blood boiling!

[luvmy3bees]

DD was a ross one. DS1 was Pampers. And youngest ds, I can't recall right now. Scary because that was only 9 months ago! LOL

[LittlePeanut]

I've never seen or heard of these cards and I am absolutely horrified to hear that it's not an isolated incident I could almost understand if it was a FF baby but on every child's bed??? Horrible. Is there a way to stop this practise?

LP

[phreedom]

Yep we have these stupid cards at our hospital too. There is one group of pedi's that use their own special cards though that don't have any advertising on them.

[Labyrinth]

Wouldn't it be nice if someone would put cards that encouraged breastfeeding?

It's also horribly inaccurate- generic formula has to pass the same tests that brand name formulas like similiac have to pass- basically the generics are nutritionally equal to their brand names, only similiac costs $10 more : .