“One day, I went to six different Krogers around Kentucky.”
“Me and my husband both went to seven different stores in one day and couldn’t find anything.”
“I have driven everywhere within a two-hour range to Krogers for formula.”
Parents in Northern Kentucky have struggled to find cans of powdered formula for about two months. While the formula plant whose closure led to the nationwide shortage has reopened, it will be another six to eight weeks before these parents are likely to see formula back on the shelves.
The Sturgis, Michigan plant closed in February after an outbreak of Cronobacter Sakazakii (a germ that thrives in dry foods such as powdered infant formula).
It is the largest formula plant in the country and makes up about 25% of U.S. formula production. Abbott Laboratories, which owns the plant, makes up about 48% of the U.S. formula market with their products, including the popular Similac brand. The FDA recalled Similac powdered formula on Feb. 17 and two other Abbott powdered formulas, Alimentum and EleCare, due to the Cronobacter Sakazakii outbreak.
For babies, Cronobacter Sakazakii can cause meningitis, sepsis, bad bowel conditions, developmental problems, and even death.
On June 4, Abbott released a statement saying that the Sturgis Michigan plant restarted its formula production, but it will take six to eight weeks before its product is available.
Emily Brandt and Samantha Lahman, two Northern Kentucky mothers, started their babies on a Similac formula.
Brandt has a 4-month-old who used Similac until it became unavailable. She has since switched brands multiple times when she first noticed the shortage in April, buying whatever she can find from Enfamil Gentlease, Kroger brand gentle formula, and Amazon brand gentle formula.
“She’s been on multiple formulas since this started,” Brandt said. “We just switch types of formula, and it’s unfortunate for the babies because it is not good on their bellies.”
Samantha Lahman has 6-month-old twins. They were born at around 34 weeks and spent their first five days in the NICU until they were considered full term. They required Similac NeoSure formula, which is for babies born prematurely. When the recall happened, Lahman said she and her husband immediately stopped giving them that brand and switched to Kroger brand gentle formula.
“Pediatricians probably wouldn’t recommend it, but I started introducing my girls when they were 2 months old. Just because I’m certified in CPR and work in the ICU, I started introducing them to jar food,” Lahman said. “That’s when the formula shortage started happening. So fortunately for us, I can sometimes not necessarily substitute but add jar food to make them feel full. The type of formula that we like, that they like has been a hassle because we’ve had to keep switching formulas to find something that’s gentle, their bellies can tolerate.”
Jessica Schilling Dishman is another Northern Kentucky mom who started noticing the shortage after the Similac recall, though she used Enfamil for her 10-1/2-month-old. Schilling Dishman said she also noticed the Enfamil supply starting to dwindle on shelves around early May.
“Just me out of habit, if I had a coupon or something like that, I would go ahead and grab an extra can whether we needed it or not. So luckily, I had a little bit of a backup,” Schilling Dishman said. “But once we got down to that point where we were on our last can, I called my pediatrician and asked, ‘What can I do?’ because I was running out of options.”
Schilling Dishman said her pediatrician said it was safe to start switching her baby over to vitamin D milk, though she hadn’t originally planned on doing that until her baby reached 1 year old.
“That wasn’t my plan at all. I’m still not very comfortable with switching her to milk, but I had no other options,” Schilling Dishman said. “Me and my husband both went to seven different stores in one day and couldn’t find anything.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) came out with a list of formula shortage recommendations to help give parents additional ideas on where to find their formula and keep their babies full.
The AAP advises buying no more than a two-week supply of formula at a time to help ease the shortages. Many stores have a limit of four cans per customer, so people can’t buy in bulk.
“There have been times where I’ve been at the grocery store and seen my formula on a shelf and say there were two bottles on the shelf,” Lahman said. “I would only take one because I know that means if I take two even though my babies are going to need that in five days, it means that somebody else’s baby is not eating tonight.”
She said feeding two babies during the shortage is very scary. She goes through the large container of formula (33.2 oz) every four to five days.
Lahman said she always keeps one can of unopened formula as her backup stash. Once she gets to the point where she is on her last can before the backup stash, she starts her search for more formula immediately.
As an additional backup, if she were to run out of formula entirely, Lahman received donated breast milk from a friend that she stores in her freezer. She said that would be the last resort option.
“I call the stores probably every other day. I call Kroger, and I’m talking about all Krogers in the tri-state area,” Lahman said. “I have driven everywhere from within a two-hour range to Kroger’s for formula.”
Schilling Dishman and Brandt both use the 33.2 oz cans and said they would go through about one to one and a half every week.
If you have a formula stock at home, keep an eye on the expiration date. AAP says babies should not consume formula after the “best by” date because it may no longer have the required nutrients.
