Baby formula is an essential commodity

Addition of 16 per cent VAT to infant formula prices was proposed and then postponed with the most recent budget reading. The feedback from Kenyans on the matter has covered a wide variety of opinions on infant formulas, and whether they are considered an ideal way to feed babies. There are several limits to this assumption. First, breast milk is not a universally or easily available quantity, as some new mothers may be too ill to nurse after a challenging pregnancy, and might even have died.

Whoever has to care for the baby thereafter would have to find appropriate food. Sometimes the mother’s supply is not enough due to stress and anxiety, which mothers often experience. The mother could also have given birth to multiple babies, and the demand could be higher than her body can manage.

The seemingly obvious option for insufficient breast milk is cow’s milk, but nutrition experts strongly recommend waiting until the baby is at least a year old before introducing cow’s milk. Babies have immature digestive systems and cannot digest cow’s milk properly.

Cow’s milk also doesn’t have the right combination of nutrients for an infant below 12 months and can further cause irritation of the stomach lining. A baby given cow’s milk too early might end up with malnutrition. This is even more likely when the milk is diluted, because the baby will feel full from the volume, but have fewer nutrients per serving. 

Additionally, babies born prematurely have special nutritional needs. Their formula is also different.

The follow-up question we should be asking is why formula is not more common, and why is it treated as a luxury good in Kenya when it is an essential good for the health and wellbeing of infants in particular contexts.

Encouraging breastfeeding is, of course, central and must continue. However, comprehensive and actual baby-friendly feeding is ensuring that everyone, not just mothers, can feed all babies appropriately when they need to.

An honest baby-friendly policy cannot assume that mothers will always be present and healthy. While, of course, there are questions about the hygienic preparation of formula, which requires clean containers that not all mothers have access to, the wider policy intervention should be around why so many mothers are being exposed to poor sanitation, and what is being done to help them.

Additionally, mothers and babies are already forced to endure harm by the prohibitive prices of baby formula which, as it is, costs two to three times more in Kenya than it does in other countries.

Any proposition of high tax on baby formula would essentially be a tax on babies. It would further be a direct tax on parents, especially women, who are primary caregivers. Beyond this, the knowledge on use of formula has shifted remarkably, and public engagement about it should change with the times, for the ideal health of Kenya’s children.

The writer is a policy analyst. [email protected]