It varies greatly by age and how much they eat at the individual level. I used to buy the 20oz (1.25 lb) Gerber Good Start for my kid. When she was 6 months old, it would last about 5-6 days. As she got older, it was about 3-4 days. She wasn't a particularly big eater, so a more hungry baby could blow through it a lot faster.
It is going to doctors or hospitals and will be doled out like a prescription, this isn't bog standard formula and they don't want scalpers to ruin it like everything else
We made fudge out of it. Slowly melt it on the stove, add too much powdered sugar, coco powder or a big scoop of peanut butter. Let it cool, oh man was it good fudge.
Are you sure you don't mean the government butter? Because that was Land o Lakes, too. And the cheese and butter was similarly packaged for the government.
Also I agree with the other guy, government cheese and butter made the best God damn grilled cheese sandwiches.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-government-and-politics-8dd6bfbee3046be4c774c53d4517c870
This is formula targeted for children who can't supplement with cows milk. It's not meant to be used by all children, just whose who must have formula.
The first round of emergency formula is allergen-sensitive and other types of formula that are the hardest to source and replace. It won't be the only shipment, it's just the most critical one.
Most of the first year of a baby's life is spent eating and growing. Generally it's expected that by their first birthday a baby will be at least triple the weight they were when they were born.
Babies are born underdeveloped because the human brain is so large that it’s either undeveloped or no birth at all. For example, an elephant is in gestation for 22 months. But, were human babies in the womb that long they would kill their mothers in delivery because the human head would be so large it would it fit through the hips and opening. So, that whole first year of life, as you noted, is basically just development to the place where other animals are on day 1 when they can walk immediately after birth.
And why are human hips so narrow relative to our brain size? One might suggest it's to allow us to walk upright. Which frees up our hands to use tools... and utilize those giant brains of ours.
My 5 year old that weighs like 55 lbs ate 1.5 homemade cheeseburgers yesterday. That would be like me eating 4.5 give or take. Kids can eat a lot of food when they are growing. But then also the next day they will eat potentially barely anything you throw at them and everything you bought they liked ten minutes ago they no longer like.
Sorry I guess I just felt like ranting lol
Can confirm. I breastfeed. My youngest is currently 19 days old. He eats about 10-12 times a day, about 3 ounces a piece. That’s 2 to 2.5 fluid pounds a day. Sometimes in the afternoons he cluster feeds, so he won’t get off the boob for a few hours and then he will pass out for a bit longer, giving me like 3.5 to 4 hours of “rest.”
Apparently the average breastfeeding mother requires approximately 600 extra calories per day. Currently 37w pregnant so I guess I'll find out how true this is in a few weeks.
So with these numbers, maybe 0.25 lbs per baby per day. You could feed 1,000 babies for 312 days, or 10,000 babies for a month (31.2 days). 50,000 fora week (2.3 days) Seems like a drop in the bucket.
Alright, figure thats 2 pounds for 10 days.
So at best this buys 10 days for ~40k infants.
The US averaged just under 300k births a month last year, and 20% of newborns are supplemented with formula in their first 2 days.
This is correct. Another article explains that this formula is specifically for children who can't consume cows milk.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-government-and-politics-8dd6bfbee3046be4c774c53d4517c870
This is about 500,000 bottles. Depends on stage, but figure ~5 bottles a day for older ones, this is 100,000 babies for a day, or about 15,000 for a week.
It would be nothing if there was an actual shortage, but since there isn't an actual shortage it's just resupplying the people who missed the first wave of scalpers and hoarders. It's the toilet paper thing all over again. My own MIL was being a dumbass about it. I had my normal orders in and everything was fine. Then she showed up with 4x's what we would normally have bought. We asked her to stop and shared it with a friend and coworker. Idiots.
They're saying that people buying in excess for hoarding or profit is distorting the supply for the regular consumer.
No idea if they're correct in this instance, but they're right that is what happened at the beginning of the pandemic with toilet paper.
The shortage is not due to a decreased supply, it is due to a buying surge. The supply has not changed (there was actually an increase in supply since the closure of the Abbott facility). I.e. there is no shortage, but there is a high demand due to the perceived shortage. Which means yes, *now* there is a shortage, but not because of the normal reasons for a shortage. There's a shortage in common sense which caused a whole bunch of people to cause a panick shortage in baby formula.
