Increasing numbers of vulnerable families will be forced to resort to unsafe feeding practices due to the soaring cost of infant formula, charities have warned. The cost of formula has soared over the last year, with the price of the cheapest brand increasing by 22%, according to analysis by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS).
Healthy Start Vouchers currently provide women in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who are pregnant or have young children with £8.50 a week, which can be used to buy nutritious food, meaning they are no longer enough to pay for the amount of infant formula needed to safely feed a baby in the first six months of their life, BPAS said.
NHS guidance recommends that babies are exclusively breastfed for the first year of their lives. However, figures suggest that the majority of babies will be partially or fully formula fed by the time they are six to eight weeks old.
