Saving young lives in emergencies
Infant feeding in emergencies: helping children survive
In emergencies, breastfeeding is more important than ever: it saves babies’ lives.
We’re working with mothers in places like cyclone-hit Myanmar (Burma) to help them give their children the best chance in life. Saving lives in emergencies often means much more than delivering food to children and their families. This is especially true for babies, who are more vulnerable to sickness and malnutrition and have special nutritional needs.
The World Health Organisation recommends that babies be breastfed within an hour of birth, and then exclusively breastfed (with no other food or drink, not even water) for their first six months. They also recommend that breastfeeding should then continue for two years or more in tandem with other food.
Formula or ‘artificial’ feeding not only has less nutritional benefit, but can cause vulnerable young children to get ill or even die during emergencies, for example when breast milk substitutes are mixed with contaminated water. We’re doing all we can to support mothers to breastfeed. Our work also supports safe formula feeding in some cases, for instance for some HIV positive or critically ill mothers, or sometimes when a baby has been orphaned, but there are very strict global criteria to identify these cases.
Why babies are more at risk
Babies have weaker immune systems than older children and adults. The basic requirements for safe formula feeding, like enough clean water, fuel for boiling water and sterilising equipment, and time, are scarce in emergencies. When there’s a lack of transport and proper storage conditions for breast milk substitutes, and when families are living in conditions that cause the rapid spread of disease (for instance where water has been contaminated or where there are
no proper toilet or washing facilities), it can be extremely difficult to formula feed safely.
Even in the safest conditions, the use of breast milk substitutes causes an increased risk of gastroenteritis, respiratory and ear infections, diabetes, allergies and other illnesses.
Aung Min Khant is ten months old. When we reached his village in Mawlamyinegyun Township (east delta) after Cyclone Nargis, he was suffering from acute malnutrition.
He was never breastfed because his mother was seriously ill and didn’t have the skilled support to be able to start again, once she got better. He was fed with milk powder and rice porridge instead and so his growth was much slower than other children his age. He got repeated chest infections and was referred to hospital by a government medical team but his parents couldn’t afford to take him there so he got worse every day.
Our mobile medical and nutrition team immediately admitted him to our Out Patient Therapeutic Program (OTP) and he recovered quickly. After 2 months he was better but his mother, Daw Than Than Nu, kept coming to our health and nutrition education sessions, learning what to feed him so that in the absence of breast milk he could still get all the nutrients he needs. Other parents in the area saw how quickly his health improved and were encouraged to bring their children to us for help too.
“Since we fed him the special food, his body weight and arm circumference significantly increased,” says Aung Min Khant’s mother. “And, thanks to the education provided by Save the Children, I’ve become aware of the importance of healthy feeding, balanced diet, hygiene and breastfeeding."
Asemu lives in northern Ethiopia where most people are farmers, and most farmers can't produce enough food to live on. She is 22 and lives with her partner. They have two children: Bayou, 5, and Mikiray, 8 months, pictured here breastfeeding. Mikiray is at a crucial stage in her development - a healthy diet at this age is fundamental to preventing life long problems linked to malnutrition.
Fomba, four months, breastfeeding with his mother Matta inside their home, Ngeima village, Kailahun District, Sierra Leone. We've set up a clinic in Ngeima. Matta has followed advice from the clinic and Fomba has only been exclusively breastfed, and will carry on to do so until he is six months old. He has not had any illnesses to date. Matta had another child who died of a high fever at only eight months old.
In Myanmar (Burma)
After Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in May 2008, it was clear to our staff that the scale of destruction and the challenges families were facing heightened threats to children’s survival.
Babies were particularly at risk. Many young children had been orphaned or separated from their families. As an integral part of our huge response to save lives and alleviate suffering, we’re supporting mothers and carers to feed their babies and children safely. This support includes:
- Training breastfeeding counsellors to help mothers and carers make informed decisions and give them specialist help if they’re having problems feeding their babies. That might mean helping mothers increase their breast milk production and feel more confident feeding or, in the case of a few orphaned babies without wet-nurses, helping carers feed safely with formula.
- Referring ill mothers and children to health services.
- Giving food to pregnant and breastfeeding women who are malnourished so they can feed their babies and maintain the strength to care for older children in the family as well.
We’ve reached 16,317 mothers and carers with children under two through education sessions on breastfeeding and best feeding practices for babies from 6 months to 2 years. We’ve educated 850 mothers on the best ways to feed their children, and provided follow-up support and advice on an individual basis with 360 of them.
Find out more
Read more about our work in emergencies
Read our publication Bottlenecks and Dripfeeds
Find out more about nutrition in emergencies from our publications Household Economy Approach, and Emergency Nutrition Assessment.
