Breast milk in Paterna free?

"Free breast milk in Paterna." This is what the unfortunate headline says of a few days ago in La Gaceta.

According to the news, the city council of Paterna and the College of Pharmacists have signed an agreement to promote healthy living thanks to which Paterna pharmacies they will distribute breastfeeding milk free for two months to the neediest families of the municipality, among other actions.

Both the news and the headline are quite unfortunate and this is the main reason to echo this news.

The recommendations of the WHO, Unicef, AEP, AAP, etc., as we have said several times, are to exclusively breastfeed infants up to six months and complementing breast milk with another diet for a minimum of two years .

This means that an adequate measure of a city council to promote healthy living would be anyone who helps mothers breastfeed their babies during that time (or simply to help them breastfeed). Giving milk to needy families is fine, but it is better to encourage breastfeeding, which in addition to being of better quality than artificial milk, is free and therefore it is not necessary to give it away.

On the other hand, the holder is (almost) on duty court. The news is referring to artificial milk but speaks of it as "breast milk." If you are not even allowed to say "infant formula" when talking about artificial milk, much less say "motherly."

In conclusion. Paterna does not give breast milk, but artificial, to families that cannot afford it. Given that breast milk has countless benefits at the nutritional and immunological level, children in families with few resources of Paterna would be more protected at the health level if they were breastfed.

I do not understand therefore that breastfeeding is not promoted where it is not necessary to take into account special hygiene situations (when preparing or washing the bottles) and it looks like great news to give artificial milk as if it were treated of a wonderful measure in terms of health and economy.

Video: Make Your Own Baby Milk Supplement For Breast Milk (March 2024).