The Trump administration reportedly bullied other governments in an attempt to prevent the passage of an international resolution promoting breastfeeding. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Advocates for improved nutrition for babies have expressed outrage over reports that the Trump administration bullied other governments in an attempt to prevent the passage of an international resolution promoting breastfeeding.

Under the terms of the original WHO text, countries would have encouraged their citizens to breastfeed on grounds that research overwhelmingly shows its health benefits, while warning parents to be alert to inaccurate marketing by formula milk firms.

The New York Times first reported how the Trump administration reacted forcefully to the resolution, which otherwise had the consensus support of all other assembly members. It pushed to remove a phrase from the draft text that would exhort governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding”.  To Know

This is not a new issue:

2003                        Baby milk marketing ‘breaks rules (West Africa)

1985                        Breastfeeding versus infant formula: the Kenyan case

1981                        The Controversy Over Infant Formula (Jamaica, Ghana,                                                         Nigeria, Peru, Panama, Thailand)

1960’s                    Nestle’ in the Developing World: a Formula for Trouble?

 

To know colonizer descendants don’t place a high value on their own children is to know they can’t place a high value on ‘our’ children.