Making Headway in Combating Hunger or The Evils of Coffee

One of the biggest complaints we see in the MamaBaby Haiti clinic is belly pain.  Most of the time the root cause of this is some inappropriate food the patient is eating or simply a lack of food altogether.  We've seen babies two months of age being fed coffee and milk and it's very common for babies who's moms have plenty of milk to be fed other foods like flour and water, formula, and even rice, beans and other adult foods.  Most of the moms we see do a fabulous job of breast feeding with most babies breastfed well over the 1 year mark, but for some reason they think breast milk is not enough so they try to feed their kids other things.  We are slowly trying to change these happenings by holding education classes and of course educating individuals as they come into the clinic but at this rate it could take years to spread the knowledge to everyone.  When a child comes in with belly pain we try to find out first if it's something serious like an intestinal blockage or appendicitis (usually it is not), second if they're eating enough (usually they're not most of our patients eat 1-2 times per day) and third if the foods they are given are appropriate for their age (often they're not).  Once we determine the offending agents, we try to educate the parents (or whomever the parents asked to bring their child to the doctor that day - it's funny how often the accompanying adult is a neighbor who has NO CLUE what is going on with the child) about the changes that should be made.  Sometimes they fight us on it: "My child is ONLY drinking a cup of coffee each day."  We then tell them all of the negative effects coffee can have on their child's body including appetite suppression, poor absorption of minerals, and insomnia just to name a few they usually agree to at least give the changes a try.  9 times out of 10 those who come back say the pains went away when they removed the offending agents.  Now if we could afford to put billboards all over Haiti telling of the evils of coffee in Kreole, we'd be set.  Since we can't do that we'll just keep educating, one family at a time.

In a previous blog, I've mentioned the high prevalence of malnutrition syndromes, Kwashiorkor and Marasmus.  Yesterday we saw one of those cases:

Midwife Edie Wells with a tiny little angel.

She was 7 months old but weighed just 11lbs.  Her mom had died giving birth to her, her father didn't want her so her older sister was caring for her.  She had been surviving on flour mixed with water, cookies mashed up in milk and a sugary orange drink called Tampico.  We had received a formula donation (thanks Sue Osborne of www.nostalgic-nana.blogspot.com and friends) and were so happy to be able to give this family a whole lot of it to try to get this poor little girl out of danger.  I always have trouble sleeping after seeing a case like this struggling with the dilemma of knowing the treatment they need is more food but knowing that it's not that simple.  See, when you first come to a place like Haiti, you think that the answer is to throw money and food at every problem and don't realize that you have to go about things strategically.  When a malnourished child comes in, I could go to our well-stocked kitchen and give them some food, but then what happens when the child's mother tells others what I've done and we have riots outside our gates because other families have kids who are just as hungry?  Or when we're on the streets and a street kid comes up saying "Blan (Kreole for foreigner), give me one dollar" if I give him a dollar, a very insignificant amount of money, all his friends will be right there crowding around me grabbing at my hands and pockets wanting a dollar too and the problem will soon become a much larger one.  Riots happen all the time when aid groups such as the UN try to hand out food because it's so desperate here so we've all learned to work systematically and carefully.

I am so happy to report that we have recently been connected with Food For the Poor (www.foodforthepoor.org) a group who provides rations of food in developing countries like Haiti for hungry people and Meds and Foods for Kids (www.mfkhaiti.org), a group who makes "Medika Mamba" a fortified peanut butter made in Haiti designed for malnourished kids ages 6months - 5 years.  We received 5, 100lb bags of rice from Food for the Poor which will allow the families of our hungriest kids to use the money they would have spent on rice to buy more nutritious foods such as beans, vegetables and fruits.  In the future we are hoping to get rations of beans from this organization as well, but are so happy to have something to give.  We have not figured out yet how to dole out this food without causing a riot but we will try to do it on non-clinic days so other patients who are not so bad off won't feel jealous.  I'll try to post a blog in the next few weeks to update you on how things are going.  In the meantime, your positive thoughts, prayers, and donations (www.mamababyhaiti.org/donate) are greatly appreciated as we try to improve the lives of those who need it most

Mesi davans (Thanks in Advance),

Dokte Sarah