New Report on Food Security and Recall of Similac

[Old Sew'n'Sew]

This is from the news. http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/09/22/un.food.security.poverty/index.html?hpt=C1
Has anyone here paid higher prices for wheat yet ?

I have not saved any wheat yet, would this be a good time to do this, or should I wait til some other crisis overshadows this one in the news?

Also...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/09/22/baby.formula.recall/index.html

as some of you know my 2 month old Grand Nephew mysteriously died in his sleep a week ago, he was on the similac powder at the time. I have a bad feeling about this.

 

[freemotion]

I am so sorry for your loss, Sew.

You know that it was not just one small beetle found in the vat of formula. It must've been a lot of bugs. That is just disgusting. Yet another reason to make your own food....if you can't nurse for some reason. There are formula recipes in Nourishing Traditions.

I have 100# of wheat berries stored, plus a few more pounds in jars left from before I bought the two 50# sacks. I am toodling with the idea of planting a little next year, after the simple thresher-in-a-bucket was posted somewhere on this site, making the work of extracting the berries doable on a small scale. I doubt we use 50# of wheat in a year for the two of us. We are not huge grain eaters, and when you add stuff like corn and buckwheat to the mix, a pound or two of wheat a week is a lot. We tend to eat more grain products in the winter when I seem to want more stuff cooked in the oven, and less salads and cold foods. Lasagna...yum! And soups and stews served with a biscuit, a buckwheat pancake, or in a pie crust is nice in January when the snow is blowing outside.

Oh, I think (haven't researched enough yet) that a 20'x20' area planted with wheat should yeild something like 150#, enough to last me a few years. So if I rotated some garden space now and then, I could conceivably grow my own. Thinking about it. These wheat berries should work as seed.

 

[Old Sew'n'Sew]

Thanks for the info, I have no input into the babies' (twins) care but I will pass this on to those who do. I had a feeling that there was an environmental issue going on, but they call it SIDS, so what do I know? I just have a feeling. I guess the autopsy may show something eventually?

I don't have any land to grow wheat, I will be purchasing it already prepped for storage. The best price is buying a minimum of 200# for the shipping to be reasonable. I bake all of our own bread and my husband loves bread, and eats it every day. I am sort of a hobbyist for baking sourdough, yeast bread, and pizza, for my extended family. I presently only use King Arthur Flour, but I want to graduate to fresh ground flour from my own storage if I can. Also I am planning a outdoor woodfired pizza oven for early next spring.

 

[Icu4dzs]

I am so sorry for your loss, Sew.

You know that it was not just one small beetle found in the vat of formula. It must've been a lot of bugs. That is just disgusting. Yet another reason to make your own food....if you can't nurse for some reason. There are formula recipes in Nourishing Traditions.

I have 100# of wheat berries stored, plus a few more pounds in jars left from before I bought the two 50# sacks. I am toodling with the idea of planting a little next year, after the simple thresher-in-a-bucket was posted somewhere on this site, making the work of extracting the berries doable on a small scale. I doubt we use 50# of wheat in a year for the two of us. We are not huge grain eaters, and when you add stuff like corn and buckwheat to the mix, a pound or two of wheat a week is a lot. We tend to eat more grain products in the winter when I seem to want more stuff cooked in the oven, and less salads and cold foods. Lasagna...yum! And soups and stews served with a biscuit, a buckwheat pancake, or in a pie crust is nice in January when the snow is blowing outside.

Oh, I think (haven't researched enough yet) that a 20'x20' area planted with wheat should yeild something like 150#, enough to last me a few years. So if I rotated some garden space now and then, I could conceivably grow my own. Thinking about it. These wheat berries should work as seed.

Dear Sew,
If you bake your own bread, you'll probably figure out fairly quick that 50# of wheat berry's will not last that long. It takes me 22 ounces of wheat to make one loaf. That is 1.375 lb per loaf. So unless you and your DH only eat very little, 50# won't stretch all that far. Don't forget that a good grinder is of paramount importance in all of this consideration.

Since I don't know where you are, I'd suggest finding a grain elevator and buying it straight from them. (Every small town in the midwest has one) Wheat is still less than $10/bushel. In fact it is pretty cheap if you buy it from the elevator. A bushel is about 50# so you can do pretty well if you take a p/u truck and fill the back. That is what I did when I moved to South Dakota and was broke. I paid $135 for a whole pickup truck filled with wheat berry's and came home with nearly 2000#. The thing you need to do is figure out ahead of time how you are going to get it managed. Bags, brand new trash cans, etc. You may want to put some of it into the freezer for a while to be certain it doesn't have any "hitch-hikers" left inside. While they don't eat much, they do leave "residue" in the container that has to be managed to some extent. In either case know what you'll do with it before you buy it. Also remember, wheat and honey will store indefinitely if kept dry.

