Letter From COTA

Dear Sharon,

I wanted to take a moment to let you know how impressed I am with your feeding program for malnourished infants.

Children of the Americas has traveled to Guatemala annually to perform cleft surgeries on children there, and every year, without fail, we have to turn away many babies that are too malnourished to qualify for our minimum surgical weight of 15 lbs. This January, in Tiquisate, Guatemala, our pediatric plastic surgeons had to decline 8 babies that were underweight and were not strong enough for surgery. COTA always provides 2-3 months of powdered formula for these babies, but what happens to them once this runs out is unclear.

Recently you partnered with COTA to bring baby Alex to KY for donated cleft repair. He was a great example of your infant feeding project–at 8 months of age he arrived in good nutritional status at 15 pounds! I had seen photos you sent of him, with his mother holding the NAN formula you donated, but I had no idea how much of a difference it would make in our ability to go ahead and schedule his surgery.

COTA has brought many babies to KY for donated cleft surgery over the last 20 years. We almost always have to spend the first few months that they are here getting them out of the near-starvation state they were in when we first saw them in Guatemala. Alex was our first-ever baby to come ready for surgery, and he is already scheduled for his first surgical appointment on this Thursday May 22! This is unprecedented.

Your feeding program donations to Alex will allow us to get his surgery done quickly and get him back home to his mother in record time. His only problem was bilateral ear infections, which are common in clefts. He is on antibiotics and thriving.

Thank you Sharon for all you are doing with this formula project. Cleft babies have the added disadvantage of not being able to breastfeed due to upper lip issues. It is comforting to know that there are fewer babies in Guatemala who will have to suffer an empty stomach. Early infant nutrition is a critical component toward creating a child who can someday become a self-sufficient adult.

Sincerely,

Jody Greenlee, RN
Health Care Coordinator
Board President
Children of the Americas
www.childrenoftheamericas.org