A ‘not for profit’ baby formula should be developed to help mums living paycheque to paycheque paying hundreds a year for formula, a charity says.
The price of infant formula has risen by 25% in the past two years.
Watering down baby formula, homemade formula milk or stealing are just some ways desperate parents and guardians are trying to cope with sky-high prices.
All the while, companies accused last year by a competition watchdog of artificially inflating formula costs paid out £360 million to shareholders in 2022.
The situation has become so dire that Metro launched the Formula for Change campaign with the charity Feed last year, calling on the government to change the law to make baby milk cheaper.
As the baby formula crisis shows no signs of easing, Feed released new research today recommending ‘not for profit’ infant milk be introduced.
‘Along with our previous research, this further underlines the need for a bold approach to the infant formula market and we think a not for profit infant formula could address the majority of issues that result in families facing barriers to accessing this vital product,’ Dr Erin Williams, co-founder of Feed, told .
Things used to be a lot different. During World War II, all children under five were given milk for free as part of the National Milk welfare programme. From 1940 to 1976, all parents in the UK were entitled to free or heavily subsidised powder milk, with 340,000,000 tins feeding 85% of babies by 1978.
Feed’s ‘Out of Milk’ inquiry said such a programme should be brought back, saying: ‘Develop a formula milk product, similar to the previous National Milk, that families can have universal access to from a trusted source, in a cost-effective manner, free from conflict of interest.
‘This formula could then be provided within the NHS, within emergency formula provision pathways and within pathways established for infant-feeding mothers living with HIV, free from commercial interests of the formula industry. ‘
Feed surveyed 175 parents and guardians from various backgrounds between December 2023 and February.
Feed’s findings were haunting.
Families with children under a year old are at an increased risk of falling into food insecurity, when someone does not have access to enough nutritious food for a healthy life. For them, they felt they had no choice in how they fed their child.
Seventy per cent of women able to access food said they intended to breastfeed compared to 54.5% of women living in food insecurity.
Cash-strapped families were overwhelmingly more likely to worry about the spiralling cost of popping a tin of formula in their baskets, at 69% of food-insecure women compared to 26.3% of food-secure homes.
‘This means that families with the least financial resources are the most likely to endure the burden of the unexpected cost of infant formula. Infant formula milk is, frankly, a fortune,’ said Feed in its report.
‘For any family not expecting this additional cost, and who had therefore not budgeted for it, this proves to be a source of great stress.’
Formula milk, typically made from cow’s milk, is the only safe alternative to breastfeeding or using breast milk for feeding babies.
For some mums, formula is their only option. On-the-clock mothers in low-income jobs, such as fast food or retail, for example, often have little time to breastfeed, researchers have previously found.
‘I feel incredibly guilty for formula feeding my baby due to the cost it has on our household,’ said Joyce, from the northeast county of Tyne and Wear.
Some mums only buy discounted meats or skip meals so they can ensure their baby doesn’t go hungry.
‘I expected to be able to breastfeed and when it became clear my baby needed formula this was a huge source of stress because of the cost,’ explained Georgie, South Yorkshire. ‘Not all babies can be breastfed and it’s terrifying knowing you need hundreds extra a month to feed them.’
While some mums told Feed they intended to breastfeed to save pennies. ‘I did a rough estimate and it [formula] would have cost me about a grand to feed my boy even on cheap formula,’ said Evie, from Lanarkshire, Scotland. ‘This calculation didn’t include bottles, teats and regular change of teats.’
Even then, nursing wasn’t exactly cheap either. ‘I also had to buy my breast pumps etc second hand as I couldn’t afford to buy these new and get all the other baby accessories needed,’ explained Ella, from Scotland. One study found a year of breastfeeding can set a family back thousands of pounds.
As Feed stressed, however, breastfeeding, formula or a mixture of the two called ‘combi-feeding’ was less a ‘choice’ and more ‘dealing with the hand they were dealt’.
‘We hadn’t intended to use [formula]; we didn’t want to use it; we had no choice but to use it,’ said Marni, from Lincolnshire, who combi-feeds.
Kirstin, from North Yorkshire, said: ‘I wish I could have breastfed, it would have saved me so much money over the last year but because of how ill I was in hospital my only option was to formula feed as my milk supply did not come through.’
Experts advise against diluting formula milk, even for a short stretch. This reduces the nutrients a baby receives from the drink, the NHS says, and can even cause serious complications like seizures as it messes up the milk’s delicate balance of electrolytes and minerals.
For 10.9% of food-insecure families, diluting their formula milk when running out of money was their only option. Many used cold water rather than hot (boiling water kills bacteria) as they couldn’t afford to pop the kettle on, something more parents face as energy bills rise by 10% this month.
‘To make feeds I fill a flask with boiled water each morning and make feeds from this throughout the day so I do not have to keep boiling the kettle,’ Sasha, Cambridgeshire, said.
Mothers cited the cost of living crisis, threadbare statutory maternity pay and benefits not going far enough as why they struggle to afford baby formula tins.
‘Although between my partner and I, we normally earn enough to pay our bills etc, whilst I am on maternity leave we don’t,’ said Rose, who lives in Hampshire.
‘It doesn’t make sense financially for me to end my maternity leave early especially as neither my partner or I work “normal” hours as we work in the hospitality industry.’
‘In theory’, Feed says, ‘pregnant women and families with children should have access to additional household income during pregnancy and early infancy’.
But Healthy Start, a weekly allowance for low-income families to pay for milk and fruit, is too narrow in its eligibility and hasn’t kept up with inflation, Feed stress in its report. (Not a single baby formula brand in 2023 was affordable with the card, The Food Foundation found.)
‘I find the Healthy Start vouchers are so low you cannot get a month’s supply of any baby milk with them. The amount received in Healthy Start vouchers needs to change to include enough for the whole month,’ Kristin, of North Yorkshire, said.
Others raised issues with laws around baby formula that limit how it can be made, marketed and sold. Retailers aren’t allowed to promote formula through deals like buy-one-get-one-free or let them buy it with loyalty card points.
The idea behind the restrictions, which the government says align with WHO guidelines, is that if the tubs were flogged left, right and centre people might be put off breastfeeding their children.
‘It’s time our old-fashioned laws were overhauled to ensure that families and babies are fed, no matter how,’ said Kate, from Staffordshire.
More than 106,000 people agree, having all signed and Feed’s Change.org petition asking the government to ‘review their infant formula legislation’.
And mums’ list of woes don’t end there, as Dr Williams said: ‘It’s clear that there are wider issues around formula access than simply the expense.
‘We’re quite concerned about the evidence showing that some families continue to buy more expensive formula brands when they can’t afford to because they mistakenly believe that more expensive products are nutritionally better for their baby.’
Feed recommends that NHS clinicians be better ‘educated’ about how poverty can impact the feeding practices of parents and guardians. Welfare schemes that act as social nets for mums must also be strengthened and expanded.
Until then, parents and guardians will continue doing what they have always done.
‘You have to prioritise your baby over anything else,’ said Fern, from North Yorkshire, ‘to ensure they are fed.’
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