The conclusions of a recent survey conducted by Shanghai Morning Post accounted for 85 percent of 452 people believing breast milk to be the best dairy substitute for infants.
Working Shanghai mothers devoted themselves to breastfeeding as well, buying breast pumps to use at work and then bringing the breast milk home after work. Online shops reported a rise in sales of equipment used to preserve pumped breast milk.
In a post on Shanghaiist, the popularity of breastfeeding was said to decline from 76 percent to 64 percent during 1998 to 2004. Baby formula, which was convenient to fix and allowed willing family members other than Mom feed the baby, appealed to all. This is not so much the case now.
The melamine scandal that came into light in 2008 has been far from forgotten. Now, with recent hormone scares (which we blogged about) involving babies seeming to undergo early puberty after fed a certain milk powder, many Chinese mothers have never been more cynical about baby formula.
Of those surveyed who still purchased baby milk powder, a third said that they would no longer purchase Chinese manufactured baby formula. For others, a high price came at a guarantee of quality. 10 percent said they would buy baby milk powder priced at over 300 RMB per 900 gram jar. 43 percent were OK in buying milk powder costing between 100 RMB and 200 RMB. A recent China Daily news report announced a 40 percent increase of imported baby formula in Shanghai.
Photo by Dalla* of Flickr.
