State Launches Infant Formula Website and Crowdsourcing Campaign

By Austin Fisher

As the United States continues to experience a shortage of infant formula, New México officials last Friday launched a new website where parents and caregivers of infants can find infant formula supplies.

NMformula.com is meant to provide medically reliable information for families with questions about how to ensure their children receive proper nutrition, acting Department of Health Secretary David Scrase said in a news release.

“We are committed to assist families in New México during this national formula shortage until it is resolved and want to remind anyone caring for an infant to understand the necessity of assuring formula is used in ways that are both accurate and safe for the child,” Scrase said.

The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told a Senate committee last Thursday the U.S. government should consider creating a stockpile of infant formula to avoid the possibility of future shortages.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in about two months, he expects manufacturers to start to produce a surplus of infant formula, and when they do, the federal government will need to decide if it wants to “maintain that surplus as a government activity for the foreseeable future.”

The New México website first asks parents and caregivers to contact their local Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Office, and provides an interactive map of WIC offices throughout the state.

If they can’t find formula that way, the state site instructs them to call their baby’s pediatrician or provider to see if they have in-office samples or any similar formula that may be more readily available in stores and is nutritionally similar to their infant’s typical formula, and to check smaller stores and drug stores that have formula when larger stores do not.

The website says parents and caregivers should not: give toddler formula to infants, nor dilute formula to make it last longer, nor make their own formula.

The site also links to the NM Infant Formula Support Network, a Facebook group created by the Early Childhood Department, where people spread info about where specific formula brands and types are in stock, and share surplus formula they may have, along with other resources.

NMformula.com also links to the Human Milk Repository of New Mexico, a nonprofit accredited milk bank that sells human breast milk for $4.50 per ounce, before taxes.

For parents and caregivers able to afford child care, the state also uses federal funding to pay for the Child and Adult Food Program, which provides infant formula for both home-based child care and child care centers.

The state’s efforts to crowdfund infant formula come two weeks after a mother in Massachusetts launched the Free Formula Exchange, a national mutual aid network aimed at connecting people who need formula with people who have formula to donate.

Austin Fisher is a Reporter with Source New Mexico. This article is republished from Source New Mexico under a Creative Commons license.

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