mine had cases of the stuff
Yeah man, the typical pediatrician has a warehouse full of free formula for their patients if they chose to dispense it. The shortage is due to their hoarding.
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I’m glad we aren’t fostering a newborn right now. I would be panicking.
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By all means ask. If I had a baby on formula I certainly would.
But if you’re thinking that at a societal level it’s going to have a material impact on a significant shortage… I unfortunately think that’s unlikely.
How many cases? For how many patients?
How much shortage is there going to be compared to how much your pediatrician has in stock currently?
The stuff comes free from the manufacturers. If there’s not enough to go around, the free samples to the pediatricians will be the very first thing that gets cut.
I honestly don’t know much about what’s causing this shortage, but I’m guessing that the suits at the formula companies are trying to figure out damage control. The absolute last thing they want is mothers being afraid to wean their babies off breast milk for the next 20 years. If it were as simple as utilizing the supply currently stashed in closets in pediatricians’ offices then I doubt it would have gotten to the point that the rest of us are hearing about it.
I forget why i had to look it up, but there are recipes to make suitable baby milk out of other stuff you can buy in the supermarket, like condensed milk and sugar and water. I’m sure it’s not as good as real formula, but i also think it will keep babies fed in a crisis.
(I looked it up when i had babies, although i never needed to use it.)
The shortage is partly caused by a big recall, and musky by supply chain disruptions
Ongoing supply chain disruptions tied to the coronavirus pandemic have fueled shortages of a wide range of consumer goods, but the lack of baby formula worsened in February after manufacturer Abbott issued a recall for products made at a Michigan plant and sold under the Similac, Alimentum and EleCare labels. Four children — one in Minnesota, one in Texas and two in Ohio — fell ill with bacterial infections, and two died.
i just said i hoped it might alleviate it some. Why u gotta give me the 3rd degree?
You made it sound like that was going to solve the problem. Your post didn’t have the word “some” in it.
Yes, I agree that a few parents who can’t find Similac in stores may be able to get a small quantity from their pediatrician. I’m not disputing that.
forgive me for not including “some”
If your point was that concerned parents might want to ask their pediatricians for extra samples then sure, I agree with that.
If I misinterpreted your post then I’m sorry.
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I wonder if Roe v. Wade timing has something to do with this.
The formula shortage was before the draft leak.
And sources in my state are telling parents not to make their own formula. Um, if it’s between my baby starving or not, I’m making my own.
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Yeah, WTF?!?!
I could see advising parents “hey if your baby is used to Similac and you can’t find any, but there IS Enfamil or Gerber on the shelf, use that rather than homemade.” That’s probably true and reasonable.
But, um, I’m pretty sure that anything is better than letting the baby starve to death.
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I mean a pediatrician gave us 1 medium can of formula for each baby. We bought probably 150ish large cans of formula for each child. I don’t think they are going to cover the squeeze.
Just checked the local Target online and the only formula they have is Earth’s Best Organic Toddler formula.
Which sounds like it’s not appropriate for infants, but I’m guessing is better than straight cow’s milk.
The grocery store seems to have a pretty good selection though. Some varieties are out, including a lot of varieties of Similac and the larger cans of Similac. But the smaller cans of Similac are available along with a decent-seeming selection of other brands, including the store’s regular and organic in-house brands. All with a limit of 4 cans. I assume across brands. (Like I assume you can’t buy 4 cans of Similac and 4 cans of Earth’s Best and 4 cans of Gerber, etc.)
Hope that remains the worst of it and other areas are similar.
I know a friend posted on Facebook that her friend’s baby needed a specialty formula that just isn’t available anywhere. So I get that this stinks for that baby and they’re forced to try other stuff that the baby doesn’t do as well on. That is surely extremely vexing for those parents.
Yeah, it’s super important to get the ratio of protein/sugar/fat/water/major salts right. It’s not super important that your baby gets the right amount of vitamin C every day. I’m sure that any brand of approved formula is better than anything you can make at home, but I also bet you can make something at home that is better than your baby going hungry, or cows milk, or goat milk. And I would think that pediatricians would be disseminating that information to parents as an emergency measure.
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Sabra was having shortages of their hummus, according to one note at one store and implied at the shelves of other stores. (My wife asked specifically for Sabra.)
TBF, their ‘supremely spicy’ is the bomb.
$\textcolor{red}{\text{It a conspiracy initiated by the Breast-Feed-Only Foundation!}}$
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The conspiracy part certainly belongs in red but I bet that
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Without anyone suggesting that they should, mothers will decide on their own to breastfeed longer than they otherwise would (including attempting to breastfeed when they otherwise wouldn’t attempt it) as a result.
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La Leche League and others will use this shortage to try to scare mothers out of formula feeding.