Accommodating a growing trend

The time is now to move any breast-feeding products from the floor of the baby care aisle to eye level — as Walgreens has done here — because mom’s interest in the category received two big boosts earlier this year.


First, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin in January issued a call to action to support breast-feeding, and that means more women now are more likely to look into the benefits of breast-feeding. Already 3-out-of-4 mothers in the United States start out breast-feeding, and as many as 50% of mothers return to work full-time within six months of their infant’s birth. At the end of six months, breast-feeding rates fall to 43%, and only 13% of babies are exclusively breast-fed.


Second, the Internal Revenue Service in February reversed itself in announcing that breast-feeding supplies qualify as a medical expense — and because the pump and supplies are devices, they won’t need a prescription to qua-
lify either.