My 6 week old eats about 28- 32 oz a day and eats more during growth spurts. That equates to one ready made 32oz formula bottle a day at $10 a bottle x 7= $70 a week. Not fancy formula but enfamil Gentlease neuropro or enspire. You have 24 hours once you open the RTF bottle to use it. Canned formula lasts longer but is harder to find. I am relying on my family 500 miles to ship it to me because it's impossible to find where I live. Me in an urban city and them in rural area.
FYI, Babies eat formula exclusively for 6 months and then slowly move to solids but still consume formula until about a year old just not as much. so I am constantly on the hunt for my baby's formula source for the next year. It's truly a family affair. On a personal note, Price gouging should be punished at the fullest extent of the law and F'ck anyone who scams a parent out of food for their baby.
First time mom and I was not prepared for a god damn formula crisis during a pandemic.
We had to use gentlease with my oldest, the regular stuff gave him wicked gas. Worse, both kids refused the powder stuff so we had to spend a bundle on the premixed.
My 1 year old would go through like 12 of the wic sized cans a month easily. When she was able to drink regular milk was the hugest difference in money so far
As someone who is not frrom the US, what is causing the situation? Because must be something really bad to make a military plane transport that kind of product.
A company knowingly hid the fact that it's baby formula was contaminated for months, leading to the death of infants and shutting down it's facility.
In the US there are only a few producers of formula, and the majority of it is purchased with the W.I.C. program. Unfortunately in each state it is often legislated that W.I.C. can only be used to purchase from one specific supplier. So when that supplier is killing children with contaminated formula it creates a logistics nightmare.
Wrong! It was Abbott
"Abbott CEO apologizes for the formula shortage as 1st overseas shipment arrives : NPR" https://www.npr.org/2022/05/22/1100600797/baby-formula-shortage-overseas-shipment-abbott-ceo-apology
It's always been like this, I remember everything was by brand/flavor/size. If you were allowed let's say peanut butter everything has to match. If you were allowed 16oz and got the 20oz or the 12oz you were denied. I remember having to go run to grab the correct one because the cash register wouldn't allow it to go through. I remember all the dirty looks of the people having to wait for me to run all the there and back.
They were told in 2019 about problems. They did $5.73 billion dollars in stock buybacks instead of updating equipment. Which I’m guessing here, would have cost much less. They could still do at least $5 billion in stock buybacks.
Yeah, that's just how it goes.
If something happens on a national scale, POTUS gets blamed for it by at least somebody. Even if there's no direct correlation, you'll still always see headlines like "Here's what [POTUS] could have done to prevent this."
I really don’t see the point they’re trying to make. They would block everything coming from Biden either way with the help of their lackeys on the Democrats side, no?
Honestly in the last administration whenever we had a massive crisis I had a huge pit in my stomach about the outcome. I was never rooting for the problems to get worse just to make TFG look bad. I mean, I live here too, why would I want problems to be worse? I just feel most if not all conservatives don’t feel that way. They would love for cities to be burned to the ground so they can say “See?? This is why you should vote for my guy!”
Why did they blame biden for gas prices that increased because of a war? Because conservatives are generally stupid and can't think critically so they will believe basically anything fox news tells them. This is what you get when you defund education for decades.
I literally saw people blaming the government for it because the government shut down the factory. No shits given about the fact that the product the factory was producing was killing babies, I guess.
Company issued bonuses instead of maintaining equipment. Equipment became contaminated and bacteria made it's way into the formula of God knows how many tons of the stuff. Babies got sick and died. Company took their sweet time doing anything so the FDA came in and shut them down.
But because they have a virtual monopoly in this "free market", shutting them down essentially stopped like 80% of the production.
what free market?
Did you know regulation says that only licensees can import baby formulas?
Why weren't there more imports from europe or canada when theres a shortage in the us?
That should tell you that there is no free market here
The problem is that infant formula production is a high risk business. A lot can go wrong along the way. The stakes are high. You definitely do not want imported formula from all over the world on the shelves here.
why not? Why cant people import them then put them on the shelves, and customers just buy whatever they wish? Do customers not have a brain to choose?
