Don’t eat the frozen vegetables!
I have a friend who eagerly anticipated becoming a mother. She planned for how she would care for her child…and one of the things that was important to her was giving her child home grown vegetables. She wanted her child to get all of the nutrients of fresh vegetables, and avoid the contaminants that might come with processing. Unfortunately, she was not able to grow her own garden, but she had some friends with gardens who offered to share their frozen vegetables with her–actually, she didn’t wait for them to offer, she asked them if they’d grow more than they needed and save the veggies for her, even before she had a confirmed arrival date for her child.
When she was finally blessed with an adopted child, she very carefully listened to the instructions from the pediatrician regarding feeding the child. The Dr. instructed that she should only feed canned vegetables to the child. Overwhelmed with all the instructions that were being given to her as a new parent, she did not question this bit of advice, but just took it in. However, as her friends called to congratulate her on her new arrival and ask if they could bring some vegetables over she simply said “the Dr. says he doesn’t reccommend it. He says that I should feed canned vegetables.”
This is pretty ludicrious, isn’t it? I mean really, what in the heck is wrong with the frozen vegetables, wouldn’t the less processed homegrown vegetables be healthier?
I actually asked my friend what specifically her Dr. objected to, and she didn’t know. I gently urged her to find out (because…ahem…you CAN disagree with your Dr. and make your own choices!). Especially because her BABY was constipated…and we weren’t really talking about vegetables here, we were talking about…
BREASTMILK
Ummm…yeah…”ICK!” right? I suspect that was the objection the Dr. had. Hey, it makes more sense to feed your baby processed cow milk than human milk, right?
If your baby needs cow milk because there isn’t a way to get human milk for the baby, then I’m glad that we have the cow milk. And hey, I’m a self-professed [cow]milk-aholic, so it’s not like I’m in the camp that thinks that across the board, cow milk should not be a human food. But I happen to think that whenever possible, baby humans should drink human milk. Its what God designed for them after all!
Apparently it was not important to the Dr. that babies fed breastmilk are less likely to die , with some speculation that an excess 9,000 babies die each year from formula feeding in America. That’s not to mention the ear infections, gastro-intestinal illnesses (including constipation!), eczema, and allergies. And of course, lets not forget, at about $.75 to $1.80 per 6 oz bottle…we are looking at about $1300 to $3300 to buy the formula for a year.
So I encouraged the mom to find out what the Dr’s objections were, to see if she agreed. I don’t know know if she ever did find out–she hasn’t asked me for my milk, and her baby is over 2 months old now. So my extra milk is going to a baby in Philadelphia–I’ve given about 12 gallons so far to this baby (another 2 gallons went to a baby in Oregon in 2002, and my other excess milk was either fed to my toddlers…or saddly, before I was aware of milk sharing, poured down the drain)–thats about $250 worth of formula for anyone who wonders…or about $7000 of breastmilk from a milk bank (yeah, they really have a steep mark up!).
I’m going to hazard a guess here that the Dr.’s primary objection to the donation was the “ick” issue…but if pressed, the Dr. would probably say something about the potential donor possibly having a virus that the baby could catch (that was what was recently published in a magazine, which coincidentally, I found out about AFTER starting to write this post). Which makes no sense really–would the Dr. turn down a blood donation on the same grounds? Well I’ve got my 2 gallon pin for blood donation (being pregnant so often really slows me down!), and a large portion of blood donations go to premature babies…who presumably would be more susceptible to any virus than my friend’s full term baby. If I can be cleared for blood donation (my most recent donation was in January 2009), surely I can be cleared for milk donation!
The Dr. from the magazine suggested that only pastuerized milk from a milk bank was safe, but there are a couple of problems with that suggestion:
*just like blood, milk is a live substance. Pastuerization kills it, thus lowering its benefits. No one pastuerizes blood. Actually, the
only reason we pastuerize milk is because the cows used to be dirty *externally* when they were milked. With laser cleaning now prior to milking, perhaps we ought to reconsider the whole pastuerization issue even for cow milk.
*milk from a milk bank, as I mentioned above, is prohibitively expensive, AND milk banks will generally only sell milk to parents who have a prescription for it–which is usually only given to preterm babies
*if a recepient mom really wants to have pastuerized milk, she can pastuerize it herself.
I’m a milk donor. And I’m not going to stop any time soon. After all, doesn’t my recipient look happy?
If you’d like more information about milk donation (as a donor or recipient), please visit http://www.milkshare.com or the “Milkshare” Yahoo Group.
Tags: Breastfeeding, Doctor, infant feeding, milk donation, nutrition, pediatrician
I’m a milk donor too and I love your post….just wish your friend’s little baby was receiving your milk.
My not-so-little Philadelphia baby is LOVING your milk, friend! Thank you again for your generous gift! I wish your friend’s baby was sharing in the milky goodness too.
Great post!
Calvin, my 4.5month old, is thriving thanks to all the wonderful milk mamas who have helped me nourish him! We appreciate donor moms like you! And as a recipient and a family practice doctor in Portland I’d definately say mama’s milk is always best!