Product type | Baby care |
---|---|
Owner | Philips |
Country | United Kingdom |
Introduced | 1984 |
Markets | Worldwide |
Website | www |
Philips Avent, stylized as Philips AVENT, is a child care brand which manufactures baby bottles, breast pumps, and other baby feeding and health accessories. It is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The name AVENT came from the sub-brand Avent Naturally which was launched by a Company called Cannon Rubber (est.1936). [1] The brand was created in 1984 to launch a new type of baby bottle that was short with a wide neck. Avent was the first baby feeding company to produce teats from odourless and tasteless silicone as well as other patented innovations such as a steam and microwave steriliser and piston-free breast pump.
In 2005, Charterhouse Venture Capital acquired the company, then known as Cannon Avent.
In 2006, Dutch company Philips acquired the brand and renamed it Philips Avent.
In 1982, Edward Atkin, a young British man, at the birth of his first child, wanted to improve the traditional baby bottles which had several defects when used: the teats were hard and narrow and the container unstable and difficult to fill. He wants to rethink the bottle created years earlier by his father, David Atkin. It creates a wide neck for easy filling and cleaning and adds a soft, flared silicone teat that is tasteless and odorless. This pacifier, presented as equipped with an advanced anti-colic system, marks the beginning of the Avent brand in breastfeeding and bottle feeding. [2]
From 1990 to 2000, the brand diversified by offering sterilisers, bottle warmers, breastfeeding accessories, pacifiers, cutlery sets and cups, toiletries and a line of baby luggage. The company also launches the first manual breast pump.
In 2009, following the controversy over bisphenol A, new materials are used to manufacture baby bottles.
In 2013, the brand launched the Natural range, a new range of bottles: the teat wants to more closely imitate the shape of the breast for natural breastfeeding, the bottle is more ergonomic and the anti-colic system is equipped with a double valve.
Philips Avent has won several international awards for its products. Its Smart Baby Bottle won an international Good Design Award for three years running, from 2017 to 2019, [3] while its Advanced Bottle Sterilizer and Dryer won the Good Design Award in 2020. [4]
Its electric breast pump also won an IF Design Award in 2020. [5]
The Avent manufacturing plant was located in Suffolk, a county in the east of England, however it was closed in 2020 by Philips due to Brexit. Manufacturing is now done outside of the UK. [6]
Infant formula, also called baby formula, simply formula, baby milk or infant milk, is designed and marketed for feeding to babies and infants under 12 months of age, usually prepared for bottle-feeding or cup-feeding from powder or liquid. The U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) defines infant formula as "a food which purports to be or is represented for special dietary use solely as a food for infants by reason of its simulation of human milk or its suitability as a complete or partial substitute for human milk".
A baby bottle, nursing bottle, or feeding bottle is a bottle with a teat attached to it, which creates the ability to drink via suckling. It is typically used by infants and young children, or if someone cannot drink from a cup, for feeding oneself or being fed. It can also be used to feed non-human mammals.
A breast pump is a mechanical device that lactating women use to extract milk from their breasts. They may be manual devices powered by hand or foot movements or automatic devices powered by electricity.
Breast augmentation and augmentation mammoplasty is a cosmetic surgery procedure, which uses breast-implants and/ or fat-graft mammoplasty technique to increase the size, change the shape, and alter the texture of the breasts. Although in some cases augmentation mammoplasty is applied to correct congenital defects of the breasts and the chest wall in other cases it is performed purely for cosmetic reasons.
A boycott was launched in the United States on July 4, 1977, against the Swiss-based multinational food and drink processing corporation Nestlé. The boycott expanded into Europe in the early 1980s and was prompted by concerns about Nestlé's aggressive marketing of infant formulas, particularly in underdeveloped countries. The boycott has been cancelled and renewed because of the business practices of Nestlé and other substitute manufacturers monitored by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). Organizers of the boycott as well as public health researchers and experts consider breast milk to be the best nutrition source for infants. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends infants to be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their lives, nevertheless, sometimes nutritional gaps need to be filled if breastfeeding is not possible.
A pacifier is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple substitute given to an infant or toddler to suckle upon between feedings to quiet its distress by satisfying the need to suck when it does not need to eat. Pacifiers normally have three parts: an elongated teat, a handle, and a mouth shield which prevents the child from swallowing or choking on it.