One suggestion from AAP is, if you can afford it, buy formula online until store shortages ease. Make sure to purchase from well-recognized distributors, stores, and pharmacies.
Ordering formula online is something that Schilling Dishman has considered. She said she saw a tip on Facebook that if you change your Amazon location to Canada, they had formula available. She said the formula she found on there was about $20 more per can plus the shipping cost.
“If I got desperate and wasn’t able to transition to milk, I would have done that,” Schilling Dishman said. “It would have been more expensive; formula is already expensive. But I would have done that; I would have found a way to feed my child. I would pay the extra money to do it.”
A 27.7 oz can of Enfamil Gentlease like Schilling Dishman used runs $35.83.
Another tip that AAP said to try was checking social media groups dedicated to baby formula. Members will post where they see formula available.
All three mothers LINK talked to are in Facebook groups that post where they have seen shelves stocked with formula, though the inventory goes quick once the tip is up.
Lahman saw a post on Facebook about a week back (from June 6) that the Kroger on Mt. Zion Road in Florence had her baby’s formula restocked.
“I began calling around, and I finally found one Kroger that had two cans left for me, and it was an hour and 26 minutes from the time the picture was posted because I went back to the original post, and the shelf was completely empty,” Lahman said. “I drove straight there, and when I got there, the formula was already gone.”
Though Schilling Dishman has now transitioned her baby from formula to cow’s milk, she said she still keeps an eye out for formula for her husband’s cousin, who has a baby younger than her own. She does this through Facebook but has run into the same problem as Lahman, with stock being gone before they can make it to the store.
“As soon as somebody put something on Facebook saying, ‘hey, this place has formula,’ they’re out within an hour because everybody’s rushing to go get it,” Schilling Dishman said.
But Brandt recently had a successful tip-off from Facebook.
“Someone had sent me a screenshot from a group on Facebook Saturday (June 4) that Fort Mitchell had some, so I flew there and was able to get some of the Kroger brands,” Brandt said.
The weekend before, Brandt said she visited six different Krogers and couldn’t find one can of formula that would work for her baby.
Parents have understandably been in a pinch during the formula shortage, worrying about how they will feed their children. During desperate times there have been ideas floating around on the internet, from making your own baby formula to stretching the formula by using more water. These are examples of things AAP advises against.
Per AAP, adding extra water to formula should never be done: “Adding extra water to formula can dilute the levels of protein and minerals, and lead to low sodium levels in the blood and other electrolyte disorders that may require hospitalization.”
Always follow the label instructions.
As for following online recipes for homemade baby formula, AAP says it has “significant safety concerns regarding contamination and nutrient concentration.” They even stated that some babies had been hospitalized after consuming homemade formula.
AAP does not recommend substituting formula for solid foods before the age of 6 months because it does not contain the same nutrients young babies need.
Other than the constant worry of when they will be able to find formula next, the additional time that it takes to search for which stores have formula in stock and then traveling to get it is an added obstacle the shortage has created for parents.
“It’s just stressful. Having a baby alone during a pandemic was super super stressful and then having to worry about possibly not being able to feed your baby definitely causes anxiety,” Brandt said. “I told my job, ‘Hey, if I see something on Facebook, if there’s formula somewhere, I’m leaving, and I’ll be back.'”
Lahman has had to reduce her hours at work in the ICU to make time to find formula.
“It’s been time-consuming. I’m pretty much staying home now. I dropped my hours at my job. And other than the obvious of worrying about feeding them, we’re taking more time driving around for formula,” Lahman said. “Stressing about what if I can’t find it and then we have to use our back up and then we have to use the milk.”
Lehman said she typically pays $14.97 for the 33.2 oz can of Kroger Brand Gentle formula, but she said she would pay whatever it costs to get her babies what they need. She has bought some organic brands of formula in the past and paid about $21.97 a can.
“I would pay X amount of dollars for one can of formula. If I can find it, I’ll pay whatever it costs for it. It’s very sad that parents have to worry about feeding their babies and how much they’re going to have to pay extra for their babies,” Lahman said. “As if being a new parent, mom or dad is not hard enough to add these struggles is very very stressful.”
With past shortages, like toilet paper, the baby formula shortage has raised the question of what could be next for some parents.
“It was very stressful. I was very worried about how I was going to provide for her. Even at one point, she’s on baby food, they started to slow down on some baby food, and I kind of went into a panic mode,” Schilling Dishman said. “When I saw that, I filled my cart full of baby food. Now I got this overabundance of baby food. But I still need to feed her some way. And same with diapers. I was afraid that diapers were going to be next. So, I went to Sam’s and bought several cases of diapers because I didn’t know if that was going to be next. I didn’t want to run out. My older child is still in diapers. My husband thought I was a little crazy when I came home with all this stuff, but I didn’t want to be stuck with nothing.”
