The Imperfect Community

[Jessica]

I heard the leader of the black caucus say that we should have organized efforts with formula companies to get them to go down to NO to deliver and donate formula to the refugees. The formula companies have made efforts to donate to HIV victims in Africa and only been met with harsh political opposition. I thought to myself, that the bfing advocates would never let that happen (even in a disaster) and would probably fight against having any tax dollars going towards this effort. What do you think?

[Rebecca_R]

Those babies are already ff'd anyway. I think it's way different than Africa where those kids really need to be bf'd, and the water causes disease. To give formula to our refugees who already have ff'd babies is good, because these people don't have money to be buying expensive ass formula right now. The water in our country is safe and kids aren't exposed to communicable diseases and dying of diarrhea.

I believe the formula effort in Africa is similar to that of handing out formula in hospitals, to GET people to ff'd. Whereas donating to our refugees is keeping kids fed w/o motive of discontinuing bf'ing.

[Jessica]

[Sewingsiren]

No, Jessica I don't think that any breastfeeding advocate would be against saving babies lives. I know that a lot of people that post here have had bad experiences with breastfeeding advocates, but the bottom line is suppose to be to help babies. I can't imagine anyone being against getting formula to babies in danger of starving. Seeing those little listless babies on the news clips, just breaks my heart. Its all so unbearably sad. And so, so preventable.

[Scout]

Actually, I was wondering "where are the formula companies and all their free formula NOW?" and went to enfamil.com to see if it said they were donating formula, and it did. I think as others have said, I think they should be donating formula since these are ff'd babies anyway. As far as Africa, my understanding is that even with safe formula, those babies are better of bf'd, even from an infected mother. They need the antibodies in bm just to survive the first year.

Just an aside, but one of the very first interviews I heard on NPR the day after the hurricane was a woman who had fled with her daughter and 9-day old premie grandson. The woman said "His mother is breastfeeding him, thank god. At least that's one thing we don't have to worry about--him getting fed."

[Jessica]

[honeybee]

[honeybee]

[prescott]

[becky2005]

I was wondering that same thing...would the b'feeding moms even be able to produce enough milk if they weren't getting enough food and water?
It's all so sad...

[Scout]

They probably had milk at least for the first couple of days--after that the dehydration may have started causing problems. But women in parts of Africa with long-term food shortages who are malnourished are usually able to bf. Your body will digest itself for nutrients to ensure the survival of the baby. Dehydration is a bigger problem, though. I'm sure the extreme stress would not have helped, either.

[Rebecca_R]

I have been dehydrated while nursing both of my kids. It's a horrible cycle too, because you are dehydrated and then producing milk causes you to be more dehydrated. But there is always a little milk, and of course what little water the women could have would have made them produce more milk. Then they could drink the water themselves, not have to waste it in a bottle, and the baby would just get nutrients through the milk.