Hello to fellow lactneters. My name is Colleen van der Laan and I am
from New Zealand.  I have been 'lurking' now for sometime and gaining so
much from your collective wisdom.
I have personal experience of working in emergency situations.  I was
present in the besieged city of Phnom Penh in Cambodia in the dying days
of the Vietnam War in 1974 & 1975.  In 1979 & 1980 I was on the
Thai/Cambodian border when the mass exodus of Cambodians was fleeing
from the Vietnamese invasion which brought an end to the tyranny of the
Pol Pot regime.  In 1981 I was present in Somalia on the Horn of Africa
as thousands of starving refugees sought help in the camps up and down
their country.
 
It was in Cambodia as a fairly new graduate nurse that I learnt what
danger a baby's bottle could be.  My interpreter was trained to speak
about the dangers every time we saw a person carrying a bottle.  We
could always be certain that upon unscrewing the lid there would be a
collection of dirt and putrid matter.  I would get the adults to smell
it and they didn't like what they smelt. The plight of these poor people
was desperate they were sometimes feeding rice water to their babies.
 
In Thailand in 1979 I met up with Sue Peel who wrote "Selective Feeding
Procedures" which was a guide to medical personnel using the Oxfam
feeding kits.  In this booklet she says 'FEEDING BOTTLES MUST NEVER BE
USED IN A THERAPEUTIC FEEDING CENTRE'.
 
We used the principles of the above booklet when setting up feeding
centres in our camp in NW Somalia in the early 80s.  We were fortunate
that at that time the then Government of Somalia had some sound
regulations in place for those of us working under the umbrella of the
United Nations (UNHCR) in these camps.  Baby's bottles were banned so I
had the power to confiscate and destroy them whenever I came across
them.  A cup and spoon is the only way to feed a malnourished child in
these situations unless they are having naso-gastric tube feeds.
 
This all seems a long time ago but isn't it so sad that history is still
repeating itself amongst these vulnerable people caught up in emergency
situations.
 
Colleen van der Laan.
BN. BM. IBCLC.

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