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Urbina switched brands at her doctor’s suggestion following Abbott’s recall of certain cans of Similac Alimentum, which she previously used.
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Raquel Urbina prepares a bottle for her daughter Adaliz Angeles, using Nutramigen formula on Jat their home in Milwaukee. “With one manufacturing plant being closed for a few weeks, it should not have this scale of a threat to the supply that our parents are facing right now,” said Camen Haessig, who chairs the Wisconsin WIC Association and directs the Wood County Health Department’s WIC program. How could one plant’s troubles so severely crimp the nation’s infant formula supply? The challenges are rooted in the market’s consolidation, WIC officials and experts say. “I’m not given options, I’m not given alternatives.” Roots of a crisis And now I’m affected as well,” Urbina said. “It was discouraging, because as much as I understand that Similac parents were affected, I was a Similac parent at one point and so I had to switch to Nutramigen. Had she remained on the Abbott brand, she would have more options. That complicates life for Urbina, who switched brands at her doctor’s suggestion following Abbott’s recall of certain cans of Similac Alimentum, which she previously used.īut the only state-approved alternatives for Nutramigen are larger sized containers, not different brands - which Urbina didn’t learn until weeks after the substitutes were announced. She helps approve posts in the group, where more than 3,000 members swap tips, offer up extra cans and post photos of grocery store aisles to alert parents about what is in stock.Īctivity in the group suggests that Nutramigen remains especially hard to find.
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Some parents have formed online communities to help, including the Milwaukee Formula Parents Facebook group, of which Urbina is an administrator. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which administers WIC, allowed parents to purchase other brands and sizes of formula soon after Abbott’s recall, but even locating scarce substitutes has proved difficult. Under Wisconsin’s contract with Abbott that began in 2021, WIC participants can normally spend their benefits only on five Abbott-manufactured Similac formulas unless they request a special medical formula. Not all retailers accept WIC, and before parents try to find formula in stores, they must first confirm which products the state allows them to buy with their benefits. The shortage affects parents of all backgrounds, but Urbina and others who navigate formula purchases through WIC face particular challenges. Federal rules require WIC programs to choose one vendor to provide formula, and Abbott is the sole supplier in most states. The formula shortage resulted from pandemic-related supply chain issues and two shutdowns of an Abbott Nutrition plant in Sturgis, Michigan - first amid an investigation into reports of bacterial infections and more recently due to flooding. Urbina recently made seven weekend trips to Milwaukee-area grocery stores before finding Nutramigen. Activity in the Milwaukee Formula Parents Facebook group suggests that Nutramigen remains especially hard to find. Stressful hunts for baby formula have dominated life for months for millions of parents and caregivers who rely on it to feed their children. On that Sunday, she finally succeeded in what felt like a “treasure hunt.” She found four cans of Reckitt Mead Johnson’s Enfamil Nutramigen formula at a Walmart in Greenfield, Wisconsin, about 10 miles from her home.
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Her monthly supplemental nutrition benefits through the state’s Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program were set to expire in a few days. On a mid-June weekend, Raquel Urbina made seven trips to Milwaukee-area grocery stores in search of the hypoallergenic baby formula she needs to feed her 10-month-old daughter. Searching for formula feels like a “treasure hunt,” Urbina says.
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Urbina is an administrator of the Milwaukee Formula Parents Facebook group, which allows its 3,000-plus members to swap tips about how to obtain baby formula during a national shortage in recent months. Raquel Urbina feeds her daughter Adaliz Angeles on Jat their home in Milwaukee.