Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Families take desperate steps to feed babies
Parents struggling during US infant formula shortage
LOS ANGELES — Like most new moms, 26-yearold Veronica Gutierrez’s life revolves around feeding her 3-month-old daughter, Alessandra.
For the first month, that meant mostly formula. But that formula was hard to find. She drove from store to store, so shaken by the empty shelves she began pumping her breast milk around the clock, in hopes she could draw out enough to feed Alessandra full time.
“I had just gotten home from the hospital and I was in so much pain — even just having to jump in the car trying to find the formula, I was almost in tears,” Gutierrez said.
“There was that uncertainty whether I was actually going to find the formula,” she said. “That’s why I was working every day latching her on, even if she got just a little bit, because I knew, if I didn’t, I would lose my milk supply.”
All night, Alessandra nurses. All day, Gutierrez pumps. Still, she considers herself lucky. Unlike millions of American parents, she’s no longer worried where her baby’s next meal will come from.
Transitioning a bottlefed baby back to breast milk is a Herculean task. But it’s far from the most extreme measure desperate mothers have taken amid the worsening national formula shortage.
“Families are having to water down formula, or use (cow’s) milk when they’re not ready to,” said Kelly Sawyer Patricof of Baby2Baby, an L.A.-based nonprofit that distributes formula and other baby supplies to needy families. “They also use juice as a replacement or transition to solid foods before their babies are developmentally ready.”
The crisis has been deepening for months, as millions of parents now scramble to feed their children. But low-income mothers such as Gutierrez have been hit particularly hard. About half of all infant formula sold in the United States is purchased through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, which pays for food for pregnant people and children under 5 living in or near poverty.
And while all kinds of babies get formula for all kinds of reasons, WIC recipients such as Alessandra get it at roughly double the rate of their wealthier neighbors.
Now, many mothers say they’re struggling to find it.
“Today was my ninth store, and I actually got something,” said Jocelyn Landers, a nurse in Harbor City who uses WIC to buy formula for her 2-monthold daughter, Alaya. “I was grateful to even get a can to hold her over. I don’t understand how we got to this point.”
The shortage began late last year, months before Alaya or Alessandra were born. At the time, many formula ingredients were caught in the supply chain, alongside infant strollers, car seats and cribs.
But the shortage grew more dire in February, after two babies died and two others were hospitalized with Cronobacter infections linked to formula from an Abbott Laboratories plant in Sturgis, Michigan. Abbott makes more than 40% of the baby formula sold in the United States, mostly under the brand Similac. It is also the primary supplier for WIC programs in many states.
The infections touched off a wave of recalls, mostly of specialty formulas used by medically fragile babies and children. But it also shuttered the plant — the largest manufacturing facility for the largest formula supplier in the country.
“With the combination of all these production issues and the recall, there’s a significant shortage on all ends,” said Nicole Meadow, a clinical dietitian in the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Several times a day I’m sending cases of formula to a family, just to help with the gaps.”
As Similac has dried up, parents with the means have sought out alternatives. Millions of such parents choose formula because they can’t nurse or don’t want to, because their infants are adopted or born through surrogacy, or because they’ve struggled to produce enough milk. Some are now buying formula from abroad, while others have switched to pricier boutique brands.
Parents of children with allergies or complex medical needs have enlisted doctors, pharmacists and extended family networks to source the specialized formula they need.
“It was like all of a sudden we couldn’t find anything,” said Aguora mom Gillian Mahar, whose 9-month-old twins need hypoallergenic formula. “My husband and I probably went to 50 stores within a 20-mile radius. We had family members who were driving from Phoenix to L.A., stopping in every Target and grocery store on the way trying to find it.”
But many others have simply switched to Enfamil. Increasingly, the products they reach for are the 12.4 oz cans, the only size paid for by WIC.
“I’ve gone to stores in Long Beach, I’ve gone to Rolling Hills, Carson — I’ve gone to Inglewood just to see if I could get lucky ,” said Landers, the Harbor City mom. “If they do have it, it’s the larger size, it’s not the size that’s approved.”
That means the low-income mom is either out of luck or has to pay for the pricey formula herself. And she cannot afford it.
Recently, President
Joe Biden urged states to loosen restrictions on the brand, type and size of formula that families can buy through the program. But even with those constraints lifted, WIC mothers still have fewer options than many other parents.
That’s because eligible families are disproportionately likely to use formula in the first place, and to live in neighborhoods with other recipients competing for the same six types of Enfamil powder.
Meanwhile, Abbott recently announced it would resume production at the Sturgis plant in June. From that point, the company said, it will still take six to eight weeks before formula from the plant is available in stores.
But Gutierrez, Alessandra’s mom, isn’t taking any chances. She recently requested unpaid leave from the assisted living facility where she works so she can continue to pump every three hours during the day, in an effort to protect her milk supply.
“I was actually supposed to start back the 29th of last month, but I requested an extension,” she said. “Hopefully my job is still secure.”
For Landers, Alaya’s mom, there’s little to do but watch and wait.
“I just want to stick with what works, but WIC said they’re switching to Similac,” the worried mom said. “It makes me so anxious. How am I going to feed her if this doesn’t get fixed?”