Parents all over Texas and the country are struggling with the recent shortage in baby formula. Emily Stanley, a Lake Jackson mom, is one of them.
According to WFAA News, Emily left work on May 9 so she could go in search of baby formula. After driving for about an hour from her house, she had to settle for what she could find.
“It’s just insane. As if a pandemic wasn’t enough, now there’s no formula,” Stanley told WFAA News.
The baby formula shortage resulted, in part, from a major voluntary recall of three popular baby formula brands earlier this year.
As reported by The Dallas Express, four infants were hospitalized in February after consuming baby formula, leading the FDA to issue an emergency warning to parents to stop using the products. Abbott Nutrition recalled certain Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare baby formula powders after one infant tragically died from an infection possibly linked to the product.
The recall and the recent supply chain issues in the country, which have seen many products marked out of stock in stores and online, are major contributing factors to the shortage of formula.
According to Datasembly, a retail data company, over half the supply of baby formula in Texas and five other states was sold out in April.
“The demand was increasing; supply was suddenly cut short, right? So when there is that mismatch between the supply and demand, this was just disaster waiting to happen,” Sree Bhaskaran of SMU’s Cox School of Business told WFAA News.
Emily revealed that the shortage is now making her rely on friends from her hometown of Waxahachie. She added that her friend went as far as to ship baby formula to her in wine boxes.
“People steal packages anyway, even if they don’t know what’s in it,” Emily added. “We just didn’t want it to be recognized.”