What’s up with the baby formula shortage?
Suddenly there’s a raft of articles about the current baby formula shortage, which seems to have been caused by a combination of the usual “supply chain problems” and a large plant closing because of possible illness and two deaths from bacterial contamination there – a contamination that doesn’t seem to have actually been related to those illnesses and deaths after all.
In many states, including Texas and Tennessee, more than half of formula is sold out in stores. Nationwide, 40 percent of formula is out of stock—a twentyfold increase since the first half of 2021. As parents have started to stockpile formula, retailers such as Walgreens, CVS, and Target have all moved to limit purchases…
Demand for formula surged as parents hoarded in 2020; then demand fell, leading suppliers to cut back production through 2021; and now, with more new mothers demanding more formula in 2022, orders are surging faster than supply is recovering.
Finally, the third factor: America’s regulatory and trade policy…
FDA regulation of formula is so stringent that most of the stuff that comes out of Europe is illegal to buy here due to technicalities like labeling requirements…
America’s formula policy warps the industry in one more way. The Department of Agriculture has a special group called WIC—short for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children—that provides a variety of services to pregnant and breastfeeding women and their young children. It is also the largest purchaser of infant formula in the United States, awarding contracts to a small number of approved formula companies. As a result, the U.S. baby formula industry is minuscule, by design. A 2011 analysis by USDA reported that three companies accounted for practically all U.S. formula sales: Abbott, Mead Johnson, and Gerber.
The author of that piece has an anti-Trump and pro-globalist agenda, but I think the article probably summarizes the main causes of the shortage pretty well.
Also, evidence has surfaced that there’s no shortage in border facilities that house people who come to the US illegally. I’m not in favor of starving the innocent babies they bring who might be dependent on formula. But the current shortages for the general public need to be addressed, and pronto.
Does it seem to you as though children have gotten the short shrift lately, with unnecessary school closings, leftist propaganda in schools, attempts to remove limits on abortion, and shortages of baby formula?
[NOTE: I’ve also seen comments elsewhere in which people say “Why doesn’t every woman nurse?” Some women can’t, and some babies and even older children need formula for medical reasons. But women also have the right to choose not to nurse for whatever reason. Once that decision has been made and the woman’s milk supply dries up, starting again (or for the first time) is very difficult. The babies don’t always cooperate, either, if they are used to getting milk from a bottle.]
Got milk?
Ahh, we don’t have time for this we’ve got ‘abortion, abortion, abortion’ and $40 billion for our proxy war against Russia to deal with.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a gov’t that actually cared about it’s own citizens?
Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) says that inflation is yet another reason why we need abortion:
https://redstate.com/jerrywilson/2022/05/12/after-painting-her-colleagues-as-out-of-touch-dem-rep-katie-porter-says-inflation-reinforces-the-need-for-abortion-n563414
Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) says that inflation is yet another reason why we need abortion:
Previous occupation: law professor. Instruction in economics or in a business discipline, nil. Employment history in a business concern, nil.
This problem could be solved in a day. If the FDA can give Emergency Use Authorizations for vaccines, it can do it for formula from other countries. Make a safe list of countries (Canada, EU, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, etc) and say that any formula approved by and manufactured in those countries can be imported under an Emergency Use order. Then create a website to translate the labels, and, perhaps arrange for safe transportation options to keep the formula stable during shipping.
If our government were not an ossified, bureaucratic leviathan, formula could be on its way here now.
About Katie Porter, she says she named one of her children after Elizabeth Warren. Get this:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/candidate-survived-domestic-abuse_n_5af47e3ce4b0859d11d15299
I’m remembering what Jane Wyman had to say when she was asked about Ronald Reagan. “I simply will not talk about that”; “It’s bad taste”. Note this article regards her account without the slightest skepticism or reservation of judgment. And, of course, no one asks why a 47 year old divorcée with three minor children is running for a public office which requires so much cross-country trial that her children will have to be under the supervision of others somewhere between 30% and 70% of the days of the month.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a gov’t that actually cared about it’s own citizens?
They care about the media, about the people who finance their campaigns, and about the guilds which organize their preferred clientele. The smart money says Pierre Omidyar and Randi Weingarten don’t give a rat’s as** about baby formula.
