A few days ago, a driver left the vehicle in reverse, creating a very shrill backup beep. I asked her to turn it off, because "My neighbor has a baby".
She told me she had a baby, too, and got it in drive instead. We waited for Ron to come out.
"I need to talk to her" the driver murmured. "About formula". About that time Ron came out so we ended that and left.
[Side note: neighbor mom only speaks Spanish. I caught Baby Girl on her car one day and she said "Is OK! Is cute!" That's about it.]
I realized, though, that the driver must have been using WIC to feed her baby. The government shut down the WIC program. They wanted to starve babies. Way to go. [sarcasm]
The driver is trying to find a way for someone to feed the baby.
Now, I doubt any babies are actually starving, but parents, accustomed to having Uncle Sam buy the baby food, now have to buy it themselves. And, they realize, it's expensive.
One lady told me her mother used to feed her a homemade baby formula, back in the old days. It was comprised of corn syrup, water, and evaporated milk. Yum. I wonder how many old timers are whipping it up right now.
It's just sad that we've gotten to the point where Uncle Sam feeds the baby, instead of the parents. I don't have a problem with WIC. Babies need good nutrition.
I just find it alarming the parents thought it would never end. I imagine a lot of budgets are getting redone right about now. Formula isn't cheap.
Now, for an older baby things get easier. Milk, happily, is a lot cheaper than formula. My parents used to put dinner in the blender and feed it to me. No baby food. My mother was very proud of that. "I never fed you baby food. I cooked it all myself." You have to eat anyway. Blenders are cheap. Easy fix.
Just don't use a lot of salt and spices.
2 comments:
Formula is important if a mom isn't Breast feeding..babies need nutrients that aren't in cow's milk until they're about a year old.
My daughter's formula is darned expensive , but we make it a priority.
OH, I agree. Baby's system isn't developed enough for milk until they are at least 1 or so.
The formula people really have parents over a barrel. You have to buy it and often baby can only tolerate the more expensive one.
Babies need an incredible amount of protein; more than they can get from a few tablespoons of people food.
I would have loved to nurse my baby, but babies are out due to genetic issues, medication birth defects (I need the meds to stay alive), and other things.
I would have poison milk due to my meds, assuming I could nurse (I have a pretty decent chest but I know size isn't everything).
One time at work I found an amazing woman in the stall, pumping. "My baby doesn't get sick as often as my husband's first" she said.
I was awed.
Post a Comment