elixir of life some chileans nourishing infants with donkey milk
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

At a donkey farm near Santiago, Fiorella

Elixir of life? Some Chileans nourishing infants with donkey milk

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Elixir of life? Some Chileans nourishing infants with donkey milk

Severe food allergies kept Fiorella Fuentes from stomaching her formula leaving her near starving until her desperate mother Carolina
Melipilla - ArabToday

When severe food allergies kept Fiorella Fuentes from stomaching her formula -- leaving the infant on the brink of starvation -- her desperate mother turned to a curious source of sustenance: donkey milk.

At a donkey farm near Santiago, Fiorella -- now three years old -- rides one of the animals with help from her mother Carolina, who today works in distributing the unusual milk that saved her daughter.

"It was a miracle," she says. "Fiorella -- who vomited 36 times a day with formulas -- did not vomit again after her first taste of donkey milk."

Carolina describes visiting one specialist after another looking for a solution to her daughter's severe food allergy, a fruitless effort until one doctor finally recommended donkey milk.

"The feeling of desperate mothers and fathers, of not knowing what to feed your child, is the worst in the world," she said. "When I found the solution to my daughter's diet, it was the best."

Carolina's experience got her thinking about how to help mothers unable to breastfeed. She now distributes about 40 liters (10 gallons) of donkey milk a day out of her house, a business that is starting to expand.

- 'An alternative' -

"Donkey milk is an alternative," said the specialist and owner of the establishment in the town of Melipilla that produces the milk.Some 20 years ago, Dr German Errazuriz took the advice of a patient's relatives in southern Chile who recommended treating a child with donkey's milk. From then on, he began prescribing the elixir to children intolerant to milk formulas.

"In some patients, it is much better and more palatable. It looks like breast milk and is a milk, not a chemical that dissolves into cow's milk."

Other milk alternatives exist, such as goat milk. But experts say goat milk closely resembles breast milk, and is therefore more likely to trigger allergies.

Donkey milk has a composition similar to breast milk but contains less fat. To collect it, immature donkeys must be separated overnight from their mothers, who need down time in order to produce enough.

The mothers are milked by machines at dawn, then reunited with their offspring.

The product is pasteurized and frozen for distribution.

A donkey generally produces less than a liter of milk a day, whereas a cow can give up to 40 liters -- perhaps why humans turned to cows for dairy production rather than donkeys, Errazuriz said.

After the farm met health qualifications in 2016, Carolina Fuentes began using social networks to promote the product by recounting her own experience.

- Risky -

"Children who are allergic to cow's milk should not be advised to drink milk from other mammals, because there is a high cross-reactivity between cow's milk protein and that of other mammals," said Maria Angelica Marinovic, an allergies specialist at the Santa Maria clinic in Santiago.Some in the world of medicine resist prescribing donkey's milk as a solution to allergies, blaming the prevalence of food intolerances on lifestyle and increased diagnosis.

Neither the World Health Organization nor US guidelines have identified donkey milk as an allergy treatment, said the specialist, who said she would not recommend it for that use.

"There is a risk that they will react to this type of milk," she said. "Maybe it could be given to older children, but not infants."

Few clinical studies on donkey milk exist, making it difficult to assess its health benefits.

In countries like Bolivia, donkey milk is used to fight respiratory diseases. Some also consider it a magical beauty ingredient, including it in anti-wrinkle creams.

The milk is also gaining popularity in Balkan countries, where some people pay a premium for it, hoping to tackle conditions including asthma, bronchitis and skin diseases.

source: AFP

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

elixir of life some chileans nourishing infants with donkey milk elixir of life some chileans nourishing infants with donkey milk

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

elixir of life some chileans nourishing infants with donkey milk elixir of life some chileans nourishing infants with donkey milk

 



GMT 05:50 2017 Tuesday ,15 August

20 killed in Takhar funeral attack

GMT 04:51 2017 Thursday ,13 April

Huda Kattan among top 10 beauty influencers

GMT 09:44 2018 Saturday ,06 January

Aoun to deliver speech in Rome this afternoon

GMT 09:14 2017 Saturday ,30 December

London stocks end year on record high

GMT 11:47 2017 Monday ,11 December

France's rightwing shifts after Macron victory

GMT 04:49 2013 Monday ,27 May

Feng Shui living room concepts

GMT 19:45 2017 Wednesday ,18 January

The UAE Releases Global State of the Future Report

GMT 23:40 2017 Wednesday ,18 October

OIC condemns terrorist attack in Jeddah

GMT 16:41 2017 Saturday ,18 February

FBMA International Show Jumping Cup 2017 competition

GMT 17:43 2017 Tuesday ,14 February

Spanish activists taken to court over BDS activism

GMT 21:37 2017 Sunday ,02 July

Religious tourism lottery to be held on Monday

GMT 15:27 2017 Saturday ,24 June

US imposes ban on fresh Brazil beef imports

GMT 06:07 2017 Tuesday ,24 October

Air Force set to create new ISR unit with Global Hawk

GMT 03:49 2017 Thursday ,22 June

Dalai Lama says will visit Trump

GMT 03:52 2017 Sunday ,15 January

Drydocks World and GDRFA sign MoU partnership
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday