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Alex Green with son Brody. Brody's mother, Catherine Twete, died when he was 3 months old, but Green is honoring her wish that Brody get breast milk for his first year.

(Courtesy of Alex Green)

Like many new moms, Catherine Twete wanted to breastfeed her baby until his first birthday.

But in June, when little Brody Green was just 3 months old, Twete, 20, died after the car she was riding in crashed near Monmouth.

The baby's father, Alex Green, decided to honor Twete's wish that her baby have breast milk for his first year.

"We got tons of donations right off the bat," Green said Monday. "But then that ran out."

On top of that, "they say it's only good for six months so I had to throw some of it away," he said. La Leche League International recommends storing breast milk in a refrigerator's freezer compartment for three to six months.

By last week, Green said, he needed more. He contacted Bend-area hospitals but got only a little breast milk. "That's when I started getting worried."

Brody, who is 8 months old, goes through 16 to 20 ounces of breast milk a day in addition to solid foods, Green said. (The baby's favorite solid food? "Biscuits and gravy. I thought he was going to explode with joy when I gave him some of that," the father said.)

So on Friday, Green turned to Facebook.

"Brody and I live in Bend but I am not having any luck finding milk here," he wrote to the Portland Mamas group.

That drew a big response from the group's members, who number more than 11,000. Green heard from hundreds of people within 24 hours, he said. "They say they've got close to 1,000 ounces for me, which is cool," he said. "I would like to go there and say thank you to all of them."

He also got a response at home in Bend. "I just picked up several hundred ounces just yesterday," he said.

"I've been overwhelmed," he said.

The whole experience has taught him that "it's definitely important for people to be prepared" for unexpected tragedies such as Twete's death.

"I hurt for my son," he said. "But it's nice to see that these communities are reaching out and helping out."

Watch KATU's interview with Alex Green.

Related:

Northwest Mothers Milk Bank finishes 2014 with more than 500 donors and 7 new donation sites



-- Amy Wang

awang@oregonian.com

503-294-5914

@ORAmyW