Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Local residents helping moms amid baby formula shortage

Many local residents are stepping up to help mothers get milk and baby formula amid the ongoing formula shortage.

Local stores shelves have often been empty of formula, but when a store restocks, local residents will alert others on Flower Mound- and mom-centric Facebook groups to try to help moms get the formula they need for their babies. Local pediatricians offered all of the samples they had and kept up-to-date with where families could buy formula.

One local resident is donating her breast milk after the loss of her infant son.

Maddison Hood — originally from Flower Mound, now living in Argyle — gave birth in late March to her second son, Waylon. Waylon was born six weeks early and was in the NICU for nine days before he could be brought home. About two weeks later, Maddison said his color wasn’t right and took him to the pediatrician, who sent them to the children’s emergency room. Doctors determined Waylon had somehow contracted a rare echovirus causing irreversible brain damage, and he passed away about a month after he was born.

Maddison is still producing milk, and she has continued to pump and donate that milk to moms amid the formula shortage. She remembers when her 3-year-old son, Weston, was a baby, she struggled with milk supply and needed formula to help feed him.

“I couldn’t imagine having to worry about feeding him,” Maddison said. “These moms are stressed and scared and frustrated … All parents know how scary it would be to have to stress about how to get your child fed.”

Maddison joined some Facebook groups for moms and offered to donate her milk. She said she’s donated more than 700 ounces to three moms so far. She said she’s received a lot of support from those Facebook group members, and some of them have sought out and donated to a GoFundMe that Maddison’s sister set up for her.

“Everybody is very appreciative of what I’m doing,” she said.

Maddison said there are other moms on the Facebook group called Human Milk for Human Babies – Texas who are also donating their breastmilk or offering to wet nurse, whatever they can to help moms in need of formula.

“We’re a strong community, moms are, and everybody’s just trying to help each other right now,” Maddison said.

Dr. Rebecca Butler of Lantana Pediatrics said many of their families have been struggling with what to do.

“Our goal in helping these families was assisting them in finding a similar formula to use and where to find it,” Butler said.

Butler said it is important to make sure that parents are not diluting formula to make it last longer.

“Mixing formula with more water than recommended can cause serious complications with young babies,” Butler said. “We offered as many samples of formulas to our families as we had available to give and kept up-to-date with where our families could buy formula, especially when very few shelves were stocked.”

There may be some good news for parents in the near future. At the center of the shortage is the largest domestic manufacturing plant, Abbott Nutrition’s plant in Michigan, which has been closed for over three months because of contamination problems. The U.S. government is working to reopen that plant, and the Biden administration is also allowing more imports from other countries. Butler’s office has also heard that more formula will be available in stores soon.

“Fortunately, new shipments are finally going to be making their way out to fill the shelves,” Butler said. “Until then it is educating families on the proper formulas to use and making sure that the babies are getting what they need.”

Mark Smith
Mark Smith
Mark Smith is the Digital Editor of The Cross Timbers Gazette.

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