Rachel,

I don't know if formula is included, but these drops are unlikely to reach
many babies or women with young children.  Many are dropped in areas which
have been mined (so if you lose a leg in a mine explosion, you can console
yourself with a tub of peanut butter -- I have been wondering if this
approximates to anything Pashtun or Farsi people understand as food), and
will, if they are retrieved, be the subject of fighting.  So strong fighters
will be eating the contents, and, of course, staying strong enough to win
the next lot which is dropped. These parcels are seen in parts of the
mainstream British press really as a cynical part of the propaganda war in
self presentation by the west.  So, if formula is part of that presentation
(gee, these people need formula, cos things are so bad) that might have a
'spillover' effect on the rest of the world, but the impact on the babies in
Afghanistan is likely to be nil.

Anyone know about the refugee camps in Pakistan? (Another complete shambles
in organisation, it seems (they haven't even got water sorted out, so
nothing to mix formula with, so far), -- this is where  babies might
potentially be in contact with that white powder.

Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN, UK

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