OKC nonprofits serving infant needs see uptick after national baby formula shortage

Maternal-based organizations in Oklahoma City are seeing a surge of families requesting assistance amid a nationwide shortage in baby formula that has made popular brands difficult to find in stores.

The shortage has worsened since mid-February, when Abbott Laboratories, the maker of the high-selling baby formula brand Similac, issued a recall for the Similac, Similac Alimentum and Elecare powder formulas with expirations date of April 1 or later. Abbott then shut down its manufacturing plant in Sturgis, Michigan, and formula production nosedived in the U.S.

Major retailers, like Target and Walgreens, have responded to supply issues by limiting only a few formula products per purchase, but shelves in stores across the metro are emptying at rapid rates.

“It’s crazy,” said Randy Nix, manager of a Walgreens drugstore in Oklahoma City. “My shelves are wiped out. It’s nuts, man.”

Why is there a baby formula shortage?

In a panic, parents are clambering to buy as much baby formula powder as possible, wherever possible. Local nonprofits, such as OKCity Crisis Nursery and Infant Crisis Services, are filling the gap, but the scale of the need is alarming staff members.

“We’ve given out over 800 cans of formula in the last week,” OKCity Crisis Nursery founder Jennifer Roberts said Friday. “And we average, I’d say, 50 cans on a usual busy week of giving out formula.”

Roberts said her usual philosophy is “if we’ve got it, you’ve got it,” but so many requests have come in lately that the nursery has had to limit each family to four or five cans in order to fulfill every person’s need.

Miki Farris, executive director of Infant Crisis Services, said she’d noticed a similar uptick. From January to April 2022, her organization had served 7,700 families, in comparison to 5,800 during the same time frame last year.

“We got ahead of it, because we saw supply chain issues since the very start of the pandemic, and we don’t ever want to be in a position where we don’t have formula for the people we serve, so we ordered quite a bit,” Farris said.

Oklahoma’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or “WIC,” currently maintains a contract with Gerber Good Start brand baby formulas. When Abbott’s Similac brand became hard to find, sales of Gerber’s Good Start suddenly spiked as families scrambled to meet their needs.

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'This supply-chain issue is life-threatening'

Farris said the overwhelming concern is potentially running out of specialty formula for prematurely-born babies and other infants who might need higher concentrations of nutrition in their diet.

“It’s scary,” Farris said. “It was an inconvenience not to be able to get paper towels and toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic. But this supply-chain issue is life-threatening. Babies get most of their brain development in their first three years, and if they don’t have the proper nutrition during that time, then the brain suffers.”

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Abbott Laboratories said on Wednesday it hopes to restart production at its troubled Michigan facility in two weeks, pending approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Experts say it will likely take 6 to 8 weeks afterward to reach standards of production and distribution of Similac from before the shutdown. Farris and Roberts said their organizations should be able to maintain current service levels through that time estimate, but neither are certain what exactly the future may hold.

“If this is truly a 10 to 12 week ordeal, I think we’re going to be OK,” Farris said. “If it isn’t, we’re not going to be OK. We want to give people enough to last a week, and we can’t scale back now because that really is what they need. It’s a slippery slope for the families right now, but we’re grateful to be there for them.”

Avoid diluting formula, homemade recipes during shortage

Desperate families, in the meantime, might be tempted to “stretch” their formula supply by diluting it with water, but Farris said this is a dangerous idea.

“You’re not making sure enough nutrition is in your baby’s diet when you do that,” Farris said. “That formula is the only thing ensuring your baby is getting the level of nutrition they need, and if you water it down, that could mean serious problems for them and their development.”

Roberts has also seen social media posts that suggest parents should make their own homemade formula, or substitute formula with other products such as goat milk and almond milk – none of which are a safe option.

“I try to explain it to parents by saying it’s like you going and eating a big steak dinner and then going for a run,” Roberts said. “That’s what you’re doing to your baby’s belly, and you can’t do that.”

Safe substitutes for baby formula: Amid worsening shortage, avoid homemade recipes

If families are ever unable to find formula powder, an additional nonprofit can serve as a healthy, alternative resource. The Oklahoma Mothers’ Milk Bank provides safe, pasteurized breast milk from screened donors.

Executive Director Becky Mannel said the nonprofit recently moved to a new location at Garrison Tower in northeast Oklahoma City, but the breast milk bank has multiple drop-off locations throughout the state.

“Human milk is the optimal source of nutrition for babies, especially throughout their first year of life or longer,” Mannel said. “Ideally, we want a baby breast-fed or on the mom’s own milk, and donor milk could maybe cover some gaps for babies whose mothers can’t produce enough milk.”

Donations have increased in recent months, Mannel said, but mothers wanting to donate their own milk have to pass a screening process.

“It doesn’t cost a donor anything,” Mannel said. “We cover all of the screening costs and we want to make it as easy as possible for a mother to donate. If you’re a breastfeeding mom and have extra supply, you could take a huge step in helping others and making a difference in this way.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Nonprofits filling gaps for OKC parents during baby formula shortage