Milk urgently needed for adopted daughter with special needs

HI Cynthia -

I am new to this website/forum and yours is the first post I have read. If they are all as heartfelt, I'm in trouble! I have about 300 oz. of frozen breastmilk I'd be willing to ship you if you still need it. Let me know and we can get started on the process.

Thanks,
Heidi

It's been a while since I posted last about my adopted daughter's need for milk. I'm not sure how far back donors will look through the archives, so I thought I would post again. Below is a copy of an email I recently sent out looking for milk for Delara. She is almost out of milk...

Dear friends:

Delara' needs your help, again. She now has no steady milk donors and her supply of donor milk is beginning to run low. The impact of her traumatic start in life is increasingly evident. Only four pounds at birth, she's coped with extended hospitalization, institutional neglect in an orphanage, severe malnutrition, severe allergy to formula (which she was forced to consume for her first year of life), surgery at six months, almost no human milk for her first year of life, and gastrointestinal bleeding when not having human milk. Recent evaluations have shown neurodevelopmental and musculoskeletal challenges including torticollis, asymmetric carriage of her arms (possibly due to the after-effects of mild Erb's palsy), hearing loss in one ear, and significant developmental delay of expressive speech with a suspected diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech. Her speech therapist has just referred her for yet another evaluation for sensory integration dysfunction, which appears to be affecting her systemically and, particularly, is likely preventing her from using her mouth in the usual way--impacting her ability to speak (in addition to the impact of motor-planning problems), likely explaining her very late start on solids and her difficulty consuming enough table foods and drinks to not need the contribution of human milk, and likely explaining, in part, her difficulty learning to breastfeed after being bottle-fed in the orphanage. When she doesn't have enough human milk, she is much more vulnerable to illness. I have no doubt that donor milk has prevented two hospitalizations from dehydration during illness. She continues to require a great deal of night time mothering, which is when she wants human milk the most and which is when she is least emotionally capable of being told "no--there is no more milk to give you." Her traumatic start in life has left her with little tolerance for frustration, especially when she is tired. I have no doubt that she knows what she needs--and that is continued human milk. But, it's again only a matter of time before I will not have milk to give her. At the age of two and a half, it is so very, very hard to find donor milk for her. I am still pumping around the clock, but I only produce about 2 ounces each day for her. It is so very, very frustrating.

I know many of you have forwarded my email on before. Some of you have even so kindly and generously donated milk yourself. Once again, please, if you can, talk with friends and ask them to talk to friends to see if anyone is able and willing to donate any amount of milk to a little girl who is still so obviously in need of it.

On behalf of Delara', thank you so very much,

Cynthia