We have heard stories about soldiers having to resort to muddy water to cook instant noodles during the first few days after the Ludian quake. Imagine the nursing mothers using the same water to prepare the donated milk formula to feed their babies.

There are times when milk formula is necessary, for example, if a natural disaster claims the life of the mother or leaves her seriously injured or ill, or if her child is already weaned. In that case, the authorities have to make arrangements to supply substitutes for mothers' milk, but they should still limit the use of milk formula to cases where it is necessary. Having said this, I appreciate the hard work put in by the authorities to try to make clean water accessible to people as quickly as possible! It is indeed an uphill task.

An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale jolted Yongshan county of Yunnan province on Sunday. Natural disasters are becoming more common, with many of them striking poor areas of China. In their desperation to help disaster-hit people, however, rescue and relief workers have encouraged nursing mothers to switch to bottle-feeding. This is something Save the Children staff have seen and heard. Relief workers can do greater service to babies and mothers both by encouraging breastfeeding, because mothers' milk is truly super-food available to babies.

The author is health advisor of Save the Children.

(China Daily 08/19/2014 page9)