Editorial: Best not to make it worse

Parents all over the world who have been using potentially contaminated infant formula are understandably freaking out right now they may have given their child something that could seriously harm them.

It's a scary predicament. But it's no excuse for the "breast is best" brigade to start waving their "I told you so" banners.

The Rotorua Daily Post posted details about the potentially contaminated formula - Nutricia Karicare stage 1 for babies and stage 2 for children from six months old - on its Facebook page on Sunday and within minutes it attracted a raft of comments.

Most were parents desperate for more information, but it didn't take long for someone to point the finger at parents feeding their babies formula instead of breastfeeding.

Of course, we welcome readers' feedback on Facebook, but I completely disagreed with one person who posted "whatver (sic) happened to breast is best instead of this vile formula they call food?"

The comment was later labelled "disgusting bigotry" for judging mothers who might not be able to breastfeed. Another person pointed out that of course "breast is best" and formula tins do not advocate otherwise but the simple fact is some mothers simply aren't able to breastfeed. What are they supposed to do?

It has been reported that heads will roll within Fonterra over this scandal, and so they should. Some mothers feel bad enough about having to buy formula without now having the added guilt of knowing they could have harmed their child.