Milk Day

Twice a week our Mayan mom's come to Los Robles for a nice hot lunch and to receive baby formula for their infants. The group above traveled by foot from Chuti Estancia, a small community about 40 minutes away on foot. They are always so grateful for the warm, healthy meal and can of baby formula as it has made a huge difference in the health of their babies. Most of these women have little if any breast milk for their infants as a result of their own malnutrition.

Guatemala faces the highest level of malnutrition in the Western Hemisphere and the supplemental formula helps enormously to curb that malady. It was also interesting to discover that the typical Guatemalan mother thinks 1-2 glasses of water per day is more than enough. Our foundation owner asked me to ask one of the mother's how much water she drank each day. Her response was "plenty, I drink a lot of water." I translated that back and our owner said to ask specifically how much that was. I said it surely meant more than half a gallon or so. When I asked she said 2 glasses. I was astounded. No wonder she has no mother's milk. Drinking water is actually fairly hard to come by and the local's definition of "drinking water" varies greatly from mine. 

This particular mother was brand new to the program and brought in her 7 month old baby weighing less than 6 pounds, worried that it was not gaining weight. We gave her our double strength baby formula and some encaperina to mix in as well. We also gave her vitamins and will work closely with her to ensure the child starts gaining weight. We take so much for granted in our lives and this experience has opened my eyes in so many ways. I am sure I benefit far more from this experience than I contribute to these communities.