A ba formula shortage leaves desperate parents searching for food

Maricella Marquez looked at the last can of ba formula in her kitchen Tuesday and handed her 3-year-old daughter, who suffers from a rare allergic esophageal disorder, a smaller-than-usual portion of the special nutrition she needs to stay healthy.
Marquez has been calling suppliers all over Texas, asking about any new shipments. “Right now they are out of it, completely,” she said. “I’m desperate.”
Marquez lives outside San Antonio, a city that has seen the nation’s highest rate of formula shortages — 56% of normal supplies were out of stock as of Tuesday, according to retail software company Datasembly — amid a nationwide supply crunch that has left parents scrambling to feed their children.
The shortage has been a challenge for families across the country, but it is especially palpable at grocery stores and food banks in San Antonio, a Latino-majority city in South Texas where many mothers lack health insurance and work at low-wage jobs that give them little opportunity to breastfeed. Across the city, ba food aisles are nearly empty, and nonprofit agencies are working overtime to get their hands on new supplies.
The shortage became acute with a recall of a defective brand this year after at least four babies were hospitalized with bacterial infection and at least two babies died. But the recall has been exacerbated relentless supply-chain woes and labor shortages. The Datasembly research found that the national out-of-stock rate for ba formula reached 43% for the week ending Sunday, up 10% from last month’s average.
Republicans have seized on the widening anxiety among parents to blame President Joe Biden, arguing that the adminration has not done enough to ramp up production. On Tuesday, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah sent a letter to the Food and Drug Adminration and the Department of Agriculture, asserting that federal officials have been too slow to respond.
The FDA, which is leading the federal response, said officials were working with Abbott Nutrition, the company involved in the recall, to restart production at its plant in Sturgis, Michigan. The agency said it had been meeting regularly with various infant formula manufacturers to increase production capacity and urging retailers to consider placing sales limits on infant formula products.
“We recognize that many consumers have been unable to access infant formula and critical medical foods they are accustomed to using and are frustrated their inability to do so,” the FDA commissioner, Dr. Robert M. Califf, said in a statement Tuesday. “We are doing everything in our power to ensure there is adequate product available where and when they need it.”
Since the shutdown of Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis facility, other manufacturers have struggled to quickly increase production because their operations are geared toward a steady level of consumer demand, according to Rudi Leuschner, an associate professor of supply-chain management at Rutgers Business School.
Abbott Nutrition said it was doing everything it could, including increasing production at its other U.S. plants and shipping products from its facility in Ireland.
Yet for parents who are having to give their babies less than the food they need, even a temporary shortage has been terrifying. Some parents are researching homemade infant formula recipes on the internet, although health experts have warned that such formulas can lack vital nutrients or present other dangers.
“We also recommend not watering down the formula because it can lead to poor nutritional balance and create serious problems,” said Kelly Bocanegra, program manager for the federal Women, Infants and Children program in the San Antonio metro area.
At Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, doctors are encouraging new mothers to increase the amount of milk they pump and breastfeed as much as possible.
Some are unable to breastfeed, however, because of inadequate supplies or other health issues, and health care workers said that many mothers working in fast food, retail or other low-wage jobs may be unable to afford the time to breastfeed.
Parents like Marquez whose children require special diets also do not have that option. In some cases, those parents already were struggling to afford ba formula cans that can cost more than $100 each, said Elyse Bernal, president of Any Ba Can, a nonprofit that offers access to care for children with special needs.
“It’s very scary, especially for the families that have to have a particular blend formula, because now they’re worried about how can they feed their ba?” said Megan Sparks, one of the group’s case managers.
For Darice Browning, the specialty formula shortage in Oceanside, California, has been so acute that she has considered going to the emergency room just to feed her youngest daughter, Octavia, who is 10 months old and has rare genetic conditions that make it impossible for her to eat solid foods. The food allergies she shares with her 21-month-old ser, Tokyo, cause both babies to vomit blood if they ingest dairy proteins.
At one point, Browning said, she called all of her daughters’ doctors looking for formula, only to be told that none had any.
“I was freaking out, crying on the floor, and my husband, Lane, came home from work and he’s like, ‘What’s wrong?’ and I’m like, ‘Dude, I can’t feed our kids; I don’t know what to do,’ ” Browning said.
As of Tuesday, she had four cans of formula left for Octavia — all of them on the recall l — and was trying to stretch out her supply with smaller rations.
Parents who have tried to buy online said they have encountered not only higher prices, but scams. Two weeks ago, K-Rae Knowles 30, of Oregon, Illinois, sent money to a stranger in exchange for cans of a specialty formula she needed for her 4-month-old son, Callan. The cans never came, she said, and the seller’s Facebook profile was deleted a few days later.
“People are being extra careful now,” she said. “It’s really heartbreaking that people are preying on this kind of shortage.”
In San Antonio, Marquez said she never thought she would be relying on ba formula to keep her daughter healthy at such an advanced age. But then her daughter received her diagnosis, and she was told that the special formula was the only thing that would keep her out of a hospital.
Since early April, she has been supplementing her nutrition with fruit, vegetables, ground turkey and other plant-based proteins.
“There’s very little else she can have,” she said. “It’s not like I can give her a Happy Meal. Or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
Even when it is available, the formula is expensive. After her health insurance pays 80% of the cost, the family still must shell out $375 a month — when the food is available. With only her husband working as a grocery store manager, money is tight, she said.
She plans to get this week with samples of other products that suppliers do have in stock and test which ones her daughter can tolerate for the time being.
“I have no other choice,” she said. “I need it. I want her to stay healthy and to stay out of the hospital.”