Date of Graduation
5-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Nursing
Advisor/Mentor
Scott, Allison
Committee Member/Reader
Vowell-Johnson, Kelly
Abstract
Less than half of the world’s infants and young children are breastfed despite the major benefits and recommendations by WHO. Commercial milk formula has been advertised so intensely that it has produced many misleading marketing styles that lead parents to believe commercial milk formula has better benefits than breastmilk. The United States is one of the few countries that have yet to act on WHO’s International Code of Marketing for Breastmilk to decrease the aggressive marketing styles in place. By only placing pictures of happy babies on the formula cans, it leads parents to believe that their baby would be “happier” if they were exclusively on commercial milk formula. Since the United States has not placed any regulation on infant formula, it allows these companies to push intense marketing that would eventually increase the consumption of infant formula. Aside from poor marketing, these companies do not discuss the increased risks of feeding your baby infant formula. Diabetes, obesity, SIDS, asthma, and other chronic diseases occur more often in formula-fed infants. The effects of commercial formula marketing on the parent’s ability to follow recommended guidelines are unclear. However, the intense marketing of commercial milk formula comes to play when caregivers try to decide.
Keywords
infant formula; infant; marketing strategies
Citation
De La Torre, V. (2023). Tiny Tusks Internship: The Marketing of Infant Formula. The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/nursuht/205