Low income families and those on federal government support programs are being hit hardest by the national shortage of baby formula, a report Thursday detailed.
According to AP, desperate parents are heading into online groups to swap and sell formula in a wild, unregulated market to try and keep their babies fed.
The shortage is weighing particularly on lower-income families after the recall by formula maker Abbott, stemming from contamination concerns.
The report says this has had unintended consequences for those in lower income groups because the recall wiped out many brands covered by the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
This is a federal program like food stamps that serves women, infants and children, though it now permits brand substitutes.
The Biden administration is desperately working with states to make it easier for WIC recipients to buy different sizes of formula that their benefits might not currently cover.
About half of infant formula nationwide is purchased by participants using WIC benefits, according to the White House.
Those who try and resolve the issue online can run into problems not just of supply but also quality.
AP outlines parents desperately searching for infant formula on retailer websites such as Amazon and Google are being greeted by products intended for toddlers.
Empty shelves in the infant formula aisle in a Virginia store display a sign limiting the quantity each customer may buy–if they’re in stock. (Breitbart News)
The products on offer include powdered toddler goat milk and plant-based milk powders.
One banner ad across Amazon offers “organic non GMO formula for babies & toddlers,” but a closer inspection of the product’s image shows that it is only intended for children over 12 months.
Other ads for toddler milk appear on Amazon’s website on pages for out-of-stock infant formula.
Meanwhile the White House solution to the chaos is for those affected to simply call the family doctor, as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told parents Thursday:
White HousePresident Joe Biden’s supply chain crisis has hit families harder due to its impact on baby formula. The formula shortage has been increasing since the end of last year.
The administration has only begun to address the formula shortage this week.
Biden met with manufacturers of baby formula late on Thursday, as Breitbart News reported, however media coverage was denied.
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