Organically Growing

 *January 25, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
*Urgent Call for Human Milk Donations for Haiti Infants*

*Washington, DC*–The Human Milk Banking Association of North America
(HMBANA), United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC), International
Lactation Consultant Association/United States Lactation Consultant
Association (ILCA/USLCA), and La Leche League International (LLLI) are
jointly issuing an urgent call for human milk donations for premature
infants in Haiti, as well as sick and premature infants in the United
States.
*
*This week the first shipment of human milk from mothers in the United
States will be shipped to the U.S. Navy ship *Comfort* stationed outside
Haiti. *Comfort* is currently set up with a neonatal intensive care unit and
medical personnel to provide urgent care to victims of the earthquake. An
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant stationed at the U.S.
Navy base in Bethesda, MD is assisting with providing breast pump equipment
and supplies to *Comfort*. Dr. Erika Beard-Irvine, pediatric neonatologist,
is on board to coordinate distribution of the milk to infants in need.
HMBANA, USBC, ILCA/USLCA, and LLLI are responding to requests to provide
milk for both premature infants and at-risk mothers who have recently
delivered babies on board the USNS *Comfort*, but an urgent need exists for
additional donations.

At the current time, the infrastructure to deliver human milk to Haiti
infants on land has not yet been established. As soon as that infrastructure
is in place, additional donations will be provided to older infants.

Mothers who are willing to donate human milk should contact their regional
Mothers’ Milk Bank of HMBANA. A list of regional milk banks is available on
the HMBANA Web site at
(www.hmbana.org/index/locations<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=5%2FYhz2KVuQDBmUwmjxSxmeMhRTeqI2Qi>).

Currently milk banks are already low on donor milk. New milk donations will
be used for Haiti victims as well as to replenish donor supplies to continue
to serve sick and premature infants in the United States. Donor milk
provides unique protection for fragile preterm infants. Financial donations
are also strongly encouraged to allow HMBANA, a nonprofit organization, to
continue serving infants in need.

UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the Emergency Nutrition Network, and
medical professionals all recommend that breastfeeding and human milk be
used for infants in disasters or emergencies. Human milk is life-saving due
to its disease prevention properties. It is safe, clean, and does not depend
on water which is often unavailable or contaminated in an emergency. Relief
workers, health care providers, and other volunteers are urged to provide
support for breastfeeding mothers to enable them to continue breastfeeding,
and to assist pregnant and postpartum women in initiating and sustaining
breastfeeding.

For more information, contact HMBANA at 408-998-4550
(www.hmbana.org)<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=JctiaHWuArP5da1B%2FAAjo%2BMhRTeqI2Qi>.
Additional information can be provided from the United States Breastfeeding
Committee at 202-367-1132
(www.usbreastfeeding.org<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=3PYv0vFD8×2sRc309qdvCuMhRTeqI2Qi>),
ILCA/USLCA at 800-452-2478
(www.ilca.org<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=7bE2ee%2FPELwKG55KBr2%2FHuMhRTeqI2Qi>or
www.uslca.org<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=1PDtNmQTQNyPqkmjQNvIUOMhRTeqI2Qi>),
or La Leche League at 847-519-7730
(www.llli.org<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=wn7aipTqrcyDTDpNL2WWfeMhRTeqI2Qi>
).

*The USBC is an organization of organizations. Opinions expressed by USBC
are not necessarily the position of all member organizations and opinions
expressed by USBC member organization representatives are not necessarily
the position of USBC. *

*United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC)*
The United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) is an independent nonprofit
coalition of 41 nationally influential professional, educational, and
governmental organizations. Representing over half a million concerned
professionals and the families they serve, USBC and its member organizations
share a common mission to improve the Nation’s health by working
collaboratively to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. For more
information about USBC, visit
www.usbreastfeeding.org<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=80dMf86V2LBWpPTNjKb87%2BMhRTeqI2Qi>
..

###
——————————

*United States Breastfeeding Committee*
2025 M Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202/367-1132
Fax: 202/367-2132
E-mail: office@usbreastfeeding.org

I like this article:

http://www.parenting.com/article/Baby/Care/Get-that-Baby-to-Bed-0/1

Exactly what I posted recently about doing what’s right for you, tonight. This stage doesn’t last forever, and I have a hard time believing that I’m doing major damage to my son’s personal coping skills by cuddling him back to sleep when he wakes up in a fright during the night.

