As the 31-year-old professional violinist stood in the baby-food aisle, trying to choose a product that would liberate her breasts, her 2-year-old daughter hung onto her leg, chewing on a cookie.
“He’s very clingy and I’m too tired,” Santos said, referring to the boy, who was being cared for by a relative while Santos shopped. “I’m going to wean him slowly.”
But there was a catch: Despite fully stocked shelves of formula made by Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Danone and others, this supermarket in the Coles chain sells only two cans to each customer at a time. The rule is designed to frustrate a thriving underground market that ships Australian formula to Chinese cities, where only 16 percent of new mothers breast-feed their children exclusively, according to China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission.