I recently weaned my six month old and every time I see a “formula shortage” post (I’ve seen half a dozen in the past week alone) I have a mini panic attack. First because I assume it’s a general formula shortage and then because I worry about the people who read only the titles and start to panic buy, creating an avoidable shortage for all brands.
I feel for the parents who have babies who will/can only take Kendamil. I’m not saying people shouldn’t post about their experiences with Kendamil shortages, but can we please be more clear in the titles? A Kendamil shortage and an all-around formula shortage are very different things.
Regardless of what formula you use, always buy what you need and don’t hoard formula. We can all do our part to make sure all our babies are fed.
I see them and get flashbacks to when there was actually a shortage of all formula, and my son was first born. He’s 26 months now, and has been off of formula for more than a year but it still gives me extreme anxiety because that was a terrible time of not knowing how far I would need to drive just to make sure my son was being fed.
@Amar
I’m so sorry you went through that. I wasn’t a parent at that point and my heart hurt for the formula fed babies and parents of those babies at that time. I can only imagine how deeply that sticks with you even after your baby is off formula.
Legitimately!! Do you know how many times my heart has dropped seeing that, thinking oh god what do I do, I literally can’t physically breastfeed… and then it’s like “yeah, no Kendamil in stores near me!!” I feel for people who find success with a brand and then can’t access that brand, it’s happened to me, but your baby isn’t actually in danger of starving in this case. It’s just extremely inconvenient. Not to mention most people are using the OG Kendamil or Kendamil Organic which are both just standard formulas…
What’s crazy to me is the lack of corn-syrup-free/milk-based formula options in the US market.
Hopefully brands will take notice of where the demand is.
Edit: since reading comprehension is very poor on reddit, I will point out that I made no such claim to there being anything “wrong” with corn syrup.
I am simply saying the formula options on the shelf, especially in big-box stores overwhelmingly favor corn syrup and this shortage is evidence of supply not meeting demand.
Whether you want to feed your kid formula with fructose/glucose or if you want formula with lactose, it would be nice if parents had a choice in the free market.
@Raine
Every normal formula in the US has no corn syrup, all the corn-syrup formulas are special-use gentle formulas (that also tend to be overused by parents that are a bit uneducated about infants having issues passing gas)
@Raine
Our reading comprehension isn’t “poor” you’re just wrong and spreading harmful misinformation. Most formulas do not have fructose in it because it’s hard for infants to metabolize. The sugar in non-dairy formula is glucose that comes from corn syrup, not high fructose corn syrup. And it is used in European non-dairy formula, it’s just labeled differently. Please go watch the video I linked to educate yourself and stop fear mongering.
@Raine
There is absolutely nothing wrong with corn syrup in formula. It’s actually needed in non-dairy formula because formula still needs a sugar in it. Link to a dietitian with a PhD in nutritional science who talks about this in detail.
Jesse said: @Perry
you beat me to it! i love this lady, she put many a pregnancy and PPA worry to rest for me.
Same here! I felt so guilty when I had to supplement with formula and then had to switch all together when my milk dried up. She helped me remember that I was still doing what was best for my baby (and mental health) despite people telling me I was poisoning her.
@Raine
what do you mean? Tons of milk-based formula options exist in the US and corn syrup is perfectly safe and good for babies who have trouble digesting milk.
@Raine
Seedboik disrespect is only really 2-3 years old. Restaurants in Cali starting to pickup the trend. International manufacturing has a pretty big lag time.