Advertising of breast milk substitutes may be banned in Russia

The State Duma will consider an initiative to ban advertising of breastfeeding substitutes and limit the promotion of nutrition for children under one year old. The authors of the initiative expressed the opinion that such products should not be presented as an equivalent substitute for breastfeeding, and should not be presented from the perspective of benefits for children.

The initiators of the proposal cite disappointing statistics from the Federal State Autonomous Institution ‘National Medical Research Center of Children's Health’, according to which less than half of children aged 6 months to one year receive breast milk.

Current scientific research confirms that breast milk is the most appropriate type of food for a child, say the authors of the bill.

However, according to supporters of the idea, advertising of breast milk substitutes sometimes pushes women to give up breastfeeding, reports ‘Rossiyskaya Gazeta’.

A year ago, the initiative to limit advertising of breast milk substitutes was already sounded, then it met with government support. But then the bill was withdrawn and reconsidered.

Now the document has again been submitted to the State Duma, and has already been approved by the government, but with a number of comments. Among them, there are an indication of the need to take into account the cases of contraindications to natural feeding, as well as an indication of the importance of promoting breast milk by creating comfortable conditions for feeding.