Its hard to admit that today I had to counsel a young mother, who is not gaining much weight and who was under weight before becoming pregnant with her 2nd child, to not give the majority of the food to the toddler and her husband. I know how we moms are. We often feed the family and eat what is left. For most of us that is just fine because we make enough.....we buy enough....we grow enough and we can enough. But for some (old order Amish - rarely go to a store) there isnt an abundance. I asked about eating eggs - they dont have any eggs right now because the chickens arent laying and that means they dont have any eggs right now. I cannot imagine living without eggs (of course a vegan can, but Im not vegan!). I asked her about milk - they have the real deal but she isnt fond of it w/out flavoring it. I told her she has to drink it. I asked if she eats meat at least 1 time per day. Some days she does, but not every day. They are getting low on meat and her husband needs to work instead of hunt, and when hunting means he has to get a buck, and you may sit forever and not see one, he cant afford the time it takes. So we talked about beans and peanut butter. The peanut butter is low and so I told her that she needs to be the one to eat it. I gently reminded her that she is not being selfish if she eats a bit more or gets the most of something. I told her that it is the same as making sure her little girl gets plenty, because she is growing a baby and this baby needs good nutrition, too. I dont like thinking about hunger or malnutrition. I find it appalling that it occurs more often than we realize. I hope that this mother can be creative in her kitchen and find a way to get more of the nutrients she and her growing baby need. If she didnt live 5 hours away it would be tempting to drop some anonymous groceries off on her porch. Big sigh...reminds me of the time I did a prenatal in Uganda and though we didnt speak the same language, I gave the pregnant mama, who had already lost 2 babies to miscarriage and stillbirth and had no living children, a handful of groundnuts and told her to eat them for the needed protein (someone translated). If only we could fix the whole world.....
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 02:01:28 +0000
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