Should artificial milk be considered a medicine? There is no sharp answer. There is not. The freedom of women should not be limited when deciding if they want to breastfeed, but we must not deny that artificial milk is not the best product to feed their children, which is related to higher rates of some health problems, that it is impossible to know its long-term effect and that its composition is not the same as that of live human milk.
Artificial milk feeds. In fact, I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Although I lacked many enzymes, hormones and living compounds, although the milk they gave me is not the same as the mother's, here I am. Now there are better controls and more research to improve artificial milk, but it is still necessary to improve the knowledge of its effects and ensure that it will be produced and marketed with absolute safety, since thousands of children depend on it.
Let's talk now about labeling of this product and how it could affect families to consider it a medicine, or, at least, expand the requirements on its manufacture, promotion, information on scientifically proven effects.
The labeling of artificial milk
In the labeling of these milks We can find information about its composition and about the products that are added but not about the origin of these. The fats that are added, the minerals and vitamins, do not come from cow's milk. Do consumers know where exactly they are taken or what type of food the producing cows have? I would have wanted to know.
In this sense, I find that there is a lack of rigorous information, both in medical consultations and on product labeling about the scientifically accepted negative effects on this type of food on health or on what is not guaranteed, except in liquid formulas, its sterility .
Artificial milk will not be free of undesirable chemical compounds, because the exposure of any living being to pesticides and other environmental poisons cannot be avoided, but without a doubt, the obligation of a strict control of the feeding of the producing cows and their housing, or better, the obligation to feed them With biological products and keeping them outdoors, it would improve the quality of the final product.
I can't think of another stage in life more important to control the origin of milk and what is added to it than this first year of life, in which milk is the exclusive first and most important nutrient after.
All legal provisions on artificial milk are regulated by Royal Decree 867/2008, of May 23, which approves the technical and sanitary regulations
specific to infant formulas and continuation preparations.
Artificial milk for families
If artificial medicine were considered a medicine, first, the controls before marketing it and while it is in the market could be much higher and also the requirements of scientific research prior to its authorization.
Artificial milk is necessary for the survival of a baby that cannot be breastfed, and, having said that, once you have really worked to achieve the maintenance of breastfeeding or you decide, freely, to bottle feed, the parents who need to buy This product would have the right to request recognition the economic responsibility of the health system in its purchase, being able to request that they be included in the medicines paid by Social Security.
Buying artificial milk is expensive. It can involve approximately 600 euros a year, money that any parent spends gladly in feeding their child, but that, if it were proven that it is purchased for a real medical cause that prevents breastfeeding, should entitle them to receive help To take care of that child.
I go further, we would even find them to exist generic artificial milks, in which the benefit to the manufacturer is not what marks its price, but that it was set so that everyone could access them without great added costs. That is perfectly possible today, but it cannot be done because it is a food with which companies, with commercial interests over a product of absolute necessity, benefit very clearly.
The money earned with this business is huge and the more children are not breastfed.
We cannot ignore that there are families without financial resources that are forced to buy this milk thanks to charity. If it were recognized that there is a medical cause to need it, as recognized in other physiological functions that are not possible, they would be entitled to it directly.
Lactation and freedom
Definitely artificial milk is a food, but a food that replaces what the human body produces naturally. Children need breast milk or artificial milk if the first one is not available, even if it is a perfect copy at all.
It is undeniable that breastfeeding is a right and no external measure should limit your freedom of choice, although it is desirable that breastfeeding information and promotion campaigns be better and more effective, as well as that the health system offers the help of professionals trained in breastfeeding. The freedom to choose is only exercised if all the information and effective help to breastfeed is offered, which is natural in humans.
Explain what artificial milk really is, what it carries and how it is controlled It is not an attack on the freedom of mothers, it is essential for them to be free, because there is no freedom without knowledge.
And in the end, my question remains unanswered as to whether it would be beneficial for families, public health and babies who artificial milk will be considered a medicine.