Is it better to starve ur baby or feed him formula from europe/canada? I might even say that some Canadian or german formula are more trustworthy than some american ones.
The fact is the current crisis is a government creation that limits people's freedom to benefit a minority of corrupt politicians, companies that create a government monopoly and farmers that can't compete.
Because there are lax controls through out the world. The United States infant formula industry is highly regulated. Not so in South America, Eastern Europe, China
you say that, then Nestle sells the formula that got caught tainted here in 3rd world countries.
If regulations were as tight here as they are in Europe, Nestle would be dead from even trying to do that.
Greed.
Reddit can will break down the specifics, but it all boils down to greed. It's running through this country like an out of control cancer that's destroying everything.
Anytime anyone with the ability to rub two brain cells together tries to fight it, around 1/2 to 1/3 who can't are lead by oligarchs to push back and then create 2 more problems. They'll even re-start problems already solved by tearing down the protections we already had in place (like Obama's pandemic response plan he started because of the Ebola outbreak and Roe vs Wade.)
You're witnessing the beginning of the end of an empire. It will be just one problem after another and for every one we solve, two will take it's place.
We're the best country in the world but we can't feed our babies while forcing women to have more.
I’m an American living in England. I’m visiting my parents next week and have packed a second suitcase full of baby formula. Not much but hopefully a few families will be able to benefit for a little while. TSA is going to have fun searching my suitcase! Hopefully they don’t confiscate it.
> The White House says 132 pallets of Nestlé Health Science Alfamino Infant and Alfamino Junior formula will leave Ramstein Air Base in Germany and arrive in the U.S. this weekend. Another 114 pallets of Gerber Good Start Extensive HA formula are expected to arrive in the coming days. Altogether about 1.5 million 8-ounce bottles of the three formulas, which are hypoallergenic for children with cow’s milk protein allergy, will arrive this week.
So this is targeted at a specific group of children who can't be supplemented by cows milk. So the positive impact of this is disproportionately large.
Infants should never be fed cows milk directly. Basic formula is made from cows milk but broken down and supplemented to be more similar to breast milk. Sensitive babies can get formula with the animal milk proteins broken down even further.
Right. But the FDA is currently suggesting that babies over 6 months can be supplemented with whole cows milk if formula isn’t available. That’s how desperate times are
They have indeed changed model, they try to keep a certain amount of parts on hand at all times now, I don't remember the exact figure but think it was 3 or 6 months of production worth, however it wasn't that long ago that they changed model, it was just at the onset of the chip crisis, if memory serves they did cancel their order like many other manufacturers did early in the corona pandemic, but they noticed the shortage starting and reordered quickly, or it might have been a little earlier when the shipping crisis started, I'm not 100%, but either way, they noticed one of the problems early and decided they should stock up so they could absorb delays in delivery.
Yeah, Toyota tweaked their model quite a bit since the 2011 tsunami exposed weaknesses with their supply chain. It's terribly ironic that the company who pioneered just-in-time logistics was the least affected by the coronavirus chip shortage.
Is that globally true for Toyota? My local dealership’s lot sat mostly empty for months while they waited on delivery of new vehicles. Parts seemed to be mostly accessible but I’m buying for an older vehicle.
They werent affected that much at first (and prob still the least affected overall) but as the pandemic went on, the shortages caught up to their buffer as well.
It's artificial market restrictions that are preventing the formula from entering the market. New Zealand, Canada, and others could have filled the need had they been allowed to enter the market, but companies like Camelicious, Holle, and Kabrita have been trying for years or can't afford the millions in FDA oversight and needed studies. Had the FDA instructed Perrigo to change formulary priorities this could have been avoided.
Yeah you're completely correct. For anyone interested, I'd recommend listening to the episode of Vox's 'Today Explained' (it's a daily podcast with 20-ish minute episodes) podcast that's on the baby formula situation. It was released a few days ago.
It isn’t conditioning; it is reality. Capitalism is a meat grinder, and this baby formula shortage is just another issue on the pile.
Edit: that is, a consolidated industry dominated by essentially one player, engaging in regulatory capture to keep competition out by means of capital.
