May 19—It took a trip to Florida for Robin Kirby's daughter to find formula for her three-month-old baby, but Kirby said she's not sure how long it will last.
"I don't know what we're going to do once that case is gone," she said. "We've started him on a little bit of cereal and fruit in the evening, but when he wants a bottle, he wants a bottle."
Kirby's grandson is lactose intolerant, and he rejected two different formulas before he was put on his current formula. Despite the current formula's success, Kirby said it has become an uphill battle to find it in stores.
"My daughter will call around and ask, and there's no one that has the formula that she needs," she said.
Kirby lives in Kokomo but works in Logansport, so she regularly scours stores in both locations.
"With the struggle of being on WIC, you can't order it online," she said. "You can't just say, 'Will you ship it here, or ship it there?' The real difficulty is the babies that have allergies. When you can't get that (formula), it's serious because they can't just switch from one formula to another."
Like many other products, baby formula faced supply issues during the pandemic. Those supply issues were compounded earlier this year when infant formula producer Abbott was forced to recall formula and shut down a large manufacturing plant in Sturgis, Michigan due to concerns about bacterial contamination.
Abbott produces the popular formula brand Similac. Concerns about powdered formula from the Sturgis plant arose after four infants were infected with Cronobacter sakazakii, a bacteria that is found naturally in the environment and can live in dry foods according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC reported that Cronobacter sakazakii can cause fatal blood infections and meningitis in infants. Illness due to the bacteria commonly begins with poor feeding, excessive crying, fevers, low energy and sometimes seizures.
All four of the infants who became infected had consumed formula produced at the Sturgis plant. Two of the infants eventually died.
The CDC said powered formula can become contaminated if it is produced with contaminated materials or touches a contaminated surface.
Abbott is currently working with the United States Food and Drug Administration to ensure the Sturgis Plant meets FDA standards so it can resume production. In the meantime, it has increased production at other plants.
"Since the recall, one of our priorities has been to mitigate the supply issues," Abbott wrote on the company's website. "In particular we've been focusing on production in our Cootehill, Ireland, facility to serve state Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) consumers. Abbott has been working with the USDA and WIC agencies and paying rebates on competitive products in states where Abbott holds the WIC contract, when Similac is not available."
Indiana's WIC program currently holds a standard contract with Gerber. However, WIC will pay for some formulas produced by other companies with medical documentation.
Additionally, the increase in demand has affected every formula producer and made it difficult to keep products on store shelves.
The shelves at the Walmart on Mall Road are bare of Similac products, and Enfamil is in short supply, but Gerber products fill the remainder of the shelves in the infant formula aisle.
Kenia Ramirez's baby was already drinking Gerber formulas before the shortage, and she said her family was lucky. Ramirez goes to Walmart to buy baby formula, and she has not been affected much by the shortage.
There are also alternative formulas at Aldi and Martin's Super Market. Aldi carries a brand of formula called Little Journey, and Martin's has various supplies of Enfamil and a brand called Tippy Toes, as well as a sparse selection of Similac brands.
"(The Similac recall) wiped out a lot of our shelf over here," Martin's Grocery Manager Noah Klein said. "Since then, it's been really hard to order stuff in. We do three grocery orders a week, and every single time we go through that whole section, every empty tag, and we order it all in. I haven't seen anything come in in the last several weeks."
Klein wants customers to know that the super market is doing what it can to provide formula, but there is not much he can do until more formula is delivered.
Dr. Craig Pawlowski, a pediatrician at Logansport Memorial Hospital, said his unit's supply of pediatric formula samples has also been impacted by the shortage. The hospital has a contract to receive samples of Similac brands.
"Our supplies of samples were really impacted a few months ago when the recall was announced," he said. "A lot of the patients I get in my office who I want to try out formulas for have been affected by that. It's a pretty big deal sometimes to be able to try a product before you actually commit to it."
Pawlowski said it should not affect most infants to switch from Similac to other comparable brands if they have no allergies or special dietary needs.
"Unless the child's on a specialized formula, most of these formulas, it's like co*ke and Pepsi," he said. "You can have one brand or the other. But if the child's on a specialized formula, for example, EleCare, which is an elemental formula, or if your child has an allergy to certain things, those are the kinds of products where you'd want to look for something comparable."
For those who do need specialized formula, available product can't come soon enough.
"We understand the situation is urgent — getting Sturgis up and running will help alleviate this shortage," Abbott wrote in a May 11 update posted to the company's website. "Subject to FDA approval, we could restart the site within two weeks. We would begin production of EleCare, Alimentum and metabolic formulas first and then begin production of Similac and other formulas. From the time we restart the site, it will take six to eight weeks before product is available on shelves."
In the meantime, some desperate parents are turning to alternative solutions to feed their babies. A simple Google search shows multiple recipes for homemade baby formulas that include ingredients like goat milk, collagen protein, lactose, gelatin, yeast, and coconut oil.
"I was on Facebook last night, and (people) were talking about it. There was a lady that posted an old recipe that moms made for them when they were young out of karo," Kirby said. "People are going to resort back to that if things don't get straightened out."
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against parents making their own formula or watering down formula because that might not give babies the proper nutrition they need to grow.
Pawlowski agrees with the American Academy of Pediatrics. He has not spoken with many parents keen to make their own formula, but he has expressed concern about the practice.
"One person showed me a recipe that they came across on the internet, and it did disturb me because I was worried some of the carbohydrate sources wouldn't be biologically available for kids under two months of age," he said. "I do worry some of these recipes aren't as reliable as people think they are. If there's any recipe like that, I would specifically take it to your pediatrician. Some of these different ingredients may not be very useful for certain age groups. I would not recommend making your own formula, but if you felt like you had to, I would definitely talk with your doctor about it."
Pawlowski has warned parents that even substitutes like cow milk can be more harmful than helpful.
"I do worry about iron deficiency being a higher risk if you start cow milk earlier than 12 months (old)," he said. "Too much cow milk can also cause irritation of the gut and can cause microscopic bleeding of the bowels."
Pawlowski recommended parents do their best to keep infants on formula or breastfeed until they are at least 12 months old. He also wants parents to know their pediatrician's office usually has someone on call who can answer questions in between appointments, and he encouraged parents to take advantage of that service and never hesitate to reach out to their pediatrician with questions.
