Homemade baby food for an infant whose mother died during labor: CHEWED COOKED SWEET POTATOES AND SQUASH AND BANANAS!

 

                               

“You must give me diaper pins!”

Palitnja was thrilled when I gave her diapers, rubber pants, and diaper pins! I said “They are from America. My friend sent them to you.” Excitedly she replied, “Oh, these pins won’t break! They are strong since they came from America!”

Palitnja bathed Stuart.   

 

 

 

Then she tried to put on the pre-folded diapers, a type that she had never seen before.   Soon Darryl was outside showing her how to put a pre-folded diaper on a baby. He came in the house and said, “I taught Palitnja how to put a diaper on Stuart!”        

 

 

 

Stuart is now eight months old. We are thrilled that he is alive! We have become Grandpa Darryl and Grandma Becky to him.

Bagamwe, Palitnja’s husband, and Palitnja have worked very hard planting, harvesting and selling coffee so they can pay school fees for their children. Bagamwe has about 1,000 coffee trees but his profit is only $100 annually from the sales. (Public education in PNG is not mandatory or free! Very few people here receive an education beyond the 4th grade. In our village less than 0.5% of the population get to go to school.)

Bagamwe’s oldest unmarried daughter, Priscilla (26), just graduated from high school. While Priscilla was in Goroka in October 2006, there was a mother who died in child birth. The baby survived whom they later named Stuart. The mother had Aids. Stuart was tested twice for Aids. One time the test came back positive. Another time the test came back negative.

So Priscilla "adopted" the baby back in November and brought him into our village in December. She could not find a wet nurse. Here, the women did not want to nurse a baby from a different village. They heard that the mother had Aids! And they did not want their own babies to have less milk. This became a dilemma for us and Priscilla’s family as the baby was weak from hunger. (Baby bottles are illegal here because the PNG government has stated that more babies have died from contaminated bottles than have survived.)

Priscilla stayed in our village for a few weeks. Then she went back to teacher’s college in Lae leaving Stuart here with Palitnja. Since she could not give Stuart formula in a bottle, Palitnja kept the baby alive by chewing bananas, cooked sweet potatoes, and cooked squash in her mouth and then feeding Stuart these veggies. (Homemade baby food – village style!)   We prayed often and gave him antibiotics for ear infections.

 

A few months later, I was able to get a baby bottle from another missionary.   Also, I was able to purchase another bottle with an NTM prescription. So I had two bottles. One I would sterilize and fill with formula. The other, I kept at my house, and I would mix up the formula when Palitnja returned the first bottle since none of our village folk have a refrigerator.

 

Now Stuart is doing just fine with powdered milk. He is healthy!  And he is learning to crawl.

 We believe the Lord performed a miracle to keep Stuart alive! Often I wonder what the Lord has planned for Stuart when he gets older. I know He has Stuart’s life and purpose in His hands!