Meet baby Umi:

When I met Umi she was eleven weeks old and weighed just under five pounds. At an age where babies are normally holding their heads up, beginning to roll over, smiling, and babbling, Umi had not yet reached my son’s birth weight and was barely able to grasp onto my finger.

Umi’s case is extreme, but unfortunately it’s not isolated.

In her village in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea it’s been the women’s responsibility to gather sago – a local food sourced from a tree root – for generations.

Because her mother was out gathering sago each day to provide food for herself, her husband, and their three children, Umi was only being breastfed two-to-three times a day… continue reading.