Documents Show Internal Clash Before U.S. Officials Pushed to Weaken Toddler Formula Rules

Over the past decade, countries around the world have sought to limit the advertising of “toddler formula,” a powdered drink that often promises to improve children’s brains, immunity and eyesight.

Public health experts and advocates have backed the proposed restrictions, saying that the marketing of toddler milk can mislead parents about its health benefits and even convince some to choose formula over breastfeeding. The concerns echo those made about infant formula marketing, which many countries have banned for years.

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Industry sales, however, have not only persisted but boomed — with the help of a powerful ally: the United States government. As ProPublica reported this week, federal trade agencies have worked in tandem with formula companies to fight restrictions on formula marketing in international forums while also pressuring individual countries to water down or strike their own laws.

While these battles typically play out behind the scenes, ProPublica obtained thousands of pages of government records that provide a rare window into one of the more consequential campaigns of recent years. It happened during the Obama administration in 2016, as member nations of the World Health Organization (known collectively as the World Health Assembly) considered a resolution encouraging limits on the marketing and promotion of foods aimed at infants and young children, including toddler formula.

Concerned that the measure would inspire new laws against formula marketing, the industry spent millions lobbying various U.S. agencies to intervene.

Documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request show a stark pattern: representatives of U.S. trade agencies aggressively sought to weaken the WHO resolution while officials from the health agencies scrambled to defend the measure. One Microsoft Word document cataloged dozens of comments and objections.

This visualization captures four of the divisions between the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which advises the president on trade, and federal health entities such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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