Nutrition and HIV
As many of you know we have a sweet young girl named Robai coming to live with us who is HIV positive. Since I know very little about HIV I've been doing some research on the topic. My goal for Robai and any other child who stays with us is that they would do more than survive, that they would thrive.
For our HIV kiddoes we will be tweaking their nutrition some. It is my understanding that all the children here need more fruits and veggies, but especially the ones that are HIV positive. 2 weeks ago when we went and visited Robai and her school in Sang'alo she had several bumps on her arms, neck and face. When we asked if she was sick her pastor told us that the bumps are from the lack of fruits and vegetables in her diet. That will not be happening at Mercy Children's Home. At this point my nutrition game plan is to always have fruits and vegetables available for her at every meal and at least 2 snacks a day and one of those being an avocado. Once she moves in she will be attending school right across the street at Mercy Foundation Academy so she can walk home for lunch each day. I would love for you to share any links or good ideas that you have concerning healthy foods for compromised immune systems. I'm fully aware that this type of thing takes a team so please send me your ideas! Also I am open to researching just about anything. I'm pretty "crunchy" (naturally minded) so things that might sound weird to others often sound great to me!
I haven't found any vitamins in Kenya YET, but there has to be some here right? I do have access to coconut oil and know that it is a super healthy oil with good fats in it. I'm hoping to be able to add this to our "HIV diet plan". It is a little pricy here, but surely it can be found in bulk at a cheaper price. I'm planning to cook with it and see if she will just eat it with a spoon. I'm also thinking of using it as a lotion/moisturizer for the kids. Often times I see petroleum jelly being used for moisturizer here and I'm just not a fan that, but coconut oil will work as a moisturizer and is great for everyone's skin. If you know of or have any experience with any supplements that would be good for immune compromised kids can you please share those with me? Somehow, someway we need to boost their immune system, even if I have to have something shipped to us.
I'm fully aware that I can't change everything here, and I don't want to. But nutrition seems like a fairly easy thing that can make a huge difference in the children's lives. In Kenya the main foods are rice, flour, corn and beans. If we are able to add in a couple of fruits and a couple of veggies daily I will be happy with that. I know keeping fresh items on hand will be a little more difficult, but it seems like every other day someone is going into town so it shouldn't be that hard. There is a small market right at the end of our road so maybe I can tell them what I would like and they can start to have that on hand so we can purchase it as needed.
Please send any and all ideas and links to me! You can comment on the blog, email me at Mrsbys03@gmail.com or find me on FB and message me! Thank you so much for your love and support!!