GOLD Learning Speakers

I shall summarise the problems created by sponsorship of paediatric associations by the manufacturers of Breastmilk Substitutes, using findings from the literature. I shall then present the experience of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) in the UK, over the last 20 years since efforts were first made by the membership to end the sponsorship by several formula manufacturers including Nestle and Danone. Following a number of motions passed at the AGM over successive years, members voted in 2017 to end sponsorship. Following this the leadership carried out a consultation of the whole membership which led to the policy of sponsorship being re-affirmed. In 2019, following a change in leadership and the publication of two critical papers in prominent medical journals, the policy was changed to end all sponsorship by BMS manufacturers. The essential ingredients of this successful advocacy were lobbying by members over a long period of years; the publication of critical data in medical journals; and the election of officers sympathetic to a change of policy.