Breastfeeding advocates are calling for the government to introduce legislation to stop hospitals accepting free supplies of baby formula from manufacturers after parents were given potentially harmful samples. The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative Hong Kong Association says the practice, which is common in Hong Kong, violates a World Health Organisation code aimed at promoting breastfeeding. It claims hospitals that give samples to mothers undermine the promotion of breastfeeding and help foster an atmosphere in which formulas are seen as acceptable or even better than breast milk for babies' health and development. Seventeen parents of newborns were each mistakenly given a 400 gram can of Progress Gold by the Tsuen Wan Adventist Hospital between October 19 and 24. Progress Gold, made by US pharmaceutical company Wyeth, is intended for children aged one to three, and could potentially cause kidney problems in younger children because of its higher protein content. The hospital has said it will stop handing out samples and accepting free supplies from manufacturers. The Department of Health has also advised all private hospitals to follow suit and pay for any formula milk they require. It has also written to the manufacturer advising it to discontinue the practice. However, the association is calling for the government to make the practice illegal by making the WHO code compulsory. Dr Patricia Ip Lai-sheung, chairwoman of the association, said the practice of accepting free supplies from major brands violated the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes. The code was written by Unicef and adopted in 1981 by the World Health Assembly - the decision-making body of the WHO - and was introduced to promote breastfeeding and prevent harmful marketing that could sway a mother away from breastfeeding. Ip said a number of countries had already made the code law, although Hong Kong was not among them. 'There are certain practices that need legislation,' she said. 'If you rely only on goodwill, commercial companies will not follow the code.' Ip welcomed the move by the Tsuen Wan Adventist Hospital to stop the practice, but added that code violations were rife. The blunder came to light when a father saw that the formula was unsuitable for his newborn and telephoned the hospital. Since then, the hospital has contacted 12 families and is making efforts to contact four others that were given the product. None of the babies are said to have shown any ill effects. A spokeswoman for Wyeth Nutrition in Hong Kong said it supplies donations of infant formula for babies who were not being breastfed for various reasons, but said it did so in compliance with the code. 'The health professionals in these hospitals take responsibility for supervising the proper use of the products,' she said. Ip said Wyeth's claim to be following the code was based on the original 1981 version and did not take into account changes that had been made to it since then. Annelies Allain, director of the centre that monitors the international code, said the parents of the children at the centre of the blunder had been 'doubly wronged' by the hospital. 'Not only should the hospital promote breastfeeding by never giving out free samples to parents, but giving the wrong formula for newborns is terribly wrong,' she said. Tsuen Wan Adventist Hospital actively promoted breastfeeding and stressed that the gift pack was given only to those who choose to bottle-feed, spokeswoman Rachel Yeung Tung-ming said. 'We are aware of the international code, and following the recent events we have decided that we will no longer supply free formula to any mother, regardless of whether they have chosen to bottle-feed or accept free supplies from manufacturers,' she said.
