Formula shortage fuels interest in milk banks
But most milk saved for infants with medical needs
The U.S. baby formula shortage has sparked a surge of interest at milk banks around the U.S. with some mothers offering to donate breast milk and desperate parents calling to see if it’s a solution to keep their babies fed.
It’s a pathway that won’t work for every formula-fed baby, especially those with special dietary needs, and it comes with challenges because the country’s dozens of nonprofit milk banks prioritize feeding medically fragile infants. The organizations collect milk from mothers and process it, including through pasteurization, then work with hospitals to distribute it.
The shortage stemmed from a safety recall and supply disruptions and has captured national attention with panicked parents looking to swap and buy formula online and President Joe Biden urging manufacturers to increase production and discussing with retailers how they could restock shelves to meet regional disparities. Biden said Friday European baby formula would be on U.S. shelves “in a matter of weeks or less,” as his government has sought to increase imports to address the shortage.
“There’s nothing more urgent we’re working on than that right now,” he said.
The administration also said Friday that formula maker Abbott Laboratories committed to give rebates through August for a food stamp-like program that helps women, infants and children called WIC.
At the Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast, based in Newton, Massachusetts, interest in donating and receiving milk because of the shortage has spiked. Typically, the milk bank gets about 30-50 calls a month from people looking to donate. On Thursday alone, 35 calls came in from potential donors, said Deborah Youngblood, the bank’s executive director.
“It’s interesting the first sort of response that we got was from potential donors – so people responding to the formula shortage with sort of an amazing, compassionate response of, ‘How can I be part of the solution?’ ” she said.
Youngblood was talking about people like Kayla Gillespie, a 38-year-old mother of three from Hays, Kansas. Gillespie first donated to the Mothers’ Milk Bank in Denver six years ago, giving 18 gallons after the birth of her first child, and wasn’t planning to do it again.
“If I hadn’t heard of the shortage, I wouldn’t be going through the process again, just because I have three kids and it’s a little chaotic around here,” she said.
Parents desperately seeking nutrition for their babies are pursuing milk banks as well.
At the Massachusetts milk bank, about 30 people called looking for milk because they couldn’t find their baby’s usual formula, Youngblood said. That’s up from nearly no calls at all, since the milk bank typically serves hospitals. The Human Milk Banking Association of North America, an accrediting organization for nonprofit milk banks, is seeing a “major increase” in demand, according to Lindsay Groff, the group’s executive director. She estimates inquiries from parents seeking to fill the formula gap are up 20% in recent days.
Groff called the shortage a “crisis” and said it’s not as simple as parents just supplementing with donated human milk, because the vast majority of those supplies are earmarked for babies with medical conditions.
“If people can donate, now would be the time because when we have more of an inventory we can look beyond the medically fragile,” she said.
Dr. Lisa Stellwagen, a pediatrician at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, is executive director of the school’s milk bank. She said there’s probably not enough supply to meet the need from the shortage.
Parents are also turning to online breastmilk-swapping forums to meet their babies’ needs.