The baby formula crisis
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2022
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
For months, parents have been scrambling to feed their children amid a nationwide baby formula shortage. Today, why the supply is so short, and how parents are coping.
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Three-quarters of American parents with infants rely on baby formula. For many, it’s the only option to keep their babies alive and healthy. But since the winter, shortages have left caregivers scrambling to find enough food. Last week, supplies in stores were down more than 40 percent.
Parenting editor Amy Joyce says the shortage is due to a combination of factors, including snarled supply chains and the closure of a major plant in Michigan where Abbott Nutrition produces Similac and other popular formula brands. In February, Abbott recalled some formula after several infants got sick — and two died. The company says it hasn’t found a link between its formula and the illnesses, but the Food and Drug Administration is still investigating.
Today on “Post Reports,” we hear about parents dealing with a situation they never could have imagined.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Are you okay? |
| 0:01.0 | And are you here? |
| 0:02.0 | He's waving. |
| 0:03.0 | Earlier this week, I spent some time with Maria Marillo, a parent in Maryland who has a |
| 0:10.9 | five-month-old son. |
| 0:12.9 | He looks happy. |
| 0:14.9 | Yeah, he's happy and healthy. |
| 0:16.9 | He's a little grumpy, his naps this, this, uh, today we're in that grade. |
| 0:21.5 | He just started daycare, so he's trying to, you know, get on that pattern. |
| 0:25.3 | Yeah. |
| 0:26.3 | But we'll get there. |
| 0:27.3 | We'll get there. |
| 0:28.3 | I just, I'm going to do it. |
| 0:31.3 | Maria decided early on that she wanted to breastfeed, and she expected that she'd be able |
| 0:39.8 | to. |
| 0:41.2 | But Caleb was born early via C-section, and her milk never came in. |
| 0:47.2 | For months, she tried everything. |
| 0:49.7 | I tried teas, um, all types of water, um, coconut water, regular water, ionized water, |
| 0:57.3 | um, fruit that I wanted, home remedies from Ecuador, home remedies from, like, our neighbors |
| 1:03.9 | that just told us what to do, went to a lactation consultant, tried two different pumps, uh, |
| 1:09.6 | tried to pump that, the lactation consultant told me was used to cure my cytos from an elephant. |
| 1:16.1 | Like, that's what I was using for myself. |
... |
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