“If children paid union dues, I would care about children” Albert Shanker AFT president.
It’s possible to make your own formula but that is dismissed as unhealthy.
The Abbott plant reopened last week. There is no info on why it stayed closed for months.
At this point the vast majority of Republican focus for the elections should be on three things: the economy which would obviously include inflation, supply chain issues, and problems like this baby formula issue, the border and crime.
I haven’t had a single conversation with a normal not overly political person about Ukraine since the first few days of that conflict yet it gets a way outsized emphasis by Congress and the administration.
It’s very sad what is happening there and I’m not saying do nothing but how about we pay attention to our own border and our own economic problems.
Mark Steyn ‘The permanent abnormal staggers on’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB7FF9EX4RE
Also two important things to point out
First believe it or not it is usually #1 on the shoplifters list of things to take. The big organized gangs take it to resell in poor communities and for one other reason.
It is also excellent to cut your drugs with. It is the powder of choice in this regards.
So I am sure these two points are also contributing to the issue
If there was currently a President Trump or a President de Santis, there would be a warp-speed-like program to identify & remove the bottlenecks in baby formula supply. Might be a few others. If there were to be a President Musk (not possible), he would be walking the plant floors to see for himself.
Present-day Democrats don’t think like that.
Mythx,
Here in WA state I have seen several stores that have it in the locked cases where you have to call an employee to get some.
Mythx: In Los Angeles, half the store is now in locked cases. There’s one grocery store near me where the entire personal care section (shampoo, etc) is locked up. Also, instant coffee is locked up.
Excellent idea, Ann in L.A., on temporarily suspending import restrictions on formula from countries deemed safe.
Instant coffee? People steal instant coffee? Sheesh.
Not surprising to most here but this article touches on the baby formula problem as well as the general problems we are seeing everywhere.
Lockdowns were the biggest mistake in modern history and now we are all paying the price.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/12/supply-chain-disruptions-are-really-the-effects-of-lockdowns-we-should-never-allow-again/
Also noting re “why don’t they just nurse”– most women who primarily nurse usually have to supplement with formula. Fed is the goal, and sometimes a nursing mom just can’t produce enough, or baby isn’t latching long enough, or takes too long to eat, or any number of things. She might be nursing 80% or 90% of nutritional requirements but baby needs more than she can provide.
Pictures of pallets loaded with baby formula for the illegals coming across the Southern border just are not good optics. But the MSM will not show them. Rep pols should put out ads with the pics.
From today’s Megyn Kelly with Bethany Mandel about this issue and also why some mothers can’t ‘just breast feed’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MndSWNIfilE
According to Cocaine Mitch, “we all agree that the most important thing going on in the world right now is the war in Ukraine.” Caring more about the conflict in Ukraine (which permanent Washington (the “Uni-party”), the military-industrial complex, the amusingly-named “foreign-policy Blob” in DC’s swamp, as well as much of the MSM, wish to prolong for a variety of reasons) will help to ensure that Republicans do badly in an upcoming election hardly likely to be “free and fair.”
How quickly we revert to the gender binary: Notice how the MSM now refers to “women” again in the context of what we were told not so long ago is correctly termed “chest feeding.” Here’s a post titled “Male chest feeding is beautiful” by a commenter whose web name is Pressed_Rat: “I am sure you have all seen this truly inspiring video by now. Quite frankly I have seen few things this truly beautiful. An innocent, newborn baby suckling the hairy breast of a male equipt with a penis and testicles. Such beauty. There is just something so natural and pure about this that really touches me. To think that anyone could be against this is simply beyond my comprehension. I can only imagine the hate-filled, white supremacist, Trump supporting Nazis would that would be against this immaculate display of beauty. Truly horrible, intolerant bigots the world does not need.”
The video of beautiful male chest feeding is at the link:
https://www.treefortforums.net/forum/general-topics/162381-male-chest-feeding-is-beautiful
I’d like to think the post is a spoof but I doubt it. In any case maybe some of these hairy chest feeders can volunteer their services as wet nurses.
“Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) says that inflation is yet another reason why we need abortion:”
That rationale logically leads to mass euthanasia for every retiree in America.
j e,
McConnell wasn’t very happy when his colleague Sen. Paul blocked the bill for $40 billion for Ukraine. How dare he stand in the way of the uniparty’s proxy war with Russia.
