CUDAHY, Wis. — The baby formula shortage is still not over.
According to Datasembly, Wisconsin was at a peak shortage of 86 percent in May. We are still not out of the woods, as 57 percent of formula aisles are currently out of stock. In the City of Milwaukee specifically, 55 percent of all formulas are still out of stock, as of last month.
From this, new moms have come together to find relief safely. A few months ago, Samantha Wiegele was full of fear when her daughter Olive's Similac baby formula was recalled. She said at the time, "I went and checked and five of the six cans were recalled."
An official recall started in February after the FDA warned of potential bacterial infections from the Abbott Nutritional Facility in Sturgis, Michigan. "You know, I was crying," said Wiegele. "Luckily, was totally fine. But a scary, scary moment."
Especially in May when shelves were bare.
Wiegele went online and created the Facebook group called Milwaukee Formula Parents. There are now more than 3,000 followers.
The ones still running into trouble have a tough time finding specialty formulas for preemies and Added Rice formula.
Wiegele adds, "If there's another recall - this definitely is going to happen again, so things need to change."
UW-Health pediatric clinical nutritionist Camila Martin has heard other parents voice those same concerns. The focus right now is to remind parents who are struggling to not buy formula from unknown websites or follow homemade recipes. "If they're not a year yet, we don't recommend switching to whole milk yet. It can be really, really dangerous to infants. Their bodies aren't able to handle those."
Baby Olive is now 13 months old and has been weaned off formula. But Wiegele promises to keep her page going, until all the shelves are safely stocked again.
