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Health Check: Are Laws on Marketing Formula Milk Tough Enough?

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baby-milk-bottle1.jpg

2016/06/01 GMT

Are Laws on Marketing Formula Milk Tough Enough?

BBC World Service - Health Check, Are Laws on Marketing Formula Milk Tough Enough?

A report by WHO and Unicef reveals the status of national laws to regulate formula milk.

Global report on formula milk marketing regulation. Replicating kangaroo care for premature babies. Does moisturiser stop skin from producing its own oils? Is boredom good for us?

The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes was published by the World Health Organisation back in 1981. Now, a report from the WHO and Unicef has found that although 135 countries have put at least some legal measures in place following the Code, only 39 countries have laws covering all the resolutions, and only six countries have dedicated budgets for monitoring and enforcing prescribed practise. Marie Rumsby, Head of Hunger and Nutrition at Save the Children, discusses the issues.

Every year 15 million babies around the world are born before 37 weeks and are classed as premature. They are very delicate and susceptible to infection, so they need to be kept in incubators, but this means they have much less skin-to-skin to contact with their mothers than most newborn babies. Something called kangaroo care can help – where a mother can hold their baby close to them for a few hours a day. But if the baby is very small or ill then even that is not always possible. Now a Chilean company called BabyBe has come up with a solution. The BBC’s Jane Chambers went to intensive care unit for premature babies in San Borja Hospital in Santiago to see how it works.

This week’s medical myth:  Does using moisturiser stop your skin from producing its own natural oils? We asked consultant dermatologist Dr Tony Bewley from Barts and the London Hospitals.

Boredom is boring – but could it be good for us? Psychologist Sandi Mann, Senior Lecturer in psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, says we should not write it off, so Claudia asked her how boredom might be of benefit.   

(Photo: Baby feeding milk bottles. Credit :Science Photo Library)

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