Maybe Democrats should push the pro-Roe argument that the world just isn’t a safe place in which to bear a child as long as they’re in charge.
One of my grandchildren flatly refused to nurse, for reasons known only to him. He was perfectly healthy, but from birth on, he insisted on bottles, and only bottles. Try forcing a newborn to nurse if he doesn’t want to. Good luck! And no, starving him into compliance was not an option. (Most of his bottles held pumped breast milk rather than formula, but managing that for most of his first year was a major undertaking that not every family could handle.)
It’s pretty much impossible to switch back to nursing if you started out with formula. And many working moms have to feed formula, because their jobs won’t allow for pumping every few hours to provide milk for when the mom’s not home, and her body won’t necessarily cooperate with an alternating schedule where the baby nurses when she’s home and has formula when she’s at work. I also know of several families with babies who have complex allergies that must be managed with special formulas.
Meanwhile, Biden’s new press secretary is laughing at questions about the formula shortage, and leftie women are tweeting sarcastic LOLs and OMGs about how ridiculous it is to care about it. I pick up the distinct scent of snobbery. Breastfeeding in this country is directly related to social class: the wealthier and better-educated a woman is, the more likely she is to nurse — partly because better-off women have more support for nursing, and partly because it’s an important status marker in the upper class. (Here’s a good article about this, though a little out of date.) I think the elites are looking down their noses at those dumb redneck women who didn’t know enough to breastfeed. They wouldn’t say it out loud, but in truth, they figure that the bumpkins deserve whatever they get. After all, they probably voted for Trump!
Yes, babies have definite preferences, and good luck changing them. My own two had literal hysterics when offered a bottle, no matter what was in it, and as Mrs Whatsit says, some babies will accept only bottles, and if bottles and formula are offered early, very often breast feeding fails. These leftists who say this isn’t a crisis are in essence saying that it’s okay if babies die.
Mrs Whatsit:
It’s ironic that generations ago it was the upper classes who refused to nurse and had the wherewithal to use wetnurses from the lower classes.
Plot of HMS Pinafore.
What does our Secretary of Transportation feed his infant, one wonders. None of my business, of course, but I doubt he breast feeds.
Would the old standby of condensed milk and water be of any help, until the shortages ease?
I was born in August of 1961, and apparently, September of ’61 was a scorcher in Minneapolis. My Mom told me that my Dad felt sorry for me, and would make me bottles of Coke and crushed ice. I still drink Coke sixty years later, but I doubt that would help the situation very much.
Griffin:
Because now that Roosia is on its back foot, for how long who knows, it is time to give them a breather?
Grandstanding much Rando Paul?
But, but, but WEF / Davos, and the Uniparty!
Failure theater and how to snatch defeat from a possible better outcome.
There is no more dangerous an “ally” than an amatuer isolationist.
Time will tell.
I was born in Milwaukee in 1944, and because my Mother had difficulty nursing I got the old standby of condensed milk, water, and Karo syrup. Somehow I survived.
Neo: My initial encounter with breastfeeding controversies was Mary McCarthy’s 1963 novel The Group, which my mother made the mistake of leaving on the living room coffee table, where anyone (myself included) could pick it up. Priss, the Phi Beta Kappa graduate in McCarthy’s group of 1930s Vassar women, marries Sloan, a pediatrician, and works for FDR’s NRA for a few years. She gives birth to a baby named Stephen but has difficulty breastfeeding and potty-training him. Her husband wants her to breastfeed the baby because he likes to think of himself as a modern, progressive doctor. In McCarthy’s words, “Sloan…was enamored of his own theories, which he wanted to enforce, like Prohibition, regardless of the human factor.” One of the nurses in the maternity ward is surprised by Priss’s determination to breastfeed, given her social position; the nurse remarks that most of the new mothers in the ward think of breastfeeding as “too Lower East Side,” a reference to immigrant ethnicities that McCarthy expected her 1960s readers to understand. The novel was an eye-opener for me because my aunts who had children after I was old enough to understand the so-called facts of life all breastfed my cousins, and no one thought it was the least bit unusual, let alone progressive. It may be, of course, that the Amish presence in my home county made a difference.
om,
‘is it time to give them a breather?’
