What’s New!

• February 10, 2012The University of Alberta is planning to award Mr. Peter Brabeck-Latmathlé, the Chairman of Nestlé, an honorary degree. Protests are coming on from all over the world. Nestlé is infamous for practices including the destruction of water resources and aggressive marketing of infant formula.
• February 3, 2012WABA is organising a global breastfeeding photography contest for World Breastfeeding Week 2012. Ten winning photos will be selected and featured in the WBW Action Folders, Posters and Banners. Winners will receive US$100 for each published photo.
• January 16, 2012Abbott Nutrition webcast would target Canadian health care providers. Health care providers across Canada Wednesday will be the target of an Abbott webcast formula promotion focusing on two of its marketing gimmicks, prebiotics and lutein.
• November 18, 2011Baby malnutrition products guidelines debated at latest Codex meeting. IBFAN is concerned that the new ‘business of malnutrition’ that these products are spearheading will harm infant and young child health and drain family budgets.
• October 15, 2011Canada is refusing to go to The World Conference on Social Determinants of Health. Sign the online petition calling on Stephen Harper to “show up” for health by ensuring that Canada’s Minister of Health attends.
• September 12, 2011Royal Victoria Hospital Seminar Would Promote Infant Formula to Paediatrics Department Staff. The planned one-hour talk at the Barrie hospital to promote Mead Johnson formula is masquerading as a scholarly seminar.
  » Mead Johnson Seminar Cancelled! «
• August 25, 2011Ask the UN to stop partnering with the baby food and junk food industries. Sign the petition to the President of the United Nations General Assembly to prevent the UN from partnering with manufacturers of unhealthy foods.
• August 17, 201121st Annual National Breastfeeding Conference website launched. The 2011 Breastfeeding Conference promises to be a stimulating, informative and exciting venue to connect with colleagues.
• June 27, 2011Internet-based milk-sharing gains prominence. This grass roots movement, epitomized by the Eats on Feets and Human Milk 4 Human Babies websites, could blossom into an invaluable international resource.
• June 13, 2011Why formula companies love “breast is best.” Learn how formula companies use this slogan to serve their own purposes.
• May 25, 2011There are problems with Margaret Wente’s “Tyranny.” Carol Wainio picks apart problems with quotations in Margaret Wente’s Globe and Mail article, “The tyranny of mother’s milk.”
• May 18, 2011Baby Milk Action and IBFAN present formula marketing violations. A video excerpt from the Geneva press conference which summarized the report, Breaking the Rules, Stretching the Rules 2011 is available online.
• May 18, 2011“Infant Formula Explained” DVD is now available from Baby Milk Action. A new film aims to equip health workers with the information they need to answer questions like, “Which formula is the best?” and “How do I make a bottle?”
• May 13, 2011On the 30th Anniversary of the International Code, companies continue to breach its provisions. Infant formula companies continue to breach the provisions of the 30-year-old Code.
• April 19, 2011New Online Resource: WHA Resolutions Relevant to the Code. You can now peruse summaries of the 16 World Health Assembly resolutions relevant to the International Code on a new INFACT Canada web page.
• April 13, 2011World Breastfeeding Week 2011 announced. Our theme: “Talk to me! Breastfeeding - a 3D Experience,” deals with communication at various levels and between various sectors.
• March 23, 2011Breastfeeding in the Face of Natural Disaster and Nuclear Meltdown. Kathleen Marinelli comments on breastfeeding and the Japanese calamity in her blog on The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.
• March 19, 2011Canadian Perinatal and Pediatric Conference receives unconditional grant from Nestlé Nutrition. INFACT Quebec has written a letter to the organizers of the conference; you are encouraged to do the same.
  » Nestlé did not sponsor the conference! «
• March 16, 2011European Parliamentarians oppose bogus baby food health claim. The EU voted to stop the claim that DHA when added to follow-on formulas and baby foods improves babies’ vision.
• March 15, 2011Are you fed up with formula promotions? Let the Minister of Health know that you want Health Canada to support mothers to breastfeed without commercial intervention.
