Breastfeeding Stations

I saw a 2 months old baby weighing 1.5 kg (birth weight of 3 kg) this morning. He has acute diarrhea...The mother is a 17 year old single mother...He is her only child... The baby looks ill. He has sunken eyes with very thin pale skin...he cries weakly...his mother was trying to bottle feed him with a diluted milk formula... i saw a can of Alaska at bedside...i almost died of heart attack!

I still wince at the thought of earlier onset of malnutrition or "failure to thrive" as early as one month old in this part of the world...this is almost unheard of in the richer cities in the country... not unless a baby is afflicted with other systemic illness. A good example of this is a baby born with heart problem... but "failure to thrive" or babies who did not gain its expected weight for age because of poor feeding practices?... that is another story... specially in this day and age where every coin should be spent wisely, then the practice of breastfeeding is a must....

A 17-year old teen-age single mother, or a 30 year old mother of ten children, a Tausug or Samal mother of two living at Rio Hondo or a newly-wed with first baby from Sangali..The risk factors are there... ignorance, poverty, religious conflict, tradition or just plain stupidity ? ( i don't believe in that)

Coffee mate or water with sugar as breastmilk substitutes? Ehhww!

The efforts of some concerned citizens, institutions, foundations advocating breastfeeding practices is commendable...Lets thank their simple yet significant contribution for the sake of this country who's main treasure is its people...

As simple as encouraging a young nursing mother is a small task... but it can make a BIG difference... by forgetting the bonna, s26, enfalac, nan, nestogen, etc... this is not only the task of the doctors or pediatricians who first "catch" the baby when he/she was born... this is also the responsibility of the hilots, midwives, lolas and previously nursing mothers to spread to the 7,107 islands of this country that breastfeeding is the best for babies!