What’s the reason behind the extraordinary baby formula shortage, and how bad is it?

26 comments

  3. The largest supplier of formula had to close their factory after issues were found with their goods.

    Its apparently pretty bad. I don’t have first hand knowledge. I suspect we will find a way through it though, but I would not be surprised if occasional shortages like this of other critical supplies becomes the norm, rather than the exception.

  5. Its a heavily concentrated industry (only three major suppliers in the US) and there are huge tarriffs on imported formula. When Abbott’s plant shut down it knocked over 1/3 of production offline overnight.

  7. It is bad. All the shelves are cleared out.

    But this has been going on for quite some time. Formula has been hard to get since like November. It’s surprising it’s just now gotten media coverage.

    Source: me. I have a 14 month old who just got off formula and I work in grocery.

  10. I see people have commented why already but here’s a perspective.

    I’m in some mom groups online and the bigger problem is families needing specialized formula. Either the baby has an allergy or a sensitive stomach and will throw up anything else. I’ve heard (not where I live) some parents watering down formula but that can cause water intoxication in infants. Doctors have said babies 6 months and older can substitute cows milk for a short period of time. I know a lot of moms have trouble producing breast milk so it’s scary for them.

  11. 6 months pregnant here and I’m already freaking out. I plan to breastfeed but with my previous I was only able to for 6 weeks or so. Went to the store yesterday to scope out what was there…shelves completely empty.

  12. It’s bad and getting worse. The first few weeks things were sparse but we just had to be flexible, buying what was available even if it meant our baby drank a different formula each week. Fortunately, our baby adapted to whatever we offered with no problems – not every family has had that luxury.

    Lately, there’s next to nothing on the shelves and it’s terrifying. We’re lucky enough to have an older baby who can take in some solids and water, so we’re doing our best to push the solids so we can give just a LITTLE less formula each day (within reason of course). My heart breaks for those with really young babies.

    We’re not hoarding, but we do make a point to buy one container of formula whenever we happen to see it on shelves. Hoping to get to a point soon where we just don’t have to buy any more since baby turns one in July.

  13. same cause as most shit that is fucked up right now. government intervention.

  14. A friend of mine had formula shipped to him from a relative in Florida because there wasn’t an issue at the stores there and local stores were cleared out

  15. The factory that makes most of it had to shut down due to possible contamination. So now there’s about half the normal supply.

  16. Its really not as bad as people say…its affecting a minority of the population and there are plenty of ways to get formula online. Its also the fault of the FDA for overregulation

  17. When it first happened people were panic buying,so stuff sort of flew off the shelves. Most stores near me have 1 per person restriction, whichever helped. There is a good chance you can find some, it just might not be the brand you want.

  18. There are a very limited number of factories that produce baby formula, and a while back one of them in… I wanna say Wisconsin? was shut down because the FDA discovered toxic bacterium in a sample of their output. 2 babies have been confirmed to have died as a direct result of consuming contaminated formula. They’ve been working to bring it back online, but apparently whatever caused the issue is taking a very long time to resolve.

    Because so few factories (I heard on the news something like 3 or 4) are producing baby formula, this has dramatically lowered supply.

    I personally do not know how bad it is from personal experience, but I guess we could quantify the output based on that news report and say supply dropped by 25-33%?

  19. It’s worth considering asking this question to industry directly. /r/logistics has talked a lot about this shortage already.

  22. There are only three formula manufacturers in the US. A few months ago, the Food and Drug Administration shut down one of those manufacturers over health and safety concerns at their plant (which were very, VERY conservative in their concerns, there were no major or blatant faults, but at the mere possibility of a safety issue the FDA closed the factory).

    That immediately shut off around 1/3 of the formula supply, and formula producers have always produced just barely enough to cope with demand. . .meaning suddenly there’s a shortage, followed by people panic buying what was left for fear of more shortage.

    Due to huge tariffs and very restrictive regulations meant to protect US formula manufacturers from overseas competition, it’s normally next to impossible to import formula into the US and when you do, it’s far more expensive than buying domestically produced formula.

    So, Abbot is working with the FDA to re-open the plant, while the administration is waiving the worst of the regulations to allow emergency imports of formula from Europe (normally banned due to intentionally incompatible labelling rules that make formula labeled for use in the EU illegal to sell in the US) to be brought in on military transport flights.

  23. We have government regulations which have created a near-monopoly on baby formula, where only a few large companies have the ability to compete, and follow the regulatory burdens. This is also aggravated by the US government being stupid, and forcing people who get food assistance through welfare (WIC) to choose only certain types of formula, making it impossible for other manufacturers to compete.

    Side note: We can get grapes from Chile, Bananas from Brazil, Cheese from France. But imported baby formula is basically forbidden by these same rules.

    One producer, one factory had some sort of problem, and they need to shut down. My understanding is that four infants got some sort of bacterial infection from the formula, out of the hundreds of thousands that ate that same formula. However, out of caution, the company has shut that factory down. Because of the government rules, other countries are prevented from sending formula to the USA.

  24. Well I haven’t been able to find formula in a few weeks for my 8 month old.

    It’s pretty bad and I’m getting scared.

  25. The FDA has restricted the number of licensed manufacturers so severely that when one shutdown after the FDA ignored potential problems at that plant until it was too late to do anything other than shut it down there was bound to be a shortage due to there being practically no backup. The FDA has also restricted imports from foreign manufacturers that are perfectly safe, and the few that are allowed to be imported have very high tariffs so it’s very expensive to bring them here from overseas.

  26. Not here to answer the question but mashed up Yams are a great substitute if anyone with kids who’s struggling! Basically all I ate growing up

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