They need our $40 billion to do that?
When did it become our responsibility to fund Ukraine’s war?
What if that doesn’t do the trick, what then? Another $40 billion?
Griffin and Ann
It is locked up now in most places. But like many anti theft devices. It really only slows them down.
The gangs you see roaming stores in large cities. Also happens in surrounding suburbs with somewhat less frequency. Where this type of thing used to be low level. It has become very common to see huge gangs of people basically raiding stores. Knowing full well that unless you commit your entire force for a mid sized city to stopping just them. Their sheer numbers mean that they are likely to succeed.
Where I retired from had per capita one of the largest police forces in our state. And it was fairly common to have 50% of the on duty personal occupied with just arresting groups from Walmart. That was anywhere from 4-9 officers on any given afternoon.
Griffin:
Curious that the isolationists never can find a conflict worth fighting. And until Vlad started feinting they were all in on the inevitable nature of Vlad’s Victory Parade.
Now if I were in love with the CCP I would say, go Rand, go. It shows America is feckless and unreliable: Afghanistan, Ukraine, Taiwan?
Time will tell. Short attention span.
How much baby formula did the feds buy up or pre order for the border? What equivalent is it to normal US domestic demand? Seriously, did they stock warehouses full of this stuff? I would not put it past the Democrats to have done that.
Of course citizens dont count for them normal people dont count only the new people they want to elect.
We were at a Target in the western suburbs the other day. We happened to go by the shelf where baby formula is usually stocked. TOTALLY EMPTY!
Ouch!!!!
None of the grandkids are nursing now so no personal effect. But I do feel bad for the Mothers and Fathers of young babies, infants and toddlers.
“Does it seem to you as though children have gotten the short shrift lately, with unnecessary school closings, leftist propaganda in schools, attempts to remove limits on abortion, and shortages of baby formula?” Neo
And all driven by the people that have operated with the mantra “for the children ” for years and years.
“These leftists who say this isn’t a crisis are in essence saying that it’s okay if babies die.” Kate
Post birth abortion. As most babies still at the breast feeding stage are not ‘really’ persons yet. So implies a bill currently being considered in the Mass. State House.
neo @ 7:33,
Don’t you know, that was then, this is now. They are more ‘evolved’ than their predecessors. No need to ask for confirmation, they positively reek of their superiority.
tcrosse,
I think it a virtual certainty that there is no shortage of baby formula in the Secretary of Transportation’s house. Nor will there ever be while he remains part of the rPresident’s cabal.
“I got the old standby of condensed milk, water, and Karo syrup.”
That formula should go viral.
Griffin,
Some falsely equate a reasoned disinterest in involving ourselves in other’s diisputes, in which we have no direct national interest, as indicative of isolationism. Which if logically consistent, implies an advocacy for America to be the world’s policeman.
In the case of the Ukraine, it’s an absurdity to assert a need to defend a non-existent Ukrainian democracy and also to imagine that Putin intends to attack NATO. One corrupt country attacking another corrupt country is a humanitarian disaster and a tragic example of man’s inhumanity to man. We can be assured that there will be many more examples. It is criminal to potentially place at risk the survival of the human race over it.
Mythx, Tuvea, et al.: Thefts of baby formula have been going on since April– a Florida radio station website posted a video of a heavy-set male named the “baby formula bandit” who has hit several Publix stores in southern Florida, one of them at least four times. The value of the formula is estimated at $1500 per heist. “[Police Detective] Roy says the amount of formula the man has stolen has led to questions about why he’s stealing it. ‘I think the typical person might think he’s stealing it for his own child. He is not,’ said Roy. ‘The amount he is stealing is a large amount that is not to feed his own child.'”
Video of the bandit at the link:
https://wflanews.iheart.com/featured/florida-news/content/2022-04-15-baby-formula-bandit-hits-south-florida-publix-four-times-in-two-months/
Geoffrey carries the water for Vlad, it’s existential. Because Vlad has him by the short hairs, good that the Finns, Swedes, Poles, and Balts are made of sterner stuff. athey know what comes with Roosia’s tender cares.
When we straighten out this country, something mcconnell and mccarthy dont give a farthing about, then we can do something abroad, wake up!!!
