The Chinese authorities have been trying to promote breastfeeding, even as China said it would enhance the monitoring of milk powder producers following a contamination scare at New Zealand’s Fonterra.
China’s rates of breastfeeding are among the world’s lowest, but health workers and the government are trying to revive the practice.
Beijing this week ordered a recall of milk formula from Fonterra after the New Zealand supplier said it might be tainted with bacteria that could cause botulism. In 2008, a tainted milk scandal sickened thousands of babies and six infants died.
Nursing her one-day-old son from a Beijing hospital bed, Ms Qi Wenjuan said she has no desire to feed her child infant formula.
At Tiantan Hospital, breastfeeding is encouraged by putting mothers and their newborns in the same room instead of putting infants in a nursery. The nurses’ station has pamphlets promoting breastfeeding and diagrams on the walls of patient rooms show postures for nursing.
“I don’t trust baby formula,’’ Ms Qi, a first-time mother, said. “There are too many quality problems.’’
Only about 28 per cent of Chinese infants under 6 months are breastfed exclusively, well below the global average of about 40 per cent, according to UNICEF China.
China’s Cabinet has announced a goal of raising that figure to at least 50 per cent by 2020.
The use of wet nurses — women who breastfeed other families’ children —is also on the rise. These women are sought out by young mothers who do not want to use formula but cannot produce enough milk on their own, or worry about the impact of nursing on their figures.
Meanwhile, China said it will severely punish any company found to have quality or safety problems as the China Food and Drug Administration called on firms to improve their management and local supervisory bodies to fully implement rules governing the sector. It was unclear, however, if the agency was referring to Fonterra, milk powder makers in general or local regulators.
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