The harsh reality
Unfortunately, it is relatively common for well-meaning aid to harm babies and young children. The following story is not unusual...
Yani was the mother of a two month old baby called Dara when an earthquake struck her town. Along with many others, her home was destroyed and she and her husband and two other children found shelter in a refugee camp. They lived in emergency tented housing and were given basic necessities like clothing, cooking implements and food rations from aid agencies working in the area. The food aid given to them included infant formula and even though Yani had been providing Dara with all of her food via breastfeeding prior to the earthquake, she started to feed her the infant formula. She used the formula because she thought that it would be good for her baby and, given the stress she was under, better than her breastmilk. Unfortunately, a short time after she started using the formula Dara became ill with diarrhoea and within a few days, severely dehydrated, she died from this illness. Had Yani not been given infant formula Dara most likely would not have died. Aid in the form of infant formula had resulted in her death.
When there is an emergency, the biggest danger to babies is the risk of dying as a result of diarrhoeal illness. Babies who are breastfed have a secure and safe food supply, they are not exposed to disease causing bacteria and parasites that can contaminate water supplies and they receive antibodies and other disease fighting factors that help to prevent and treat illness. They are protected from the worst of the emergency conditions.
However, babies who are not breastfed are at great risk. In an emergency, food supplies are disrupted, there may be no clean water, overcrowding is often a problem and the health care system is likely to be stretched beyond breaking point. Outbreaks of diarrhoea are very common and spread easily in these circumstances. Babies who are not breastfed are very likely to contract diarrhoea-causing illnesses from unclean water and, with a weakened immune system and limited treatment, many will die (for more information on how the use of infant formula contributes to diarrhoea, see www.ennonline.net/ife/view.aspx?resid=101).
A recent flood in Botswana (2005/06), during which many hundreds of babies died due to diarrhoea, demonstrated the vulnerability of babies. It was observed that babies who were not breastfed were fifty times more likely to be hospitalised with diarrhoea and then seven times more likely to die after hospitalisation than babies who were breastfed. Hundreds of formula fed babies died in this emergency compared with only a handful of breastfed babies.