I’m pretty sure that over the course of one short weekend Ryder mastered the following skills:

1. Standing up on everything
2. Climbing stairs
3. Crawling at full speed on all fours
4. Pointing
5. Loud grunting when he wants more food

It’s chaos!

Woke up last night (twice) to a screaming Ryder who was standing up and reaching for the table top humidfier nearby.

I laid Ryder down for a nap this morning. From the sounds of his peeping, I determined he wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon, so I entered his room to find him standing in the crib. Head and shoulders above the rail.

It’s official. Ryder is crawling.

In early December when he starting creeping across the floor doing the electric worm, I called it crawling. He was making forward progress and able to get to things he wanted to check out. That’s mobility!

But today he’s demonstrated that getting up on all fours makes dashing for the dog bowl or breaking for the stairs so much more efficient! Top off the on-knees crawling method with his new found love for climbing the bottom three stairs, and we officially have a mover and a shaker on our hands.

Ryder’s pincher grasp is getting good! I’ve started giving him strips of banana and pear, chunks of soft tofu and some of those whipped organic yogurt snacks, and many of them actually make it in his mouth.

I’ve also started introducing a LOT of new foods, including: quinoa (so delish mixed with yogurt and mashed fruit), frozen organic waffles and peaches. Now I have turnips and beets on deck, as well as beans and maybe even some salmon!!

Take everything you read with a grain of salt.

I’ve skimmed a number of Sleep Advice books and finally came to the realization that no single “sleep strategy” is right for every baby. After spending several weeks totally stressing myself out over following a particular strategy to the tee … I decided that I needed to create my own personal strategy that would work for me, and for Ryder.

The main issue I have with these books is that they made me feel like every time I deviated from the “plan” that I was forever ruining my baby’s ability to cope/sleep on his own. Never pick you baby up if he’s crying in the night. Only pat for a specified amount of time, and don’t do it rhythmically or he will get hooked on that. Only comfort him if he’s getting too worked up (how much is “too much”). Don’t feed him in the middle of the night, but if you must always at the same time (what if he doesn’t wake up at 2am every night??) And god forbid – never bring your baby into bed with you!

I found myself cursing at Marc when he would pick up a crying Ryder at 2 in the morning – “Your ruining all our training!” I would gasp.

It all came to an end when late one night this week, as I was rocking a screaming baby and lashed out at Marc for suggesting that I try to feed him. “That’s exactly what he wants. He will cry and cry and cry until we pick him up or feed him or bring him to cuddle in bed. We’re teaching him that if he keeps crying we’ll just give him what he wants!!”

Marc’s response was, “Oh yes, it’s his diabolical baby plan to manipulate us into doing what he wants.”

That put it all in perspective. And when I started listening to my instincts and Ryder’s cues, instead of the Sleep Lady and every other author-come-lately.

Ryder was waking up at 10:30p on the dot, giving me all his hungry cues but I was ignoring them, thinking he “shouldn’t” need to eat until 2am. Now, I feed him when he wakes at this time (or thereabouts). When he grumbles at 2 or 5am, I know that if I leave him alone, he will put himself back to sleep. I know that when he starts to cry, that he won’t put himself back to sleep, so I will go rock him for a minute to settle him down and he puts himself back to sleep. No major damage done.

Pretty much every resource you read on introducing solids to baby recommend some sort of wait period – 3 or 4 days. The exception I found was a recent article in Parents magazine that suggested if you don’t have allergies in your family, it’s important to expose baby to as many foods as possible to encourage an adventurous eater (I’m paraphrasing here). Given Ryder’s excitement with all things food, I chose to take the faster introduction of foods route.

It seemed to be working fine, until yesterday when he developed a nasty red rash on his back and has been pooping what appears to be watered down spinach all day. Not sure if it’s an allergic reaction, but it seems to be. Fortunately for us, we keep a chart on the fridge of what Ryder eats at his three meals, so I can make sure I’m not giving him sweet potatoes and bananas at every meal and to at least TRY to give him a well-balanced menu. This week we introduced cauliflower and spinach, plus started back on this mixed grain cereal (oat, barley, spelt). I’m suspecting the cereal is the culprit as we tried it in early December and he developed a similar rash, which at the time I thought was dry skin.

At any rate … I’m not advocating one eating way over the other, but I know for us, we are going to slow down a bit on the new introductions just to make sure we can figure out what’s upsetting his tummy. I really hope it’s not the spinach, because he loved it!