The big lie about baby formula: Buying 'premium' tins is a waste of money, health expert says

AUSTRALIAN parents are at war over “premium” baby formula, but a health expert says this intense, emotional battle could all be over nothing.

Many Australian parents say they don’t have enough formula to feed their children because some baby formula brands, often worth between $25-$35 for a one kilo tin, are being bought in bulk from our supermarkets and onsold to China for a profit of $100 per tin.

The fight has even led to baby formula being stored behind the counter, next to razors and cigarettes, in a bid to discourage bulk-buying.

Baby formula ranges in price from about $10 for a “generic” brand to almost $40 for a “premium” tin. Brands including A2, Bellamy’s Organic and Karicare Aptamil are highly sought after.

But Dr Karleen Gribble, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Western Sydney’s School of Nursing and Midwifery says most premium brands are a complete waste of money.

“The claims are all marketing. You’re paying for the marketing, you’re not paying for a better product,” Dr Gribble told news.com.au.

“In Australia we have national regulations about baby formula and it is very tightly regulated. If an ingredient is proven to be of benefit to babies, it has to be in Australian formula ... it’s required. Any of those extra things premium formulas claim to include are just frills to make you pay more.”

While some parents choose to buy certain brands because their baby has an allergy, intolerance or personal preference, others whose children have no issues shouldn’t worry about buying generic, Dr Gribble said.

“There’s your generic formulas in quite a plain tin and premium formulas in a gold tin or platinum tin, but the only difference between them is the marketing and the colour of the tin.

“They’ll make up scientific sounding terms to make their product sound better,” she said.

While most Australian mothers — about 96 per cent — attempt to breastfeed their newborn babies, many struggle.

For years women have been given health advice that “breast is best” and often feel immense guilt if they are forced to turn to formula because they cannot breastfeed, Dr Gribble said.

“It’s preying on parents’ desire to do the best for their baby,” she said. “Things had not gone as they had planned and when they come to the formula aisle they really don’t want to be there. They want to be doing the best they can for their baby and the marketing hits them right in the heart. It’s really unethical.”

But some parents have been so thoroughly convinced by the marketing of baby formula companies that they believe it is superior to breast milk.

“Many Chinese parents have been persuaded that a fancy gold tin from Australia is going to help their children to succeed academically and be successful in life,” she said.

“Even in Australia, you do have parents who say ‘I’m really stressed, I don’t eat properly and I’m worried that my milk isn’t any good, so I’ll feed my baby formula because it must be better than my breastmilk’. But that is completely false. Even if a mother eats McDonald’s everyday, her milk is still going to be better for her baby than formula.”

China’s obsession with Australian baby formula comes after a series of fatal formula scares in China in recent years which made Chinese parents desperate to get their hands on safe products.

This has created a shortage in Australia, with many parents forced to turn to online “black markets”, simply to get their babies fed.

“You are in competition with other mums and dads who are equally as stressed and equally as worried about not feeding their kids,” Victorian mother Jade Smith told Fairfax.

In a bid to reassure parents, Coles says tins of baby formula will now be kept on shelves behind service desks or tagged with Electronic Article Surveillance lids in some stores, a supermarket spokeswoman said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Coles is committed to ensuring that our customers with a genuine need for infant formula have access to this product,” the statement said.

Woolworths won’t be following Coles, saying it is not in its policy to have baby formula behind their shelves or locked away.

“Baby formula remains available on the shelf for customers in Woolworths stores,” a spokesman said in a statement.

“We’re continuing to work with our suppliers to increase the supply of these essential family items.”

Both Coles and Woolworths have a two-tin limit for customers.

At the Coles in Sydney’s Five Dock, a sign has been erected in the formula aisle saying the removal was to provide “equal opportunity” to shoppers and to deter theft.

— with AAP

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