The world won’t wait for whoever to straighten out our problems. Read some history. Rando Paulbots untie.
@ Mike K > “The Abbott plant reopened last week. There is no info on why it stayed closed for months.”
It had severe contamination problems and refused to correct them.
I subscribe to a Food Alerts Newsletter – from which I have mostly learned that everything you eat will kill you – and they have been following the baby formula recall.
The plant that produced the tainted product was not being a Good Neighbor.
Abbott disputes that their formula caused the illnesses and deaths; I haven’t seen a final conclusion on those allegations.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2022/04/publishers-platform-mr-abbott-you-are-going-to-jail-for-manufacturing-tainted-infant-formula/?utm_source=Food+Safety+News&utm_campaign=5e83589e77-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f46cc10150-5e83589e77-40135207
Aesop.
Thanks for the info on Abbott. Strifes me as one of those things where covering up the coverup–possibly of something minor or easily fixed–is an accelerating spiral of larger and larger misdeeds.
Worked in a Chrysler plant maybe fifty years ago. We were recovering from seriously deferred maintenance–said the old timers–because the previous manager wanted to look good on his budget. It costs more to fix the stuff than to maintain it, but the latter shows up immediately.
Abbott must know how, must have gotten it right for years. Why stop?
As a general observation, a shortage can be created by talking about a shortage.
I expect an Emergency Use Authorization will be forthcoming as soon as financial arrangements are completed. But not until.
Its just very convenient to their purposes
I managed organic certification and other regulatory issues for my family’s natural food product company and am familiar with all of the procedures and requirements described in the article Aesop Fan quotes. Everything in that piece tells me the plant is staffed by employees who are incapable of understanding and following GMP – good manufacturing practices. In other words – illegals.
Just sayin’.
Maybe so
https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/12/the-fda-was-making-it-difficult-for-moms-to-get-baby-formula-long-before-the-supply-chain-imploded/
Molly Brown. You may be right about the workers. But it seems to be a management/supervision failure.
Formula has been locked up in the stores in my area for some years now, well before the pandemic, supply chain issues and all that. I’ve wondered why, because it seems rather hard to shoplift, not small enough to drop easily into a bag or pocket. And the poorer families mostly shouldn’t need to steal it, because of WIC. But I think Mythx has explained it. My backwater rural area has been desperately hard-hit by the opiod epidemic, with so many deaths that everybody knows somebody, social class notwithstanding. I didn’t know baby formula was used to cut drugs. That must be where it was going. We don’t have gangs descending on our stores here as in California, but we certainly do have gang members from the bigger cities running our drug trade. They must have figured out some way to steal it, by distraction or whatever, that taught the stores to lock it up.
Now, the locked-up cabinets are pretty much empty anyway.
Being male, unmarried, childless I can’t say I have a big dog in this hunt, thus haven’t spent much time investigating it, but…
Aren’t there strong indications that breast-fed children run healthier, with fewer issues like allergies and asthma?
If true, I would think that women who can, probably should, just for their kids’ benefit.
}}} If there was currently a President Trump or a President de Santis, there would be a warp-speed-like program to identify & remove the bottlenecks in baby formula supply. Might be a few others.
If there was currently a president Trumpsantis, there would be endless caterwauling -> on Inauguration Day <- about how it was “all his fault” and how he wasn’t doing enough to fix it.
:-/
@ Mrs Whatsit > “And the poorer families mostly shouldn’t need to steal it, because of WIC. ”
TWIP has that covered.
https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-12-at-5.58.26-PM.png?w=920&ssl=1
I saw this on Powerline this morning:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/05/our-reckless-white-house.php
I also saw this elsewhere:
https://nypost.com/2022/05/15/issues-at-baby-formula-plant-went-back-years-former-fda-head/
The $64,000.00 question is – who is lying? After 2 years of the china virus do you trust the government bureaucrats and the politicians or do you trust big business, particularly pharma? Or are they all lying?
Gottlieb is an aggressive brownnoser and grifter they never go away like ticks
Obloodyhell, yes, breastfeeding is best for children and for their mothers also. However, there are some women who cannot breastfeed successfully. In normal times, they can give formula and all is well.
Kate: Despite being male, I am/was aware of this (my mother had issues), hence my codicil, “women who can…”
;-D