Looking for Breastmilk Donations!

Hi everyone!

Ate needs more breastmilk.  Below is an email we sent several weeks ago and we got some breastmilk donations then.  Thank you to all who shared breastmilk!  Ate cannot take formula and animal milk... So breastmilk keeps her going!

I boldy ask for human breastmilk donations for my daughter Ate.  If you know anyone who has some to spare, we are willing to do pick-up of the frozen breastmilk and I will just give them breastmilk storage bags in exchange.

Ate is 1 year old and has been on breastmilk except for her 6th month when I supplemented with formula.  The formula aggravated her seizures and two child neurologist, one pedia-nutritionist, biomed advised not to go with formula.  Her seizure control improved when we went back to breastmilk full time (along with other remedies and therapy that we did and still do).  We have also put Ate on a GF/CF/SY (gluten-free/ casein-free/ soy-free) diet.  So fresh cows milk, goats milk, soy milk and other milks are to be avoided.  While there is no scientific evidence that these milks will make her conditions worse, we would rather not risk it.  We decided that it's better she is underweight and steadily growing and gaining weight slowly, rather than be the correct weight for her age but have multiple seizures per day.

My milk supply has been very low and practically gone.  My body can't seem to handle it now that I am already 3 (now 4) months pregnant with our second baby.  I know my body will prioritize giving the needed nutrients to my baby inside, then next would be the breastmilk for Ate, then last would be nutrients needed by my own body.  My ob-gyne and nutritionist/ob-gyne confirmed this with me.

While several moms are able to breastfeed their child until they are 8 months pregnant and eventually do tandem breastfeeding, I don't think my body will allow that.  When I do have breastmilk again after giving birth to our second baby, I will be giving breastmilk to Ate - with the youngest baby always the priority.  She will be receiving colostrum which would do her a lot of wonders.

So Ate just needs a supply of human breastmilk from now until January 2011.  She won't be needing as much as a 3 month old baby since she is already eating solids and already 1 year old.  But nevertheless, human breastmilk will help her a lot.  I should be able to coordinate with moms since I can't get all the breastmilk stored in our tiny freezer all at once.

Please forward this to breastfeeding moms if you know of any.  I won't have much to offer them but my gratitude, constant prayers and... breastmilk storage bags.  We live in Paranaque so it would be great if the moms live nearby, although we are willing to travel further to get breastmilk for Ate.  Her weekly therapy is in Greenhills so we can also collect breastmilk there, my sister-in-law lives in Pasig and we see each other once a week so we can also get breastmilk in that area.  And Ate's dad works in Makati so we can also pick-up there.  Just a lot of coordination is needed since we all know breastmilk has to stay frozen until it is ready for consumption otherwise it goes to waste.

Again, thank you for your support!  Ate is doing better now.  We went to a children's party that was so noisy and we got a lot of good reaction from her even without hearing aids.  We really believe she will normalize one day.