Similac is a brand of infant formula that was developed by Alfred Bosworth of Tufts University and marketed by Abbott Laboratories. It was first released in the late 1920s, and then reformulated and concentrated in 1951. Today, Similac is sold in 96 countries worldwide.
A breast implant is a prosthesis used to change the size, shape, and contour of a person's breast. In reconstructive plastic surgery, breast implants can be placed to restore a natural looking breast following a mastectomy, to correct congenital defects and deformities of the chest wall or, cosmetically, to enlarge the appearance of the breast through breast augmentation surgery.
Breastfeeding difficulties refers to problems that arise from breastfeeding, the feeding of an infant or young child with milk from a woman's breasts. Although babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk, and human breast milk is usually the best source of nourishment for human infants, there are circumstances under which breastfeeding can be problematic, or even in rare instances, contraindicated.
Breastfeeding, also known as nursing, is the process where breast milk is fed to a child. Breast milk may be from the breast, or may be pumped and fed to the infant. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommend that breastfeeding begin within the first hour of a baby's birth and continue as the baby wants. Health organizations, including the WHO, recommend breastfeeding exclusively for six months. This means that no other foods or drinks, other than vitamin D, are typically given. The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, followed by continued breastfeeding with appropriate complementary foods for up to 2 years and beyond. Of the 135 million babies born every year, only 42% are breastfed within the first hour of life, only 38% of mothers practice exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months, and 58% of mothers continue breastfeeding up to the age of two years and beyond.
The social attitudes toward and legal status of breastfeeding in public vary widely in cultures around the world. In many countries, both in the Global South and in a number of Western countries, breastfeeding babies in open view of the general public is common and generally not regarded as an issue. In many parts of the world including Australia, some parts of the United States and Europe, along with some countries in Asia, women have an explicit legal right to nurse in public and in the workplace.
Breastfeeding promotion refers to coordinated activities and policies to promote health among women, newborns and infants through breastfeeding.
The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), also known as Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI), is a worldwide programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), launched in 1992 in India following the adoption of the Innocenti Declaration on breastfeeding promotion in 1990. The initiative is a global effort for improving the role of maternity services to enable mothers to breastfeed babies for the best start in life. It aims at improving the care of pregnant women, mothers and newborns at health facilities that provide maternity services for protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding, in accordance with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Evenflo Company, Inc. operates the juvenile travel and home safety businesses with products that include car seats, travel systems, safety gates, high chairs, play yards, stationary activity centers, infant carriers and doorway jumpers. Evenflo Company Inc. has two manufacturing facilities: one in Piqua, Ohio, and one in Tijuana, Mexico.
Infant feeding is the practice of feeding infants. Breast milk provides the best nutrition when compared to infant formula. Infants are usually introduced to solid foods at around four to six months of age.
Nipple confusion is the tendency of an infant to unsuccessfully adapt between breast-feeding and bottle-feeding. It can happen when the infant is put back onto breast-feeding. Nipple confusion can turn into nipple refusal in which the infant refuses both the bottle and breastfeeding.
Tommee Tippee is a feeding bottle and child care brand based in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. Its parent company, Mayborn Group is owned by Chinese insurance company Ping An Insurance. As of 2015, it was the fifth largest child care company in the world and is known for its spill-proof cups.
Edward Atkin is a businessman, investor and entrepreneur based in the UK and was CEO of Avent. His company was acquired by Philips in 2006 for £460 million. His company was then renamed Philips AVENT.
Hegen is a Singapore brand incorporated in June 2014 that designs and produces breastfeeding pumps, storage containers, and bottles. Its flagship product is its Express-Store-Feed system with the patented Press-to-Close, Twist-to-Open (PCTO) technology. Its current CEO is its founder, Yvon Bock. Hegen was reported to be one of the top 10 fastest growing companies in Singapore and ranked #41 in the Financial Times "High-Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2022".
Yvon Bock is an entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Hegen, that provides baby and nursing products for breastfeeding mothers. Bock founded Hegen in 2015 to simplify the processes of expressing, storing, and feeding breastmilk. In 2021, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recognized her as one of the everyday heroes at the National Day Rally for her contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic.