Danone Milk Powder Named in Hospital Bribery Expose

CCTV has hit paydirt!  What could better than a milk formula scandal involving foreign companies than a milk formula scandal involving a foreign company that was also involved in bribing nurses at a Chinese hospital.

Getting something of a twofer, a TV expose revealed that an unidentified sales manager had bribed nurses in a hospital in northern China to recommend it's milk powder to new mothers.

"Every year we would co-operate with the hospital, and give them gifts of money, each year amounting to several hundred thousand yuan," the former sales manager was quoted as saying in the report.

"We would come to tacit agreements, because in Tianjin competition is now so fierce. Every (hospital) floor would be divided up between milk powder brands, and if you didn't give a suitable amount of money, then perhaps the next month they would switch brands to someone else," she said.

The total amount that was "donated" was about 300,000rmb, ranging from small payments of several hundred yuan, to 10,000rmb.  Danone HQ in Paris, and Chinese reps for the company were unavailable for comment.  The company said in July that it was co-operating with National Development and Reform Commission, cutting the price of it's baby forumla by between 5 and 20 percent.

 

Will Baby Formula Scares Promote Breastfeeding in China?

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A baby breastfeeding. Español: La leche materna puede transmitir el virus VIH. עברית: תינוק יונק. 한국어: 젖을 먹는 갖난아기. Nederlands: Borstvoeding bespoedigt de genezing van de moeder. සිංහල: සිඟිත්තෙක් මවුකිරි ලබයි. 粵語: BB 食人奶. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

One of the problems that the various baby milk tainting scandals highlights is the distinct lack of any breastfeeding for newborns in China.  Given the unreliable nature of Chinese produced milk powder, and the contamination of foreign imports, new parents are presumably left in a quandary as to what to feed infants, and few of them breastfeed.

Given the lack of social welfare in China, it's little wonder that new mothers feet hardly have time to touch the ground.  With only four months maternity leave, many mothers return to full time work too soon, leaving children to be cared for by the grandparents.  Desperate to shore up profits, hospitals don't actively recommend breastfeeding, and tell parents to buy formula instead.

Going straight to the baby powder can have serious health effects on the newborn baby.  Babies who are exclusively fed artificial milk are more prone to infections, asthma, obesity and diabetes.  Breastfeeding has an unsightly, at least for the Chinese, side effect too - slimmer babies.  Fat babies are often seen as being healthy (hence the rise of the "Michelin Baby"), but babies who are breastfed don't but on so much weight compared to those fed with breast milk substitutes.

It's difficult to convince parents that breast is best.  China has the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world - only 28% of mothers breastfeed, well below the global average of 40%, according to UNICEF China.  Exact figures before 2007 are difficult to come by because before then, the Chinese government included mothers who "give babies water" as breastfeeding, and a lack of education on the subject means that in rural areas, mothers attempt to wean their child as early as four months old.  Both practices have resulted in unusually high levels of infant anemia related to a lack of dietary iron.

UNICEF China is trying to bolster the "breast is best" message across the country, but faces aggressive marketing campaigns, which boast of the formula's immunological and nutritional value.  Believing that they're doing the best by the baby by buying the best, it's difficult to convince anyone that a free solution is the best way to care for a newborn child.