News 8
Ashburton Guardian
www.guardianonline.co.nz
Monday, February 17, 2014
■ HUMAN MILK BANK
In brief
Milk bank open for business By Toni Williams
Toni.w@Theguardian.co.nz
Breast is best just got a big push with a pasteurised human milk bank opened at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, at Christchurch Women’s Hospital, specifically for preterm babies. It was estimated the set-up cost was around $150,000. The operational costs were under the unit, which was why the milk was only available to high risk infants in the unit, but it could roll out into maternity and the wider community if funding increased. It was the first hospital-based pasteurised human milk bank in New Zealand. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit paediatrician Dr Maggie Meeks said more than 800 babies a year were admitted to the unit and
It was estimated the set-up cost was around $150,000 many were expected to benefit from the pasteurised donated milk. Formula had been used in the past. She said preterm babies were unable to breast feed immediately after birth because of their lack of mature co-ordinated suck and swallowing abilities. “Our preterm babies have a need for optimal nutrition immediately after birth to promote brain growth equivalent to that which should have occurred in-utero and because of this we sometimes have to supplement with formula,” she said.
In the past, mothers had to express their breast milk, which was fed to the babies through a gastric tube. It often took days for increased volume. However, the preterm babies needed immediate nutrition. The milk bank was a significant achievement after years of planning and working with stakeholders towards pasteurising mothers’ excess milk for the benefit of other babies in the unit. “We couldn’t have done this without the support of the local Canterbury Neonatal Unit Trust Fund and the Canterbury District Health Board and
we are extremely grateful for their support,” Dr Meek said. She also thanked people who had donated money to the trust fund. “Breast milk is the milk all babies should have wherever possible but it is particularly important for babies who are unwell and the preterm babies in the NICU.” “The long term savings and health gains of this innovation to support feeding with breast milk are wide ranging,” Dr Meeks says. “The opening of this milk bank will reinforce the message that the neonatal unit promotes the importance of breast milk and supports mothers who wish to breast feed. “These benefits may be expanded to the maternity unit and community if further specific funding is made available.”
■ KINDERGARTEN GOES ENVIRONMENTAL
Tyres slashed The deliberate slashing of 12 tyres on airport shuttle vans has raised suspicion about a taxi war in Dunedin. On arguably his busiest day of the year, the manager of Airport Shuttles Dunedin woke to discover all the tyres on two of his vans with luggage trailers had been slashed overnight. The vehicles were parked in Bowler Ave, Mornington and were tampered with about 2am Saturday, he said. The manager, who asked not to be named, had taken almost 300 bookings for Saturday, mostly from tertiary students arriving in Dunedin to start their first semester. He believed a rival was behind the wilful damage, which was “definitely not random”. - APNZ
Small crowd Mission Concert organisers have no plans to bail out even though Saturday’s concert attracted one of the event’s smallest crowds in its 21 years. Estimates put attendance at less than half the 25,000 sellout attracted by a 67-year-old Rod Stewart two years ago. But Mission Estate Winery boss Peter Holley expects tracking of stars for the 2015 concert will be well under way before any review of this year’s event is complete. Fans rated the show put on by Ronan Keating, Leo Sayer, Billy Ocean, Mel C, Sharon Corr and the local supports as being up there with the best. - APNZ
Thieves target Ellis Thieves have been caught on camera jumping into the front yard of former All Black Marc Ellis and stealing his children’s bicycles. Ellis’ wife, jewellery designer Agustina Mon, posted home security footage of the burglary on her Facebook page on Thursday night. The three-minute clip shows the faces of at least two of the thieves, who took two bikes and a scooter - Christmas presents for the couple’s preschoolers Sofia and Tomas. Ellis said yesterday he had found the bikes dumped down the hill from their Westmere home but had still not found his son’s scooter. Nothing else was taken. - APNZ
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Kids at risk
Thomas Street Kindergarten Preschoolers (from left) Sienna Poyner, Tim MacAvoy, Alex Paris and Tommy Meares-Hay are fascinated by the wiggly worms from the kindergarten’s worm farm. Photo toni Williams 140214-tW-022
Children learn about the environment By Toni Williams
Toni.w@Theguardian.co.nz
Preschoolers at Thomas Street Kindergarten have been learning about composting, growing vegetables and whether worms prefer banana or biscuits as part of sustainable environmental practice. The initiative was to help the kindergarten cut down on rubbish and give the toddlers insight into growing produce and
being good to the environment. Thomas Street Kindergarten teacher Claire Means said the preschoolers learned about sustainable environmental practices after a review showed they could do better for the environment. A number of changes had been made. They now collected food scraps, recycled yoghurt containers or used them for planting seeds and grew veg-
etables to eat. So far they had harvested tomatoes and silverbeet and eaten them in quiche. However, there were still beans, potatoes and sweet peas to yield crops. The children had taken to the new practices, separating food scraps and keen to feed the birds or the worms or put leftovers into the compost bin. If it could not be recycled from kindergarten, it was sent home
with the children. Wastebusters manager Sharon Breakwell had taught the children about their worm farm, and the best food to feed worms. She had also talked to them about compost bins (donating a bin to the kindergarten) and paper making. Mrs Means said they had planted flowers and sunflower seeds to make the area more visually appealing.
Parents are using potentially dangerous medications to get hyped up kids to sleep at night. Lucy Shieffelbien, of the National Poisons Centre, said many parents were regularly giving kids antihistamines or paracetamol before bed. While many of the medications are safe for allergies or as pain relief, they are not intended as sedatives and exceeding the recommended doses could cause serious problems. She said the practice was more widespread than people realised. “It often comes up as a topic of conversation at seminars and presentations I have given. Some antihistamines have sedating properties but should only be given for bonafide reasons such as allergic reaction and not as a pseudo sleeping aid. Parents sometimes use paracetamol as a settling agent if their child is a bit grizzly ... it does not have any sedating properties whatsoever.” - APNZ