Food insecurity: infants at risk of unsafe feeding

We welcome Loopstra shining a light on child food poverty and want to further highlight the growing evidence of infant food insecurity in the UK.1 There is currently no routine assessment of the scale and nature of infant food insecurity in the UK, despite the Scottish government issuing guidance on responding to and preventing this problem earlier this year.2 By contrast, in Canada, steps have been taken to tackle the data void.3Families with infants under 12 months are at greater risk of poverty and food insecurity than those with older children.4 Food insecure families struggle with both breastfeeding and formula feeding owing to limited resources and lack of resilient food systems and have difficulties in accessing formula milk. This results in families being forced into unsafe feeding practices, including formula foraging, where families seek alternative sources of formula milk including buying opened tins from unreputable traders.5 Breastfeeding women struggle to…
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