HENRICO COUNTY, Va - The daily ritual of swapping new baby pictures is a supportive routine for new mothers Taylor Dobrucky and Hollie Omohundro. Now, the co-workers include a different type of picture in their swap: images of baby formula cans they need.
A nationwide shortage of infant formula caused, in part, by the closing of a Michigan formula plant earlier in the year left families like Dobrucky’s and Omohundro’s looking far and wide to find formula to feed their babies.
“I’m doing whatever we can. Pretty much all of my friends, every time they go to the grocery store, they’ll send me a picture of something,” Dobrucky said.
“I also reached out to family members all the way in South Carolina and Arizona to have them looking for me as well,” Omohundro said.
Social media support groups for new mothers have helped locate some of the local stock, but those posts only go so far.
“Like, hey I found this. Two hours later,” Omohundro said.
“Two hours? Like ten minutes! It is gone!” Dobrucky said.
Dobrucky’s daughter is 11-months old, and when the shortages began, they transitioned her over to solid foods and cow's milk, which in turn caused severe constipation that resulted in an emergency trip to the doctor.
Omohundro’s six-month-old son spits up easily, and the brand that seems to sit best with his stomach is the generic Target version, which is regularly wiped out right now.
“My sister-in-law has a three-month-old. When we had nothing, she gave us her formula," Dobrucky said. "I can’t take from my niece That’s awful!”
“My son is losing weight and not gaining weight like he is supposed to because I can’t find this one formula,” Omohundro said. “Not being able to give them [what they need], it literally breaks my heart and it scares me.”
While many families have turned online for possible solutions to empty shelves, Dr. Sean McKenna, a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, said families should proceed with caution.
“It is fine to order from trusted online resources, but I would be wary of auction sites and secondhand sites if you don't know them well or people selling on their own,” Dr. McKenna said.
When it comes to what options families have, Dr. McKenna said there are definitely some don’ts.
“You don't want to try to mix your own formula from some recipe you found online. You don't want to try to add any water and water down the formula that you have. That's one of the more dangerous things that we can do,” he said.
“So if we as adults drink too much water, we'll get really hungry for salty foods. And we'll balance out the salt and fluid balance in our body that way, infants don't have that option,” Dr. McKenna explained. “They're only getting the one source of nutrition. You can end up with water intoxication. And that can be really serious. We've historically always taught all medical students and residents about the dangers of over diluting because we see these kids come in with what are called hyponatremic, low sodium seizures.”
Shared breast milk is an option, but Dr. McKenna said the only truly safe method is getting it through a certified breast milk donor program.
For children six months or older, he said families might consider beginning the transition to solid foods through purees made from mostly fruits and vegetables.
“You can then just kind of move more to that in terms of the nutrition and try to bulk up that as a big part of your nutrition and then use the formula afterward for what the baby's identifying as their thirst,” he said.
Through the head and heartaches caused by the formula shortage that could continue for months, both Dobrucky and Omohundro said the support they’ve received from each other and their community was a slight saving grace.
“There are plenty of babies who can only be on formula. So yeah, we’re all in this together I guess,” Dobrucky said.
“Don’t blame yourself because I do that a lot. It’s not helping you or the baby. The formula is not going to magically come,” Omohundro said.
