Re: [pronut-hiv] Infant Formula for AIDS orphan infants (8)

["Katherine Schwarz" <k_schwarz54@yahoo.com>]

Thank you so much for the information.  I'm a nutritionist from the US working here in Malawi and we certainly never studied what one does in situations like this.
  I'm working in a hospital here and we have a few babies whose mothers have either died or are too sick to produce breast milk.  So for some, they may have a chance to breast feed later on if the mother gets better, but some will not.  The orphanages here have a bigger problem than I do in the hospital.  We have a maternity ward and I've thought about asking new mothers to be wet nurses, but so many are HIV+ and even more don't know their status, that that's problemmatic.
  I have no idea why infant formula isn't available anymore in Malawi.  I'm in touch with the Ministry of Health, but they haven't provided an explanation either, nor a solution.
  But we will do the best we can.
  Thanks again for your reply,
  Katherine Schwarz

Marie McGrath <marie@ennonline.net> wrote:
  
Dear Kathy
You can access resources on infant feeding that include artificial 
feeding on the Emergency Nutrition Network (ENN) website 
(http://www.ennonline.net) - Module 2 training material includes a 
section that deals with the management of artificially fed infants and 
annexes recipies with guidelines on cup feeding young infants, etc. If 
you send me your mailing address, I am happy to send youa print copy of 
the resources. Although they have been developed for emergency settings, 
they are applicable in non-emergency settings.
As previous respondents have said, wet nursing would be a preferable and 
much safer option for infants under six months. Is this just an isolated 
case you are talking about?
If there is no source of breastmilk, then locally purchased infant 
formula would have a nutritional advantage over a modular feed which is 
distinctly lacking in micronutrients and there are no formulations 
around whereby you could practically add micronutrients to a modular 
feed. It also depends whether you are talking about temporary use of a 
breastmilk subsitute until a mother recovers, so a few days of a 'home 
recipe' feed will have less significance than if a young infant is going 
to be dependant on it.
Finally, I am very interested to know why has imported infant formula 
become scarce in Malawi?
Regards
Marie McGrath
Emergency Nutrition Network

Waindim Dorcas wrote:

>You can prepare corn pap mixed with soyar bean powder or ground groundnuts, this will be very nutritive for the baby.
> Dorcas, AWARE HIV/AIDS
> CBCHB, Cameroon
>
>Waindim Dorcas
>
>---- Katherine Schwarz wrote:
> April 8, 2006
>
>Does anyone out there know of any substitute for infant formula for infants (under 6 months) whose mothers are too sick to breastfeed or whose mothers have died. As you may know, imported infant formula had become very scarce in Malawi and is now just about impossible to find.
>Any suggestions you might have would be appreciated.
>
>Kathy Schwarz
>Zomba Central Hospital
>
>