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Monday, September 26, 2011

Fewer Hospitals Giving Away Free Formula

An increasing number of hospitals are no longer giving new moms industry-sponsored baby formula samples when they leave the hospital, and that's a good thing,  health experts say.

The number of hospitals choosing to discontinue this practice doubled, on average, in the past four years according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

However, most hospitals still send new parents home with samples of formula, even though major health organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend mothers try to exclusively breastfeed their babies for the first six months of life.  Breast milk is considered to be the best source of nutrition for newborns and infants.

"It's a change, but it's just a small change," says Anne Merewood, Ph.D., director of the Breastfeeding Center at Boston Medical Center and senior study author.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

here's a thought, how about letting us make our own decisions instead of forcing agendas down our throats. if someone doesn't want the samples they don't have to take them.