Hello Mr. Rawles,
What a fine blog you have! I read with interest the entry Caring for Babies in TEOTWAWKI. I respond to the part about breastfeeding your infants. The author makes many excellent points about the tactical advantage of breastfeeding infants as opposed to relying on formula, including the potential to feed other members of your family. If you are successfully breastfeeding when the balloon goes up, it would be very advantageous for your family to have a battery operated breast pump, simply to collect more milk. The author also included a very touching video of a woman acting as a wet nurse after the Chinese earthquake in 2008.
I am currently in the throws of breastfeeding an 8 week old, and successfully breastfed another baby for 18 months. Although I am exclusively breastfeeding, I often think about what my husband would do if TSHTF and I was killed, but the baby survived. What if he couldn’t get to the store to buy formula, or what if it was sold out, or, like the author mentioned, $4,200 per can? I hope there’s an altruistic wet nurse nearby like the Chinese lady, but what if there’s not?!
Then I started wondering what I would do if I survived TEOTWAWKI, but if I found, like the Chinese lady, there were hungry babies without Mothers? Right now I could be a wet nurse, but what if it’s in five years after I’ve stopped lactating?
For starters, I ask for formula samples each and every time I go to the pediatrician. They are very generous. I also got quite a supply at my OB appointments! Yes, OBs get formula samples too. I am hesitant to spend a great deal of money stocking up on formula since it would only be used in a very, very bad combination of events, and it has a limited shelf life. However, if you are formula feeding or supplementing with formula, it’s a really good idea to have a few extra cans stored away that you will eventually use.
Some women are lucky and produce an abundance of breast milk, and so they can pump extra and freeze it. But if the electricity goes out, that’s only going to be good for 1-3 days.
So, while we know breast is best, and formula, while not as convenient, is a good second choice, but what if neither is available? In the event of TEOTWAWKI – do not use this recipe under normal circumstances – you can feed an infant under 12 months old [for a short period of time] with this homemade recipe:
Mix:
2 – 12 oz. cans of evaporated milk
32 oz. water
2 Tbsp. Karo syrup
3 ml. Poly-Vi-Sol vitamins
This was the homemade version used a generation ago, and is still being used in developing countries, but is a distant 3rd in quality behind breast milk and formula, but it’s better than letting an infant starve to death.
One other option that could be tried, if desperate, is relactation. Often, women who have successfully breastfed in the past can produce milk again as a wet nurse, although they would not produce the volume that a current breastfeeding woman can produce. Also, a woman that has never been pregnant or breastfed an infant can produce breast milk – adoptive Mothers do it every day, but again volume is the issue. A currently non-breastfeeding wet nurse may just produce enough milk to tide a baby over until you can get formula, or perhaps for baby to be reunited with its Mommy!
Praying that it never comes to that, – Dee, (In a city much too big)