Formula Shortage
I’m not sure why I keep obsessing about the formula shortage. I don’t have a baby. (Clearly.) Everyone I know who has a baby breastfeeds. But I think about everyone I don’t know. There are a lot of families out there, dependent on formula.
As we were. Two different kinds of formula. I couldn’t breastfeed; we were totally dependent on formula for the first year.
Instead of lawmakers thinking about more ways they can force women to carry children into the world, they should be focusing on how to feed the children who are here.
Instead, this is what you get:
Asked a handful of senators tonight if they’re concerned about the baby formula shortage. They had no idea what I was talking about.https://t.co/30YBqHb29I
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) May 9, 2022
10 comments
I’ve noticed an increase in posts about formula in my local freebies group. This could get really bad and I can see why you keep thinking about it. When I worked at WIC I learned that people would sometimes water down the formula if they ran out or weren’t given enough. This could kill a baby.
Yes! I’ve been thinking about this so much. Especially because I was absolutely dependent on formula when I adopted my daughter. So…if as a country we want to be pro-life, pro-birth, pro-adoption, seems like this is a pretty serious issue. Every time I think I the disconnect between politics and reality can’t get bigger, something like this happens. I can’t even imagine the stress of not knowing how you’re going to feed your baby. Ugh.
I’ve seen several posts about this in relation to specialty formulas for kids with metabolic diagnoses. It’s a pretty big deal for a lot of families. Of course with the lactivists their response is just breast feed but it’s so much more. Like you pointed out there are those who can’t and even those who have chose not to which is a personal choice. It’s also affecting hospitals as our unit has had times where it’s difficult to get the formula we need.
My local town mom’s page and Buy Nothing group are full of posts from desperate moms looking for formula. We were completely dependent on formula ourselves. I pumped and pumped and would get just drops of milk. What a nightmare this would be! I feel for everyone who needs formula now.
I feel so bad for these families. And the asshat lactivists don’t help. And I’m mystified how this could happen with such an important item.
This is a crisis!!! 🙁
You touch on the heart of the problem. Pro-life groups focus on forcing people to carry pregnancies. But everything afterwards, all support disappears (unless the state intervenes for children removed from guardian care, but another topic for another time).
Quality of life is not the focus. If it was, healthcare would be universally available, affordable housing would be a non-issue, and access to food would be a given.
Instead we have a housing crisis and a formula shortage. All on top of a pandemic that has been politicized.
This is a fascinating alignment of issues.
I’m just disappointed in Abbott for creating the situation leading to it.
(Which is to say the Roe V Wade upcoming ruling and the formula situation.
The monopoly of formula makers is a separate issue, and Abbott’s behavior is disappointing to me because I worked for them once upon a time.)
This is all so awful. I’m also disappointed with Abbott, and I hate the way our regulatory system has been stripped to such an extent that two babies died from bad formula. I hate the way there’s so much monopoly power that there could be this big an effect on the supply of formula.
AND I am stunned about TX politicians saying that the babies they jailed should not be getting formula, and I guess should just die? And the same people who want more forced births and more adoptions don’t actually care about those adopted kids being able to eat.
The US used to have a lot more things in place so that these kinds of supply issues wouldn’t happen for necessary food items. Deregulation has deadly consequences.