Coffee for Babies? - by Arleen Perez-Alonzo (posted Sept. 2007)

Maricar, a three-year-old girl, is the youngest among seven children. She has big wide beautiful black eyes, short black straight hair that laced her piquant face and golden tan skin. She likes to mingle with other children as well as adults.

I first met Maricar while resting outside their house in Dapo, Pandacan, Manila. Maricar was with Aling Nene, her grandmother, who was telling me stories about the sweetness and beauty of her grandchild. I brought out the digital camera from my bag. As I took pictures of Maricar with her siblings, she broke into a wide grin. She tried to reach out for the camera, especially when I showed her the pictures I took.

But Maricar could only utter garbled words. As she tried to reach for the camera, I noticed that her fingers were crooked, her arms were emaciated and her body was that of a thin one-year-old child. She could not walk nor stand on her own. She was either strapped in a stroller or held by her grandmother. She could barely raise her head.

Ria, her mother, stopped breastfeeding Maricar one week after birth. She believed that a mother's milk will not have sufficient nutrition if the mother is always hungry. Maricar was fed with either coffee, rice broth, water with sugar or chocolate drink or formula milk when finances permit. Maricar's siblings were also breastfed for only a short period of time.

Maricar's family is one of the 65 million Filipinos who struggle to survive. Ria earns a living preparing chopstick holders and makes Php 350 in three days. Since her job is irregular, she also works as a laundrywoman. With her meager income, she has to feed seven children, who are also malnourished just like Maricar.
Even in the face of poverty, mothers I interviewed replaced or supplemented breast milk with milk formulas for the first six months of their infant's life. They were not aware that breast milk is the most nutritious and the only food their babies need for the first six months. One mother revealed that a barangay health worker advised her to give formula milk to her three-month-old baby.

I was sad to note that most of the mothers provided mixed feeding, i.e., breast milk combined with the following: formula milk, water and sugar solution, rice broth, rice broth with milk, or chocolate drink. Others opted not to breastfeed at all. When I asked mothers why they cannot breastfeed their babies exclusively, their common reasons were: 1) they believe their baby will absorb their stresses when they are tired during a breastfeeding session; 2) when a mother is hungry, her milk is not nutritious; 3) they think they cannot produce milk; and 4) they have an inverted nipple.

Mothers in Dapo, Pandacan are not the only ones who do not practice breastfeeding. In 1990, 35 percent of mothers in Metro Manila and 75 percent of mothers nationwide were breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months of their baby's life. In 2005, the exclusive breastfeeding rate went down to 5 percent of mothers in Metro Manila and 16 percent of mothers nationwide.

Three-year-old Maricar on a stroller in front of their house.

Maricar enjoys the afternoon breeze on her Grandmother's lap while her mother, Ria (right) prepares chopstick holders for a five-star hotel.

A camera-shy Maricar.