OUR COMMUNITY Elyssa Schmier and her son
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lyssa Schmier of Huntington Woods likes to be prepared. Ever since her son was born last August, she liked to have a small stock of formula on hand, at least six or seven cans. Her husband, Stephen, used to tease her, saying, “Do we really need so much?” Back then, Elyssa laughed it off. “Anything could happen … I know it’s an irrational fear.” But no one’s laughing now, and that irrational fear has become a reality. In February, four babies became sick with bacterial infections after consuming formula that was made at a Michigan plant. Some reports say two babies died due to the contaminated formula. This led to an immediate recall on Similac PM 60/40, Similac, Alimentum and EleCare powdered formulas. Schmier headed to the store to return her entire stack of recalled formula and get a refund. When she looked for more formula to purchase, they were all out. She went to a second store, but they didn’t have any either. She’d had similar experiences since the beginning of the pandemic, but as she stared in horror at the empty shelves in the third store, Schmier began to panic. “I thought, ‘something’s going on and no one even knows about it’,” she said. “I wondered was it just Michigan? I went on Twitter and asked if anyone else was having trouble finding formula and moms from all over the country began chiming in.” Schmier, vice president of Moms Rising, an advocacy group for mothers and children, reached out to her colleague National WIC Associations Senior Director Brian Dittmeie, who was also extremely concerned. He told Schmier the entire country was experiencing a formula shortage, but the topic had received no coverage yet. “I completely freaked out,” Schmier said. She posted her struggles to find formula on all social media platforms. On April 12, Schmier and Dittmeie did a Q&A about
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JUNE 2 • 2022
The Nightmare Hunt for Baby Formula
A community of mothers offers resources and support for one another. ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
the formula shortage on Instagram Stories … which was viewed by a USA Today reporter. The reporter wrote an article on the topic, and the issue started being discussed widely. Suddenly, parents were rushing to the stores and buying all the formula they could lay their hands on. The panic-buying and hoarding of baby formula had echoes of the toilet paper shortage during the pandemic, only much worse and with much more serious repercussions. Suddenly, like a precarious game of dominoes, everything came crashing down. The three other American manufacturers of baby formula couldn’t provide the supply to match the demand, and there was no formula to be found on store shelves anywhere.
According to Datasembly, in April 2022, 30% of popular baby formula brands were sold out at retailers across the United States and that number had climbed to 40% by the end of the month. Currently, the rate is 43% and as high as 48% in some states. “The whole thing blew up overnight,” Schmier said. So far, Schmier’s personal situation is not too concerning. “We’re in OK shape. We have family and friends looking out for us, people have shipped us formula from other cities,” Schmier said. “It’s exhausting emotionally and physically to have to keep going out and searching, having to worry like this.” Schmier is very concerned for parents who are suffering because of this shortage. “Parents just want to safely feed their
