Unbelievable

[hawksley]

New mothers to be given 250 pounds in food vouchers if they promise to breast feed their new born babies. How are they going to prove it?and will we have a band of civil servants calling on the mothers to prove they are breast feeding,called T-t inspectors Its unbelievable ,what will this lot come up with next.?

[Mamyalynne]

//Mothers will be given shopping vouchers worth up to £120 if their babies receive breast milk until they are six week old, and a further £80 if their babies continue to be breastfed until they are six months.//

I think it is a worthwhile trial.

[woofgang]

as well as a trial, its a research project.......

[Zacs-Master]

Thanks mamya, I got my facts slightly wrong. I just wanted to put the true case rather than the rather sensationalist OP.

Personally I think it's ridiculous.

[FredPuli43]

Don't mock food-related science. Someone has to work out how to stop fizzy drink going flat in plastic bottles, or stop ingredients separating. But why Kellogg's and the rest couldn't spend their own money on discovering why maize flakes go soggy in milk is another question

[jno]

that sounds extremely important, mamya, but you might think investigations into commercial issues should be funded by commmercial companies, not by me.

I've got no problems with trying to promote breastfeeding, though. Healthier children = less money spent on health care, so this has some significance in terms of public finance too.

[jake-the-peg]

mamyalyne they might be better placed to ask why people take what they read in the newspapers about scientists at face value

Here the cornflake story is 200,000 and it was nearly 20 years ago!

The 'daft scientists' story is always good fodder because it makes people feel superior

[jake-the-peg]

Whoops!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/4767763/Scientists-aim-to-keep-the-crunch-in-cornflakes.html

Note the story itself here was over 10 years old

[jno]

the story may or may not be true, jake, but it's not daft and not anti-science. Researching the value of commercially produced food seems legitimate enough to me; my only query is who should pay.

[Mamyalynne]

Jake I am not knocking the validity and usefulness of research that may on the face of it seem trivial (but isn't) - my point was that this research/trial is no more 'unbelievable'. The word used in the title.

[woofgang]

unnecesary steve.

[pixie373]

I fed all mine for 12-18 months. Wonder if i can make a claim now. As breast-feeding is free, money clearly isn't the deciding factor on how people feed their babies, so it makes no sense to me, whatsoever. There is already financial motivation there.

[B00]

Will this have any effect on the Healthy Start Milk tokens that are payable if you're under a certain monetary threshold? Surely if you're breastfeeding you won't need to buy powdered baby milk?

[hawksley]

What happened to cow and gate

[Coldicote]

I also read something on the news about if the trial worked it would be rolled out nationwide. The whole thing is the craziest, most ridiculous idea I've ever heard of.

[Mamyalynne]

hawksley


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_&_Gate

[factor-fiction]

>what will this lot come up with next.?

What else have these researchers at University of Sheffield come up with?

[New Judge]

“…and i can't see a couple of hundred quids worth of vouchers persuading many mums that need to go back to work to stay off much longer “

Absolutely right, jake. And thus it demonstrates that once again the generosity of some people knows absolutely no bounds when it comes to splashing about other peoples’ money on preposterous schemes .

“Mothers will be given shopping vouchers worth up to £120 if their babies receive breast milk until they are six week old, and a further £80 if their babies continue to be breastfed until they are six months”

Nobody is going to check whether they do or don’t, Mamyalynne (for indeed, how could they even if they wanted to). They will just be “asked to confirm that they have [breast fed their child]” It’s not the research that is unbelievable but the fact that people must be bribed to nourish their children in the best way they can. In fact using this method to conduct the research will be no better than useless because mothers will say they have breast-fed as requested just to gain the dosh. Thus researchers will not know who has done so and who has not. By all means conduct the research but don’t use cash - especially other people’s cash - to bribe the participants.

Once again we see taxpayers’ dosh being squandered on people to do things they should be doing anyway. “Do what is best for your child and we’ll give you two hundred quid”. What a joke!

[factor-fiction]

http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Ourresearch/ResearchInitiatives/NPRI/index.htm
The NPRI seems to be largely funded by medical charities.

The trials are fine in principle given the potential benefits but proper controls are needed, but it sounds as if they controls may be light in the hope of getting the answer they want so they can get more funding for wider trials or a roll out

[Mamyalynne]

NewJudge - I do not recall saying anything about them being checked, but it is late now.

I would presume the Health Visitor who calls will be able to see any evidence of anything other than breastfeeding around the home. Plus a lactating Mum is, shall we say, easy enough for a medical practitoner to tell from one who isn't.


I have no idea what the intricacies are that they have planned, what I did say was I will be interested to see the results of this trial.