Same child???

Aug. '06- 7w 2.8kg..........Feb.'07- 8m 8.5kg

In August 2006 a mother showed up with her 7 week old boy, weighing 2.8kg. Apparently after her first child died as an infant, the blame was put on her breastmilk. Consequently, to ensure her second child’s survival, she was told not to breastfeed him. Instead he was fed a total of about 250ml of watery milk a day! Obviously he wasn't going to survive like this. We strongly encouraged the mother to start breastfeeding the child. She probably spent half the day with us learning how to breastfeed the child; needless to say the baby was quite eager to be fed.

A week later mom and baby came again; unfortunately his weight had dropped to 2.7kg. According to the mom breastfeeding wasn’t going well and she wanted to give milk. So, although we encouraged her to continue breastfeeding as well, we showed her how to make the milk properly- enough water, enough scoops of milk and enough times a day, Unfortunately they didn't come back the next week. I thought the worst and every time I looked at pictures of him I wondered what happened.

Well, just last week a mom came to the clinic with her 8 month old son; a chubby, healthy boy except for a pretty bad diaper rash. Mom was happy and thankful. I didn't think anything at first but as we started talking I remembered who they were. This was the little guy that came in looking so malnourished. I could hardly believe my eyes!