As for your loss, I am deeply saddened to have to accept you into the "buried a child" club. None of us in that club ever welcomes anyone voluntarily but we all support each other when we are forced to join. It is very hard, I know. I know how you feel. None of us ever wanted to bury our baby.

SIDS is still an undiscovered problem and may never be resolved. Please don't hold anyone to blame, particularly the parents of the baby and don't let them even think they could have done anything differently. Please don't expect a miraculous explanation from the autopsy as it will probably yield nothing of any use or value. Nobody understands SIDS and likely might never find out. It is a heart breaking experience that has NO consolation save one.
It is my belief that we, on this voyage we take through eternity must at some time wear the human form for even a short time on our journey. Some wear it for a long time, some wear it for only a few hours or days, maybe months. It is in my mind a certainty, that no one who passes through that door so early in that journey could ever be held accountable for anything and that they immediately are promoted on to the next point in that great journey without having any "mark on their record" from this human experience. They are there as our loved ones who watch from their place and guide us as they can. We are just angry because we have lost control. They go somewhere that we can't go visit, they won't answer the phone and won't answer the mail so we are frustrated with that loss of control. Their journey is short because they have a better assignment. We stay here and are expected to learn the lessons that need to be attained before we are allowed to come home from this "school" we call Earth.

Be at peace. Your child/grandchild has been fortunate not to suffer the pains and hardships of this human experience. While I know that doesn' t provide YOU with great comfort, it is none the less they only way I have been able to endure the grief that has never left me. It has become manageable at times but never leaves.

Warmest,
Trim

 

[Wildsky]

Thanks for the info, I have no input into the babies' (twins) care but I will pass this on to those who do. I had a feeling that there was an environmental issue going on, but they call it SIDS, so what do I know?

I'm very sorry for your loss, there has been found, a link between Vaccinations and SIDS, just something to look into if you're so inclined.

 

[Occamstazer]

I heard about it this morning on NPR, it's just totally gross.

I don't get why anyone decides to go the formula route. I mean, I understand that stuff happens and sometimes it's the only option, but why do it if you don't have to? It seems like it'd be a hassle to prepare, and breast milk is free. I guess I'm too much of a cheapskate to spend money unless I have to.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Adding my regards Sew. I can't imagine the pain of that.

But I'm with Occam, unless there is reason the mother can't, nursing is ever so much better, easier (no bottles to fill, no water to sterilize and warm, no bottles to wash, no formula to mix)

I've done it both ways, and nursing beats bottles anyday.

Ick, ick ick, beetles in baby formula.

 

[valmom]

{{hugs}} for your grandbaby, Sew.

If we can't even keep beetle parts out of what we feed our infants just think what is in the rest of our store bought food. I would think they would take more care with baby food!

When my kids were born, I had constant mastitis. I was on antibiotics the whole time I nursed- which I felt couldn't be good, either. I stuck it out for 6 weeks with each and was miserable the whole time because I felt it was better for the babies than formula, but I eventually gave up with both of them.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

omg. This is truely terrible. Sorry for your loss. Of course, it could just be SIDS alone, which would not lessen the pain.
The amount of baby formula I have purchased in the past 22 years of motherhood, for my 5 children, has not been considerable. Some of my babies barely got any formula and one in particular got nothing but mommy milk for 16 months.
I once heard through my mother of a woman who had milk goats who claimed that if she couldn't breast feed, she wouldn't get formula, but would just give her babies goat milk.
A lot of us can hear of this problem and eliminate it, at least for ourselves, but city dwellers might not be so fortunate as us.

 

[country freedom]

{{hugs}} for your grandbaby, Sew.

If we can't even keep beetle parts out of what we feed our infants just think what is in the rest of our store bought food. I would think they would take more care with baby food!

When my kids were born, I had constant mastitis. I was on antibiotics the whole time I nursed- which I felt couldn't be good, either. I stuck it out for 6 weeks with each and was miserable the whole time because I felt it was better for the babies than formula, but I eventually gave up with both of them.

Sort of on topic, here - I personally, try not to eat raisins or prunes (I love them, grew up eating them at my grandma's place every morning), as I've found worms/caterpillars inside the packaged fruit.

Bit into a raisin and out crawled a worm/caterpillar - after I'd eaten half the snackbox! - BATHROOM needed! That was years ago.
A few months ago - boiled some bagged prunes that I'd gotten from the foodbank.....(remembered the raisin), looked into the pot of boiled fruit that was cooled a bit and found dozens of very small worms! !!! I almost threw the pot into the trash - tossed contents out into the yard!

More and more, I am turning - wanting to be self-sufficient in everything that I am able to learn to do for myself.