• January 31, 2011Ann Veneman, controversial former Executive Director of Unicef, will join the Nestlé Board. Veneman, the executive director of Unicef from 2005 to 2010, makes a shocking career move from an organisation that supports breastfeeding to one that undermines breastfeeding.
• January 31, 2011Toronto Star reports on Health Canada’s Nutrition for Healthy Term Infants revision process. The Toronto Star finds out from Teresa Pitman and Elisabeth Sterken how this document needs to be fixed.
• January 21, 2011US Surgeon General Releases Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding. The guidelines support exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and the important health gains when mothers and babies exclusively breastfeed.
• January 20, 2011Ask Health Canada to extend the deadline for consultation on its draft nutritional guidelines for children from birth to six months. Please consider signing the online petition personally or on behalf of your organization.
• January 18, 2011Health Canada is revising Canada’s infant and young child feeding policy statement: Nutrition for Healthy Term Infants. It is critical that Canada’s revision reflect the evidence based, optimal feeding practices as recommend by the WHO, and the WHO/UNICEF Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding.
• January 14, 2011WHO breastfeeding recommendations are under attack from industry-funded scientists. Are the infant formula industries attempting to undermine the WHO recommendations that infants be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life?
• January 7, 2011In Montreal a mother was told to stop nursing in a store. In reaction the Montreal breastfeeding movement is organising a nurse-in to support mother's and children's rights.
• December 7, 2010Mother’s milk and safe milk sharing: Health Canada’s advisory lacks scientific basis. The recent media focus on the mothers’ movement Eats on Feets has resulted in a Health Canada advisory warning mothers against the use of another mother’s milk unless it comes from a donor milk bank.
• August 10, 2010Chinese formula is seen causing sexual prematurity in infants. A number of months-old babies were found to be showing symptoms of breast development and abnormal levels of female hormones.
• August 10, 2010Gisele Bundchen, Nutrition Expert? Yes! A Huffington Post article from well known pediatrician Jay Gordon following the enthusiastic comments by Gisele Bundchen about her breastfeeding experience.
• August 2, 2010The World Health Organisation has released a statement with the title: “Breastfeeding Key to Saving Children’s Lives”.
• June 25, 2010The G-8 and G-20 meetings to be held in Canada will focus on the Maternal Newborn Child Health Initiative. Help make breastfeeding protection, promotion, support and Safe Motherhood a priority for the G-8 and G-20 meetings June, 2010.
• May 25, 2010Two key items of importance on the agenda at the WHA. IBFAN members attended the annual World Health Assembly in May to advocate for the passage of global policies to advance infant and young child nutrition and health.
• May 12, 2010White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity recommends breastfeeding to reduce risk of obesity. Pediatrics study shows Bottle-fed babies may eat more.
• May 7, 2010Loblaw’s formula sales tactics put Canadian children and mothers at risk. INFACT Canada is now receiving reports from parents that Loblaw is handing out formula packs with coupons that provide a full rebate for the purchase of the formula.
• April 23, 2010Feeding bottle images on Canadian passport application materials. Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs has placed images of feeding bottles on the materials accompanying passport applications for children under the age of 16.
• April 7, 2010Join LLLI and WABA in Celebration of: World Health Day, April 7, 2010: 1000 Cities, 1000 Lives.
• March 15, 2010We are please to announce the global World Breastfeeding Week 2010 theme as set by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action—WABA.
• March 12, 2010New Resources Available: Code Essentials Booklets give breastfeeding advocates the essentials about the need to regulate the marketing of baby foods.
• January 25, 2010Call for support for appropriate infant and young child feeding in Haiti. UNICEF, WHO and WFP call for support for appropriate infant and young child feeding in the current emergency, and caution about unnecessary and potentially harmful donations and use of breast-milk substitutes.
• January 14, 2010Urge Health Canada to protect breastfeeding and ban nutrition and health claims for infant formula and complementary foods for infants and young children.
• December 28, 2009INFACT Canada needs your help. Your contributions are needed more than ever to help continue INFACT Canada’s programming to promote, support and protect breastfeeding.
