Baby Foods: Nutrition and Marketing

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

In my former life, I never dreamed that I would spend so much time talking about breastfeeding in the House of Lords. The noble Baroness raises such an important point, and this is why we are investing in Start for Life. The Start for Life services include £18.5 million to improve infant feeding services and to provide practical support with breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is tough; it is not easy. In days gone by there was enormous support in hospitals for women who had their babies there; that does not exist any more. We want to make sure that it is delivered through the communities, to come up with a network of champions to help women, and to improve the statistics the noble Baroness so ably outlined.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

Some mothers genuinely cannot breastfeed; I was among them. What are the Government doing to strengthen the rules about sugar and other unfortunate things getting into baby food?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The noble and learned Baroness is right about ensuring that we do not stigmatise women who cannot breastfeed; that is critical. There is criticism of some of the organisations supporting breastfeeding, which have perhaps gone too far. We do take this seriously, looking at the different ages, moving from infant formula onwards, and frankly, the advice from companies is quite misleading. All this needs to be taken into account to get a rounded picture and to ensure that consumers are getting the best information possible.