{"id":1471099,"date":"2022-05-11T08:15:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T12:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1471099"},"modified":"2022-05-11T08:15:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T12:15:48","slug":"my-baby-needs-formula-and-im-getting-scared-she-wont-have-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/my-baby-needs-formula-and-im-getting-scared-she-wont-have-it\/","title":{"rendered":"My Baby Needs Formula, And I\u2019m Getting Scared She Won\u2019t Have It"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmy-baby-needs-formula-and-im-getting-scared-she-wont-have-it%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1471099&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/formula-e1652203691330.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>I\u2019ve never considered myself a particularly anxious mother. Maybe that\u2019s why I have five kids. I\u2019ve always understood that life happens, mistakes will be made, things can get messy, <em>and you have to go with the flow<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But now I\u2019m faced with the possibility of not being able to feed my infant, and that makes me nervous. In case you haven\u2019t heard the news, there is a baby formula shortage in America. In my wildest dreams, I never could have imagined that parents would be scrambling to find sustenance for their babies in the year 2022 in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s happening across the nation, and I\u2019m one of the mothers who is now being forced to wonder: What happens if I can\u2019t feed my child?<\/p>\n<p>My youngest is 8 months old and reliant on formula for her primary source of nutrition. She has two teeth and an immature digestion tract, so she\u2019s hardly going to be eating steak for dinner (with the price of steak these days, none of us is going to be eating it anytime soon, but that\u2019s a subject for another time). She <em>needs<\/em> formula at this stage of her life, and it\u2019s my job as her mother to provide it for her.<\/p>\n<h2>Rumblings of Shortage<\/h2>\n<p>I first noticed something was off a couple of months ago, when my local grocery store shelf of formula wasn\u2019t as stocked as it normally was. But then I started hearing rumblings of a formula shortage on social media.<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks later, my monthly Amazon shipment was delayed, with no indication of when I could expect it. Since I was running low, I tried to add some to my Costco Instacart order. They were out, my shopper messaged me. I finally found some at Target and bought several weeks\u2019 worth.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, I was at my local grocery store checking my email in line at the register when I got a notification that my Amazon shipment was no longer delayed \u2014 it was canceled entirely. I picked up the last can of our brand of formula in the store as my final purchase.<\/p>\n<p>When I <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JennyErikson\/status\/1522203845270507520\">tweeted<\/a> about my experience, I got several replies from other parents experiencing the same thing. Some parents haven\u2019t been as lucky as I have been at finding formula within a few miles of my home, even if I had to search for it. Families have reported driving three or four hours just to hunt down formula to feed their babies!<\/p>\n<p>There is a baby formula shortage, and even if parents weren\u2019t sharing their stories online, the numbers speak for themselves.<\/p>\n<h2>Out of Stock Nationwide<\/h2>\n<p>According to analysis from Datasembly, 40 percent of top-selling baby formula products were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/losangeles\/news\/baby-formula-shortage-worsens-ration-limit-purchase-walgreens-target-cvs-national-crisis\/\">out of stock<\/a> at retailers across the United States as of April 24. That\u2019s up from 11 percent in November of 2021. Six states \u2014 Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota \u2014 hit shortages of more than 50 percent. Why is this happening?<\/p>\n<p>Aside from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/05\/07\/i-dont-know-how-my-son-will-survive-inside-the-dangerous-shortage-of-specialty-formulas-00030787#:~:text=The%20Abbott%20Nutrition%20plant%20in%20Sturgis%20has%20been%20essentially%20shut,rare%20bacterial%20infection%20that%20is\">one manufacturing plant being shut down<\/a> since mid-February, the only other answer seems to be infamous <em>supply chain issues<\/em>. The Biden administration and other officials have been largely silent about the formula shortage. Finally, on Monday, White House Press Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/press-briefings\/2022\/05\/09\/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-may-9-2022\/\">Jen Psaki addressed the issue<\/a>, claiming it is a \u201cpriority for the FDA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But she did not explain why it is happening, why producing enough formula to feed the nation\u2019s babies isn\u2019t a top priority, or provide any sort of timeline for when parents can expect shelves to be fully restocked with their infants\u2019 sustenance. The only thing she did do is possibly scare moms and dads further by saying, \u201cI don\u2019t believe there\u2019s a national stockpile of baby formula.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She didn\u2019t exactly inspire confidence that this administration is doing anything effective to fix this disaster.<\/p>\n<h2>What Alternatives?<\/h2>\n<p>What\u2019s a mom to do when she can\u2019t find the formula she knows her baby needs in order to get adequate nutrition? Switching between formulas in order to use \u201cwhat\u2019s available\u201d isn\u2019t always an option. Any parent who has had a formula-fed baby knows that when you find one that makes your little one happy, you stick with it. (Except for the ones with magical unicorn babies, but we don\u2019t talk about them.)<\/p>\n<p>While some moms can, I can\u2019t start breastfeeding again \u2014 that train left the station months ago. I know there are ways to purchase breastmilk from other lactating mamas, but it\u2019s incredibly expensive, and I\u2019m happy to leave that for the babies who truly need it.<\/p>\n<p>So here I sit, an anxious, freaked-out mom for the first time, wondering if I\u2019ll be able to find formula next time I go to the store. Wondering what the problem is, and why isn\u2019t it being addressed and fixed? Is it a supply problem? A labor shortage? Why won\u2019t they tell us?<\/p>\n<p>Why are babies, the most vulnerable among us, being put last? Whatever happened to the supply chain to cause this growing crisis needs to be solved, and it needs to be solved now. The babies need to eat, and parents have had enough to worry about in the last two-plus years. They shouldn\u2019t have to worry about being able to find formula too.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Jenny Erikson is a seasoned mom of five daughters living in San Diego with her husband. She has written extensively about parenting, politics, entertainment, and relationships on sites including Cafemom.com, Mom.com, Huffington Post, and Breitbart. Follow her on Twitter @JennyErikson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve never considered myself a particularly anxious mother. Maybe that\u2019s why I have five kids. I\u2019ve always understood that life happens, mistakes will be made, things can get messy, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":769,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1471099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/769"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1471099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1471099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1471099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1471099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}