Fighting for 'the first drop of milk'

Type the Chinese version of "first drop of milk" into an Internet search engine and you're likely to find numerous articles about bribery scandals in which foreign infant formula companies have been accused of paying cash or offering gifts in exchange for brand recommendations to parents.

A report by China Central Television in September, the first to expose the issue, revealed that a hospital in Tianjin fed all newborn babies with infant formula, irrespective of whether the mothers produced breast milk or not.

A medical expert was quoted as saying that once a baby is given a particular brand of milk powder it is extremely hard to switch to another brand or to breast milk. The comments were used to explain why formula providers place so much emphasis on reaching the babies early in their lives.

"The first drop of milk" became a catchphrase for the scandal, repeated many times in headlines during the following month.

Song Liang, a dairy industry analyst at the Distribution Productivity Promotion Center of China Commerce, backed the conventional view.

"The milk that babies first drink will help to form bacteria in their stomach and intestines that will in turn facilitate digestion. Different brands will form different types of bacteria," he said, "So, if you feed a baby one brand and then switch to another brand or to breast milk, the baby's body will reject the new food, and display symptoms such as diarrhea and constipation."

However, Zhao Wen, vice-director of the obstetric department at the Beijing General Army Hospital, said that to describe it as a competition for "the first drop of milk" between brands would be inaccurate, even misleading, in both the technical and practical senses.

According to Zhao, although infants have a tendency to become accustomed to a certain brand, the tendency isn't strong or persistent enough to make them cling to one brand and refuse all others.

"A newborn develops a sense of flavor only gradually. Even in cases where he or she puts up some initial resistance, it will crumble as soon the feeling of hunger takes hold," she said. "It's not uncommon for Chinese mothers, concerned about the safety of their chosen brand, to feed their babies simultaneously with two or three brands, or to let them switch for short periods, for example, three or four months."

"Moreover, many mothers who don't have sufficient breast milk choose formula as a supplement, a fact that in itself refutes the opinion that a baby first fed with formula will develop a strong dislike of breast milk," said Zhao.

Chen Yuan, a mother of two who has no problem with changing formula brands for her daughters, said the move was sometimes necessitated by the babies falling ill, or simply by their "nursing strike", the period when they begin to eat less than usual.

"Most babies go on nursing strike in between three and six months old. While the appetite of a baby previously fed on infant formula falls, it's routine for parents to try one brand after another, until the right one is found."

"As far as I know, foreign formula brands were definitely going out of their way to sell their goods, but to encapsulate an extremely complicated situation in a single phrase does no one any good," she said. "It just risks distorting the full picture by sending out the wrong message."