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Blimey, there is nothing like the topic of breastfeeding Vs formula to stir up a royal shitstorm is there?

You may have seen an article in the Telegraph which accused the NCT of throwing its toys out of the pram about a recent exam question.

Personally I think we need to see what the fuss is about, so here is the question. I would point you to the link on the exam board website, but it has now been removed, so here it is copied from the NCT site:

From question 2 of AQA Unit Chemistry C3: 2 (b) Read the information in the box below and then answer the question:

Calcium carbonate occurs naturally as marble and limestone. They are important building materials and are often used for gravestones. Calcium carbonate is also an essential mineral for good health and is present in many baby foods in small amounts. My Baby Food is recommended as being the closest to a mother’s own breast milk. It is given free to mothers in the developing world – without it their babies might die of malnutrition.Responsible Mothers Are Us (RMAU) is a United Kingdom pressure group. They want to ban chemicals in baby foods. The group was founded by Mrs I. M. Right who has made a career in ‘goodness’ and is paid from donations given to RMAU by members of the public. When interviewed, she said: “Calcium carbonate is a chemical and so it is a pollutant. My Baby Food must be banned to prevent the mass medication of babies. I don’t feed my baby the stuff of gravestones.”

Many people do not agree with Mrs Right’s ideas. Suggest why.

Now, the Telegraph writer seems to think that the NCT are one step away from donning foil hats by suggesting that this question might have been worded with the help of a formula manufacturer. Because obviously, this is something that has never happened before ...
 
is it?
 
The issue to me isn't whether this was written by a formula company, it is that this question (and another similar one in the SATS) appeared at all.
 
If the point of this is to discuss whether Calcium Carbonate is an acceptable food additive then why not just ask that, why give it the baby formula 'wrapper' and add such partisan content? Content, which I would just like to add, would actually be ILLEGAL if it weren't dressed up as a ficticious brand.
 
I mentioned before the hypocrisy that women face when becoming mothers in the UK, and to me, this speaks to exactly that point.

It also makes me profoundly sad that the UK still hasn't got its head around the fact that by pushing formula in this way, to young people on the cusp of forming their views on parenting, means that you are effectively removing breastfeeding as an option for them. Normalise formula, you marginalise breast feeding and no amount of National Breastfeeding Weeks is going to make up for the adverse impression that statements like this can create.

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