A few days ago I received a call from UNICEF. They are campaigning for the catastrophe of the Philippines after the passage of Typhoon Haiyan, a humanitarian catastrophe even worse than that of Haiti, which we saw so much in the media a few years ago. The girl was very kind, explaining to me in great detail the hardships that are happening there and how the help they are receiving is articulated.
As the conversation was interesting to me and my interlocutor asked me my opinion, I took the opportunity to explain the concern that assails me when I see in the news that when making food collection campaigns request, among other basic foods, starter milk. Casualties or not, a few days later it is published in the press that WHO and UNICEF are asking those responsible for caring for the victims to do their best to provide babies breastfeeding, life insurance for those children in such a critical situation.
From our western and wealthy vision, giving a bottle is simple. A mechanical act that millions of people repeat daily. We put the dishwasher and wash so hot that we can even do without sterilizing the dishes. We take the bottled water, we use the microwave and in just two gestures we have a food that, apart from discussing its suitability or not for a baby, provides the nutrition it needs.
Simple, of course, as long as everything goes well. When my oldest son was only 3-4 months old, we suffered a season of frequent electric blackouts in the neighborhood. On more than one occasion we were almost dark (because it was also winter) with him in his arms crying because under such conditions we could not prepare a bottle.
If in a situation as banal as that we already suffer frustration and worry, imagine preparing a bottle when there is no light for days, when there are no hygiene conditions, when drinking water is a real luxury, when access to medical care is not easy ... if they manage to prepare it, that bottle is a time bomb. Preparing and administering a bottle in these conditions poses a serious risk of getting sick and die of an infection.
In such a dramatic situation, efforts should focus on moms being able to breastfeed exclusively, helping them to remove the bottles in those cases in which mixed breastfeeding. Encourage the donation of milk, create networks of mothers who can breastfeed several babies, encourage those who have stopped giving it to their relationship.
Donating formula milk should not be a priority. It may make us, from our comfort and remoteness with the situation, make us feel that we have helped to feed a child. I know because I, years ago, also believed it that way. But the truth is that, in this way, we may have stayed with the simplest for us and not the best for them.
Although the fundamental reason why a bottle in a country in a situation of humanitarian crisis is dangerous is the high probability of becoming seriously ill from an infection caused by lack of hygiene and means, it is closely followed by the difficulty of having milk adapted for meet the baby's needs for as long as he has to take it. In a country that has lost everything, with ruined people, where businesses are looted by people who are desperate, where dirt and overcrowding cause new diseases, what better than to be able to give children a food always available, nutritionally perfect and totally free.
