Most of the charges against infant formulas focus on the issue of
whether advertising and marketing of such products have discouraged breast feeding among Third World mothers and have led to
misuse of the products, thus contributing to infant malnutrition
and death.

• A Peruvian nurse reported that formula had found its way to
Amazon tribes deep in the jungles of northern Peru. There,
where the only water comes from a highly contaminated
river—which also serves as the local laundry and toilet—
formula-fed babies came down with recurring attacks of
diarrhea and vomiting.
• Throughout the Third World, many parents dilute the
formula to stretch their supply. Some even believe the bottle
itself has nutrient qualities and merely fi ll it with water. The
result is extreme malnutrition.
• One doctor reported that in a rural area, one newborn male
weighed 7 pounds. At four months of age, he weighed
5 pounds. His sister, aged 18 months, weighed 12 pounds,
what one would expect a four-month-old baby to weigh. She
later weighed only 8 pounds. The children had never been
breast fed, and since birth their diets were basically bottle
feeding. For a four-month-old baby, one can of formula
should have lasted just under three days. The mother said
that one can lasted two weeks to feed both children.
• In rural Mexico, the Philippines, Central America, and
the whole of Africa, there has been a dramatic decrease in
the incidence of breast feeding. Critics blame the decline largely on the intensive advertising and promotion of infant formula.