• December 15, 2009Heinz issues nation-wide baby food recall. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Heinz Canada have issued a Canada-wide recall of one of the company’s baby cereals.
• December 15, 2009Mead Johnson guilty of false advertising, U.S. court finds. U.S. formula manufacturer Mead Johnson’s advertising for its Enfamil brand is misleading and unfounded, according to a federal court ruling.
• October 16, 2009“Have a baby feeding backup plan” piece extols the virtues of infant formula. Published by the Regina Leader-Post and quoting heavily from Dr. Susan Russell, the supposedly unbiased article reads like an ad for Nestlé, hitting all of the formula industry’s main talking points including repeatedly mentioning that breastfeeding is difficult and not everyone can do it.
• September 22, 2009The Associated Press has published an article revealing gross violations of Vietnam’s formula marketing laws. Multinational formula companies are giving commissions to doctors for every tin of formula sold, are repeatedly calling new mothers once they return from the hospital, and have even sent company representatives to clinics posing as academic researchers.
• July 8, 2009INFACT Canada Summer Sale! For the next few months, we will be offering discounted prices on some of our most popular resources.
• June 18, 2009Nestlé Nutrition is listed as a major sponsor of a national nutrition conference. The Alberta Health Services First Annual Canadian Perinatal and Pediatric Nutrition Conference being held in Edmonton on September 25-26 is not only being sponsored by Nestlé, but one of its speakers will be a Nestlé employee.
• June 17, 2009INFACT Canada presents two upcoming LMCs in downtown Toronto. Facilitated by Linda Smith BSE, FACCE, IBCLC, the first course will be on September 23rd, 24th, and 25th, 2009; the second on November 18th, 19th, and 20th, 2009.
• June 16, 2009Formula company Mead Johnson has sunk to a new low with the launch of a website promoting its Enfamil brand. The website, targeted at U.S. consumers, is entitled “The Breast Milk Formula – Enfamil” and uses the slogan “Our closest formula to breastmilk.”
• May 31, 2009Canadian Breastfeeding Protection Petition Launched.
  We urge you to sign the Canadian Breastfeeding Protection Petition, which calls for action on improving breastfeeding support for mothers and babies across Canada. We will deliver the signatures directly to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
• 31 mai 2009Pétition pour la protection de l’allaitement lancée.
  Nous vous invitons à signer la pétition ci-dessous invitant des actions pour l’amélioration du soutien à l’allaitement pour les mères et les bébés canadiens. Nous remettrons les signatures directement au Premier Ministre Stephen Harper.
• May 28, 2009The Politics of Breastfeeding By Gabrielle Palmer now available.
  In the third edition of her groundbreaking book, Palmer describes the damaging effects of infant formula marketing, and the political and social issues surrounding infant feeding.
• May 26, 2009CPS allies with formula companies
  The upcoming CPS annual conference is being sponsored in part by some of the world’s biggest formula companies.
• May 22, 2009Help save Cambridge’s lactation consultants
  Cambridge Memorial Hospital is considering eliminating all outpatient and inpatient lactation consultant services. The Cambridge Community Breastfeeding Group has launched a campaign to keep the LC’s.
• May 11, 2009New video addresses unethical formula marketing
  IBFAN UK produces 10-minute online video to mark Breastfeeding Awareness Week, which is being celebrated this week in Britain.
• August 21, 2007Breastfeeding battle rages on in Philippines
  This month as communities around the world marked international World Breastfeeding Week, formula companies in the Philippines launched an advertising offensive designed to undermine breastfeeding in that country.
• July 18, 2007Mayor of Ottawa accepts sponsorship from Mead Johnson
  Ottawa Mayor, Larry O'Brien, organizes ‘Baby Supply Cupboard’ food bank food drive. Mead Johnson is a sponsor.
• January 29, 2007New WHO/UNICEF 20-Hour Lactation Management Courses to be held in Toronto, Whitehorse and Brampton are advertised on the site. Online registration is available for all courses.