Urgently needed! Ready-made formula milk for babies in Japan

[megumi]

Hi, I am a Japanese mother of two children living in London.
I just happen to know that there is an enormous demand for ready-made milk in not just affected areas by the tsunami but Tokyo where the tap water is unfit for babies. There is a severe shortage of bottled water as well.
The Dailymail article for this found here. bit.ly/hZXKFU

Please bear in mind, the cartons of ready-made formula milk does not exist in Japan. I wondered why!
Apparently the Japanese milk company said there was no demand for such a thing until now.

Anyone, please let me know if you have an idea how it could be possible to send a large amounts of British ready-made formula milk to Japan.

Who should I talk to? How do I spread the words? Maybe Mumsnet could set up the charity? For allergic babies, can you get lactose free ready-made milk somewhere? I even do not know where to start...

All suggestions are welcome! :)

Hi,

I would approach:

• Oxfam
• Save the Children
• UNICEF
• Baby Milk Action

All would be best placed to let you know what is in place and what is being done. They may well have a way of donating money for such things. There are very strict rules about sending formula to crisis areas as in the past it has caused much harm due to it being done badly - but it still has to be done of course, just in a way that won't cause harm. Best of luck.

Thank you, organiccarrotcake! I have sent emails to those organizations you've suggested. Hope to get a reply soon.
I am also searching the way to get British milk company involved, any suggestion? It might be a great business opportunity for them too, I recon.
Not having a luck to find a ready-made milk for allergic baby yet...

Yes, you do need to do this through one of the major aid agencies who follow correct protocol.

What you don't want is indiscriminate donations - the problems which emerge from these are

• instructions in a language the recipients don't understand
• undermining of indigenous aid efforts
• giving out to mothers who are breastfeeding
• black market stealing the donations and selling on

WHO have guidelines which you can google - search Infant Feeding in Emergencies and find the PDF document.

Sending single-use donations of anything is not always a good use of aid - it can be better to work out a quicker way of getting donations to recipients from a nearer place. Or, if infant milk is needed, it might be better to donate clean water to use with powdered formula. Or even the services of a lactation expert who can help mothers relactate.

In the past, formula donations have done a great deal of harm and this is why all respected NGOs follow the protocols.

Megumi, please don't contact milk companies. They will be well aware of the crisis and will be in discussions where appropriate with NGOs, but, they are not best placed to deal with donations (to say the least). Sadly, history has shown they they don't have the best interests of these infants at heart.

With regards to hypoallergenic formulas, the NGOs will have access to those where appropriate so don't worry about that.

Your concern is totally understandable and it's so hard for everyone to see what people are going through. You're wonderful for trying to help. Doing it via the NGOs, who have everyone "on the ground" using tried and tested methods, will give the best support to those who need it. Your energies and commitment would be extremely useful to them so I would suggest seeing what you could do for them, rather than trying to re-invent the wheel.

Good on you :)

Thank you again, organiccarrotcake and tiktok,

Finally I received the reply from one of the charity organisation.
Oxfam GB said:
.... like many other charities, we do not send items such as formula milk from the UK overseas in emergencies due to the high costs involved in doing so. Costs such as transportation and customs charges make this an incredibly costly exercise which would not be an effective way for us to support those affected.

Funnily they mentioned about the cost only.

I have found the pdf document tiktok mentioned, that is quite informative. Thank you very much again!

Although I had read all about the sinful marketing strategy by formula milk companies since I had my first baby, I didn't think sending formula milk to Japan would cause any problems because Japan's case is peculiar and that is not a developing country. I have being raising my two children by breastfeeding, and I believe Japanese mothers are mostly well-educated and acknowledge about the benefit of breastfeeding and the plot of milk companies too.

I have such a dilemma now.
In Japan, bottled water stock is still far from enough and the tap water is contaminated, and panicked wealthy people from China are trying to buy up Japanese formula milk because their one is not safe. (remember about melamine milk?)

The Japanese mother community in Finland, they have just succeeded to send Finnish ready-made formula milk to Japan, I will keep in touch with them and discuss with other mothers in London what we can do.

Many thanks! Megumi