Though she is breastfeeding, Springfield mom Haley Gullion was so sympathetic to all the moms desperately trying to find formula in recent weeks that she created a Facebook group to help local moms in their search.
The group “Formula Finds (Springfield, MO and nearby)” has about 400 members as of Tuesday.
Gullion said she intended it to be a forum where parents could post photos of store shelves — either empty or stocked with formula — to let others know which store has formula and which are bare. Posters share the address of the store and time when the photo was taken.
According to Gullion, stores in the Springfield area have been running out of formula often within a couple of hours after restocking. This is part of a nationwide baby formula shortage that's put many families in crisis. Nationwide, about 40 percent of baby formula is sold out on store shelves.
As the Springfield page’s administrator, Gullion is monitoring the posts and comments and said many local moms are scared and desperate right now.
“I can’t imagine how frustrating it would be to be driving around to six different Walmarts trying to find formula, also with a baby,” Gullion said. “I had seen a lot of moms trying to post pictures of the shelves to help other people, so I made this group to kind of streamline that process.”
It’s not just moms searching for formula who are joining the group. As it turns out, formula companies often send samples to new moms hoping to gain customers. If those moms are breastfeeding or are choosing a different brand, they have these sample cans they aren’t going to use.
“A lot of those moms have been joining to be able to post about giving those away to the people that need it,” Gullion said. “Honestly, I feel like a lot of moms around here right now are surviving off sample cans, which is really sad to me because they don’t last very long.”
Sometimes pediatricians have sample cans to give away, Gullion said, but those are pretty much tapped out at this point.
“I have so much empathy and sympathy for those that (rely on formula),” she said. “I am so thankful that I’ve been able (to breastfeed) because he’s four months old. If I didn’t have a supply, we’d be in the same boat right now, and I can’t imagine working full time and then trying to find formula at night in my spare time.”
SGF mom: ‘It shouldn't be like this'
Credit: Rachel Niemeier
Springfield mom Tawnya Feise discovered Gullion's Facebook group a few weeks ago and said it's been incredibly helpful.
Feise said she often spends her days driving around with her 4-month-old, trying to find Enfamil Gentlease. She said the last few months have been “very stressful and emotionally hard.
“It shouldn't be like this,” she said, crying. “Not for the babies.”
According to Feise, the shortage is especially hard on families like hers who rely on the Missouri WIC assistance program. WIC will pay for formula for qualifying moms and infants.
A few days ago, someone posted a photo of stocked shelves at the Target in southeast Springfield on the Facebook group.
Since WIC only pays for specific brands and not every store accepts WIC, Feise said she Googled ‘Does Target take WIC?' as she drove from her home in northwest Springfield.
“And it said yes. I'm like — awesome,” Feise said.
She found a few cans of her baby's formula and made her way to the register. But when she put in her WIC card, the machine wouldn't accept it. Feise asked the cashier if Target accepted WIC and was told “not at this location.”
Feise said she couldn't afford to pay out of pocket for even one can and left having a “mini cry session out of frustration and worry, trying to make it back home on gas fumes and trying to figure out how I was going to feed my child.
“Big retailers — they just need to reevaluate things right now,” Feise said. “And WIC needs to take a second, third, fourth look at the situation and, you know, come up with a better solution.”
Increased interest in breast milk donation programs
When she weans her baby boy, Gullion said she is going to look into donating her breast milk if the formula shortage is still happening.
Tawana Frazier, a nutritionist and lactation consultant with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department’s WIC program, said there’s been an increase in local moms searching for donated breast milk as well as breastfeeding moms interested in donating their milk.
(WIC stands for Women, Infants and Children. The Missouri WIC program provides supplemental food, health care referrals, nutrition education, and breastfeeding promotion and support to eligible pregnant women, new mothers, breastfeeding and postpartum women, infants, and children up to age 5.)
Frazier encourages moms to go through an established breast milk bank rather than just someone who posted about it on social media.
“There’s a lot of risks with using donor milk through social media,” Frazier said. “Anything that’s in the bloodstream can be passed onto breast milk. So if a mom has a virus or bacteria, or you don’t know the sanitation method, if there’s medication being taken — some medication is not safe with breastfeeding because it passes the blood-brain barrier, it can affect the baby.
“Using milk that’s not through a milk bank does increase the risk for an infant either getting sick or having a reaction,” she said. “There’s multiple milk banks across the nation so moms have multiple opportunities to donate their milk.”
The Greater Ozark Regional Breastfeeding Coalition, for example, is the milk bank that the Springfield-Greene County Health Department is partnered with. (To donate milk, visit themilkbank.org.)
“They do have a screening process so it is standardized. They do test the mother’s blood to make sure there’s nothing contagious that would affect baby,” Frazier said. “There’s a health screening involved. Doctors have to sign off for both mom and baby to make sure mom is in a state where she can donate where baby’s not being neglected.
“Once mom is approved to donate, they do test the milk throughout their process and make sure that it is safe to be donated,” she continued. “They do a partial pasteurization so it will kill harmful bacteria and will still keep the integrity of the breast milk.”
More moms learning about relactation
In addition to more people being interested in breast milk donations, Frazier said many moms are interested in learning about relactation, the process of starting up breastfeeding again after a period of not breastfeeding.
Frazier cautioned that relactating takes a lot of dedication and is not a “fast process.” If a mom hasn’t produced milk in two weeks, for example, it will take about four weeks before she could potentially be at a full supply, Frazier said.
“If a mom is interested, we would definitely encourage it. Any amount of breastfeeding is going to be better than none,” she said. “There’s still health benefits no matter how much breastfeeding a mom is doing. But then also, that small amount that they are able to produce will help with that formula struggle.”
If someone is interested in learning more about relactating, Frazier said to talk to the breastfeeding staff at the Springfield-Greene County Health Department WIC Office, CoxHealth’s Women’s Center or Mercy’s Midwifery Clinic.
Frazier wanted to make a couple of other points:
- WIC loosened its guidelines on what brands and size cans of formula moms could purchase with their WIC cards in recent weeks due to the nationwide shortage.
- Do not attempt to make your own formula, she said. “That can cause the potential risk for kidney failure if you mix it incorrectly.”
