Plunket sponsorship questioned

As Seen on One News Tonight!

“Plunket stands for healthy babies” so why are they only allowed to promote Watties baby food? It should not be about corporate money, it should be about the health of our kids..

We feel that an institution like Plunket, should not be hamstrung by imposed conditions of corporate “Big Business” They should be obligated to make parents aware of all options available, that are best for your child.

Plunket has been pushed into a corner where their nurses have to bow to commercial pressure, due to Watties sponsorship. To the extent that we can not even put a poster up in our local Plunket rooms..

It seems crazy to me that Plunket is allegedly New Zealand's leading provider of ‘well child’ and family health services in New Zealand is put in this position. I realise that they are not a fully government funded agency but something as important as the health of our children should surely be operated by an independent fully funded body, eliminating the need for major cash injections or ‘sponsorship’ by large multi-nationals who exclusively reap the benefits with the sole promotion of their products.

A few years ago when we started we wanted to support our local “Canterbury Plunket” by offering them a monetary donation from the purchase of our products - but again we were stymied by Plunket for fear of upsetting their “Major Sponsor” and it wasn’t possible.
Our frozen baby food is very simple and totally pure. It has not been subject to over processing so all the goodness, nutrients and natural colors are retained and it looks and tastes just like home-made. Made in New Zealand, from New Zealand Organic produce.
Our individual little portions are packed with goodness and can be fed to your baby from 4/6 months right though early childhood. We don’t make ready meals we just make simple ‘good for you’ fruit and vege purees that can be used in lots of way for children of all ages.
We are not asking Plunket to endorse or even recommend our product, but I do think that we should be able to promote a new healthy, nutritious product to parents by having posters or flyers for collection from Plunket Offices.
I believe that Plunket is doing a disservice to parents by negating any potential conflict with their corporate sponsors by eliminating any chance for alternative baby and toddler products to reach the target market.

I believe one of the reasons that we do have such a large obesity problem in New Zealand is that a large number of babies at solid stage are being fed mass-produced over processed food - their taste buds are trained to crave that type of food exacerbating the obesity and health related problems.

People need to be educated on how to read labels - it’s not what they say but what they don’t say! We all know the “Banana Custard” example with one percent Banana and 98.5% unspecified!

Eating over processed food like this defies the laws of nutrition. Your baby should be getting the absolute best food during their first growing years, our babies are getting the absolute worst food!

I feel that Plunket, as a ‘recognised’ children’s agency should not be hamstrung by the imposed conditions of corporate ‘big business’ – they should be obligated to make parents aware of all options available. It was inevitable that without full Government funding that large corporate company would be targeted for funding to the exclusion of smaller, independent operators. We are not the only company experiencing difficulties - it seems Plunket is also funded and supported by a large disposable nappy company.

If you have any further queries please don’t hesitate to contact either myself Charlotte on 021 889 828 or Lizzie Dyer on 0274 318 578
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