Caribbean - IBFAN

NUTRICIA
� Sari Husada frequently donates
gifts such as baby cot
tags, baby feeding schedules,
beddings, briefcases, information
materials, leaflets, immunisation
tables, growth charts,
wall clocks, water dispensers,
posters, notebooks and stickers
to health workers. These
items carry brand names of
formulas such as Vitalac 1 or
2 or SGM. One finds them in waiting rooms, examination
rooms and in front of delivery rooms.
� Sari Husada also provides health facilities with unsolicited
supplies of SGM, SGM 1 and Vitalac 1. These
are then passed on to mothers. What brand of formula
mothers receive depends on the ward class they
are in. Mothers in first class wards receive more expensive
brands.
� In Malaysia, Nutricia
provides unsolicited
supplies of Bebelac 1
and Bebelac EC to private
clinics which then
distribute them as free
samples.�
� Health facilities display
products such as Nutrilon
and Nenatal in
wards, health worker’s
offices and, ironically, in
breastfeeding rooms for
mothers.�
� In one health facility,
a Nutricia
Parents’Guide on
Entertaining and
Educating Young
Children advertises
Crème Nutricia
starting from 4
months as “the
perfect balance”
(back cover).�
� In Peru, Bago Sancor donates unsolicited supplies
of Bago Prematura and Sancor Bebe to health facilities,
including BFHI accredited ones, and mothers
receive free tins of Sancor Bebe from health
workers.
� In Serbia, health facilities
display posters featuring
the Bebelac brand.�
Breaking the Rules, Stretching the Rules 2004
� In Mexico, a poster in a
health facility shows a
picture of a baby and
states “Bebelac, the number
one for your baby”.�
� Health workers in Serbia receive gifts such as desk
calendars, pens, diaries and notepads featuring the
Bebelac or Bebelac EC brand names.
� A Nutricia Infacare poster which says “That special
closeness” is displayed in South African health facilities
in reception areas.
� Nutricia provides
health professionals
in the UAE with
Bebelac and
Nutrilon prescription
pads. These
show pack shots
and brand names
with little check
boxes for the doctor
to tick. The flipside of the pads contain more
promotion and claims such as “Nutricia Prebiotics”
produces a “bifidogenic effect similar to that of
breastmilk”.
� A desktop calendar given to
health workers in the UAE
shows a father cradling a
baby and five pack shots of
the Bebelac range of formulas
with a different colour
scheme for each month representing
the
shades of the five different
Bebelac labels.�
� A brochure on Bebelac 1 in
UAE claims the product has “a
unique vegetable fat mix for superior
infant development” and
that “early supplementation of
vegetable fats can determine
the infant’s IQ level.”�
72 International Baby Food Action Network -- IBFAN