Re: [xmca] moral life of babies

[Carol Macdonald <carolmacdon@gmail.com>]

Mike
In other 3rd world countries, there were big billboards of happy families
(with a baby) celebrating Coca Cola.  Mothers thought this meant that Coke
was good for babies, and fed them this ... .

In SA schools girls are taught that formula is good for babies, but it is
very expensive, so they dilute it and their children fail to thrive. They
also don't sterilise the bottles properly, which brings in infection. There
is however information on how to deal with diarrhoea.  HIV/Aids has also
complicated the picture, with mother-child transmission. In SA there is
still high mortality between 0-5 years, varying of course across different
communities. But we don't have the custom (such as in Malawi) of having lots
of children because about half of them are going to die.

Sorry to be so morbid on a Sunday evening.

Carol

On 16 May 2010 18:54, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:

> In Liberia infant mortality rate was particularly high around schools. Why?
> The girls were convinced to use similac instead of breastfeeding. Lacking
> money, but seeking to "do right by their babies" they substituted the water
> used to rinse rice for similac and bottle fed their babies. The water,
> being
> contaminated, increased already prevalent diarrhea and dehydration and
> death.
>
> Some call it progress.
> mike
>
> On Sat, May 15, 2010 at 7:52 PM, Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu> wrote:
>
> > On May 15, 2010, at 6:22 PM, mike cole wrote:
> >
> > Any idea of the infant mortality rate among the Kogi? Seems like it might
> > be a little difficult to make it past a couple of months! (Among the
> Kpelle
> > when i worked in Liberia it was about 50%, but that owing to high levels
> of
> > malaria and nasty water, and of course, no money to buy prophylactic
> > medicines. Extreme poverty makes for very different imaginaries.
> > mike
> >
> >
> > I don't know the infant mortality rate, but it would be interesting to
> know
> > how such events are understood. I have heard the infant malnutrition rate
> is
> > high. But the cause of that seems to be not poverty of the life style per
> > se, but accommodations forced on the Kogi. Their territory has been
> reduced
> > so that now they have only high mountain terrain to farm. And they have
> been
> > somehow convinced to consume foodstuffs that are not part of their
> > traditional cultivation, and which have lower nutritional value.
> >
> > Martin
> >
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