PAHO calls for stronger safeguards against digital marketing that undermines breastfeeding

The Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (PA­HO) Fri­day called on coun­tries in the Amer­i­c­as, in­clud­ing the Caribbean, to strength­en pro­tec­tions for fam­i­lies against the grow­ing dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing of breast-milk sub­sti­tutes and oth­er prod­ucts that may un­der­mine breast­feed­ing.

In a mes­sage ahead of World Breast­feed­ing Week, Au­gust 1-7, PA­HO said while breast­feed­ing re­mains one of the most ef­fec­tive in­ter­ven­tions for pro­tect­ing the health and de­vel­op­ment of in­fants and young chil­dren, the en­vi­ron­ment in which fam­i­lies make feed­ing de­ci­sions has changed dra­mat­i­cal­ly.

It said per­son­al­ized ad­ver­tis­ing on so­cial me­dia, in­flu­encers, al­go­rithms, and ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence are cre­at­ing new chal­lenges to en­sur­ing that par­ents and care­givers re­ceive ob­jec­tive, ev­i­dence-based in­for­ma­tion.

Breast­feed­ing pro­vides op­ti­mal nu­tri­tion for in­fants, strength­ens their im­mune sys­tems, re­duces the risk of ill­ness, and sup­ports healthy growth and de­vel­op­ment. It al­so of­fers sig­nif­i­cant health ben­e­fits for moth­ers.

PA­HO said in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, on­ly 43 per cent of in­fants are ex­clu­sive­ly breast­fed dur­ing their first six months of life, well be­low the glob­al tar­get of 60 per cent by 2030.

Ac­cord­ing to PA­HO, this gap is dri­ven by mul­ti­ple fac­tors, in­clud­ing an in­creas­ing­ly so­phis­ti­cat­ed dig­i­tal en­vi­ron­ment that can in­flu­ence in­fant feed­ing de­ci­sions. It warns that many of these mar­ket­ing strate­gies op­er­ate large­ly out of pub­lic view.

Com­pa­nies are in­creas­ing­ly us­ing dig­i­tal tools to tar­get preg­nant women, new moth­ers, and oth­er care­givers through so­cial me­dia pro­mo­tions, in­flu­encer en­dorse­ments, and ad­ver­tis­ing em­bed­ded across dig­i­tal plat­forms.

“Breast­feed­ing is far more than an in­di­vid­ual choice. It is one of the most ef­fec­tive ways to give chil­dren the best pos­si­ble start in life,” said Vanes­sa Gar­cia Larsen, Chief of PA­HO’s Risk Fac­tors Unit.

“In the dig­i­tal age, pro­tect­ing breast­feed­ing al­so means pro­tect­ing fam­i­lies from com­mer­cial prac­tices that may in­flu­ence their de­ci­sions.”

Da­ta pre­sent­ed dur­ing a re­cent PA­HO re­gion­al sem­i­nar show that on­ly 45 per cent of coun­tries in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean have adopt­ed mea­sures re­lat­ed to the In­ter­na­tion­al Code of Mar­ket­ing of Breast-milk Sub­sti­tutes.

On­ly two coun­tries, Brazil and Ar­genti­na, have achieved sub­stan­tial align­ment with the Code, while sev­er­al Caribbean coun­tries still lack spe­cif­ic leg­is­la­tion. In ad­di­tion, re­gion­al mon­i­tor­ing iden­ti­fied po­ten­tial vi­o­la­tions across so­cial me­dia plat­forms, web­sites, and oth­er dig­i­tal chan­nels, where most of the ad­ver­tis­ing re­viewed was found.

“Mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion of com­mer­cial milk for­mu­la prod­ucts have evolved, and the dig­i­tal en­vi­ron­ment re­mains a reg­u­la­to­ry gap that has yet to be ad­e­quate­ly ad­dressed,” said Móni­ca Mazarie­gos, a re­searcher at the In­sti­tute of Nu­tri­tion of Cen­tral Amer­i­ca and Pana­ma (IN­CAP). “Dig­i­tal strate­gies al­low com­pa­nies to reach moth­ers, fa­thers, and care­givers fre­quent­ly and with high­ly per­son­al­ized ad­ver­tis­ing.”

Mazarie­gos not­ed that more than 80 per cent of ad­ver­tis­ing for these prod­ucts oc­curs through dig­i­tal chan­nels. Stud­ies con­duct­ed in Cen­tral Amer­i­ca have found that ex­po­sure to such mar­ket­ing is as­so­ci­at­ed with a high­er like­li­hood of pur­chas­ing and us­ing these prod­ucts, as well as an al­most 50 per cent re­duc­tion in con­tin­ued breast­feed­ing be­yond 12 months.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Code of Mar­ket­ing of Breast-milk Sub­sti­tutes was adopt­ed by the World Health As­sem­bly in 1981 to pro­tect breast­feed­ing and en­sure that in­fant feed­ing de­ci­sions are not in­flu­enced by in­ap­pro­pri­ate com­mer­cial prac­tices.

More re­cent­ly, the World Health As­sem­bly adopt­ed a res­o­lu­tion ex­pand­ing the scope of the Code to bet­ter ad­dress dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing prac­tices, in­clud­ing so­cial me­dia, con­tent cre­ators, in­flu­encers, and oth­er on­line plat­forms.

Ex­perts par­tic­i­pat­ing in the sem­i­nar agreed that re­spond­ing to these chal­lenges will re­quire up­dat­ing leg­is­la­tion to cov­er dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing, strength­en­ing mon­i­tor­ing and en­force­ment mech­a­nisms, us­ing new tech­nolo­gies to de­tect vi­o­la­tions, and en­hanc­ing re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion to ad­dress ad­ver­tis­ing that eas­i­ly cross­es na­tion­al bor­ders.

They al­so high­light­ed the need to pro­tect per­son­al da­ta and in­crease trans­paren­cy around tar­get­ed ad­ver­tis­ing prac­tices.

PA­HO said it is al­so em­pha­siz­ing that pro­tec­tion from the mar­ket­ing of breast-milk sub­sti­tutes must be com­ple­ment­ed by breast­feed­ing sup­port ser­vices, fam­i­ly coun­selling, and poli­cies that en­able women to breast­feed for the rec­om­mend­ed du­ra­tion.

It said that these mea­sures are among the most ef­fec­tive in­ter­ven­tions to pro­mote, pro­tect, and sup­port breast­feed­ing.

“The goal is to en­sure that fam­i­lies have ac­cess to ob­jec­tive, ev­i­dence-based in­for­ma­tion that is free from un­due com­mer­cial in­flu­ence,” Gar­cia Larsen said, adding “achiev­ing this re­quires up­dat­ed reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works, ef­fec­tive mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems, and greater trans­paren­cy in the dig­i­tal en­vi­ron­ment.”

World Breast­feed­ing Week 2026 will be ob­served un­der the theme “Breast­feed­ing for a Sus­tain­able Start in Life: Strength­en What Works” and as part of the week’s ac­tiv­i­ties, PA­HO will host a vir­tu­al sem­i­nar on Au­gust 7 to share ex­pe­ri­ences and strate­gies for strength­en­ing breast­feed­ing poli­cies and sup­port pro­grammes across the re­gion.

WASH­ING­TON, Jul 31, CMC