A two-month-old Palestinian boy has died from starvation in northern Gaza, according to media reports, days after the United Nations warned of an “explosion” in child deaths due to Israel’s war on the besieged enclave.
The Shehab news agency said Mahmoud Fattouh died at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Friday.Footage, verified by Al Jazeera, shows the emaciated infant gasping for breath in a hospital bed. One of the paramedics who rushed the boy to the hospital says Mahmoud died from acute malnutrition.
“We rushed him to hospital and he was found to be suffering acute malnutrition. Medical staff rushed him into the ICU. The baby has not been fed any milk for days, as baby milk is totally absent in Gaza.”
Israel, which cut off all supplies of food, water and fuel into Gaza at the start of the war, opened one entry point for humanitarian aid in December. But aid agencies say stringent checks by Israeli forces and protests by far-right demonstrators at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, known by Israelis as Kerem Shalom, have hampered the entry of food trucks.
“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths, which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action, in a statement last week.
I’m an idiot (see username)… but:
… don’t babies drink breast milk? I’m so confused
If the mother is also suffering from malnutrition (highly likely) then she probably can’t produce any breast milk.
It’s not always an option to breastfeed a baby (mother is taking certain meds or they just don’t produce a healthy supply are a couple main reasons), and that’s why baby formula is a thing.
Mom needs food to produce milk. Also, if the baby is on formula they can get trapped on it, unable to return to breast milk.
Presumably they’re referring to baby formula and/or imported (human) milk. This would be necessary if there isn’t a parent who can breastfeed, or they can’t produce enough to meet the baby’s needs.
Not every single mother can breastfeed and if we do, we need to increase a lot our water and food intake in order to have the both supply and for it to have the right nutriments. If this baby’s mum is still alive considering everything going there, with the food and water shortage, it’s quite unlikely she’s lactating.