Shortage hits prescription patients, too FDA baby-steps relief

Babies aren’t the only ones impacted by the formula crisis — special-needs children and their parents are also feeling the strain.

And pharmacies are struggling to serve the needs of children who have prescriptions for formula.

Roger Paganelli, owner of Mount Carmel Pharmacy in The Bronx, said on Thursday that he has “hundreds of patients” who are fed formula out of medical necessity, including kids with tubes in their stomachs because they are unable to ingest food.

“These are complex, special-needs patients,” he said.

Parents have regular, scheduled pickups for prescription formula, but the pharmacy now has to ration it out.

“The moms are stressed. They need to feed their children,” Paganelli said.

Other parents are panicking over the shortage, too.

Shady Gramajo, 31, of Forest Hills, Queens, said she may have to miss a day of work if a formula shipment that her mother sent from Florida doesn’t arrive in time for her 3-month-old daughter.

“If it doesn’t, I’m going to squeeze out every ounce of milk I have in my breasts,” Gramajo said. “I was thinking of calling out of work and having her latch all day on my nipple to try to get milk.”

She said her baby goes through eight bottles a day, but she can produce only enough breast milk for three.

“It’s very stressful because it’s not anywhere,” she said of the Enfamil Gentlease formula she uses. “I live in Queens, and I had to drive all the way to Manhattan and The Bronx to look for it.”

Andeisha Carbon-Halstead, 30, of the South Bronx, is taking drastic measures so her 10-month-old-girl can get the pricey organic brand of formula she had to switch to.

“We can’t move the money around for rent or medical expenses, so it’s going to have to come out of our food budget,” she said. Carl Campanile,

Steven Vago, Emily Crane

The White House said on Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration would start clearing the way for imports of baby formula to address nationwide shortages.

But the Biden administration failed to provide any details about what specific changes would take place.

The shortage has hit some states especially hard and is linked to a large recall by Abbott Nutrition that began in February due to safety concerns at a Michigan factory. Two infant deaths were believed to be linked to bacterial contamination.

The factory in Sturgis has been shut since the February recall. Ultimately, no salmonella was found.

Despite Abbott stating it could resume production within two weeks with FDA approval, White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted that “the FDA is not going to approve manufacturing again unless they are certain of the safety” of the facility.