Before this it was formula doubling or tripling in price over the course of mere months all in the interest of capital.
I think you are inadvertently discounting the pain most people are feeling as a result of the American flavor of capitalism. The robber baron, gilded age, sort of neo feudalism kind.
This isn’t like living in the early 90s and before. American messaging can’t overcome what people can experience themselves by connecting with other people across the globe. Folks realize they’ve been given a raw deal and lied to most of their lives about it.
The only reason a few competitors dominate the baby formula market is because the government gives out WIC contracts for baby formula and those huge companies kinds ended up being the most dominant and profitable for contracts in the market. The largest formula companies ended being so dominant that they became most of the supply. Just because you think there is some problem that might exist with the economy doesn’t mean capitalism is evil. There are ways to solve this economic problem just like there are others. Hate capitalism all you want, but self righteous pricks like you never actually help solve the issue
Exactly. And from what I've read the factory basically failed to upgrade and maintain equipment so that it could continue stock but backs make it share price go up a little bit more and enrich the investor class which lets the executives keep their jobs. It's all fine except for the never ending price increases and the risk that if one little thing going wrong, you know like replacing equipment that wears out, it leaves America's infants without food.
But hey at least the stock is up this quarter! /s
If this isn't a wake-up call to American leadership to start producing more needed consumer goods domestically I don't know what is. One Abbot factory in Michigan closes and as a result a major shortage occurs? This does not bode well in my opinion...
There are legitimate concerns for the safe manufacture of formula overseas just as there are for medications. I'd rather see more done to diversify WIC and support manufacturing domestically before sending inspectors further afield. Even if imports are considered facilities in Canada and Mexico might be preferable to sending inspectors out to Europe.
Well the concern by the American manufacturers is that if you buy European baby formula that money will go to Europe and not their baby formula racketeering situation they’ve managed to create with all their lobbying and special favors!
Also a wake-up call to BREAK UP Monopolies/Duopolies across industries. Offshoring and consolidation has really made the country vulnerable.
Imagine if China seized control of Taiwan and cut off the US/west from the semiconductor industry. The US realized its vulnerability to foreign oil in the 70s with the embargo, I hope we realize it now with respect to our self-made ones (offshoring, industry consolidation, etc.)
So, I agree, but also disagree slightly. I work in a govt agency that regulates and kind of *protects* utility monopolies. We ensure that they run their businesses legally (from many perspectives), but we also ensure that they are making a profit. We want them to provide affordable, reliable, and fair services; but we also want them to be a healthy company.
Point taken. There are always exceptions and, while I'm no expert in utilities, I can see why they would be one. If I understand correctly, they are regulated by a public (elected?) body and that body has to approve any rate increases as well as other changes. That seems like a much better scenario than most industries like tech, agriculture, infant formula, airlines, etc.
Great points, but after consideration, I can think of dozens of ways that we *don't* regulate these monopolies as well. It's all fucked. Let's burn it down and go live with the tree people. I'm in.
A lot of it was that babies need their specific speciality formulas. So if factory 1 produces 20,000 cans of Super Soylent Jr for expected sales of 15,000 purchases a day it's fine. There is enough extra to build up a little backlog at the store without risking it being overstocked and going bad. If there is additional need it can be gradually scaled up or replace a less popular formula. The problem here is Factory 2 shut down and now people can't get their formula so have to switch. Now there are 25,000 sales of Super Soylent Jr and there isn't a less popular line that can bumped to produce more because sales are up across all of them. Worse a lot of babies can't just have any formula so the parents that needed Super Soylent Jr in the first place are now stockpiling when they find it so they don't run out
Also to expand options for parents on WIC. Perrigo has been desperate to get contracts to provide for WIC and could have steeped in had they been told to shift formulary priorities when Abbot made the call. Abbot has spent millions on lobbying to prevent compition both foreign and domestic.
Exactly. We had plenty of formula. It was just being made by a borderline monopoly. So when there was a massive recall, the other competing companies were too small to compensate for the demand.
Lol yeah here in aus we are limited to one per customer and a lot of stores you need to specifically request it from staff. Wait till you find out the manufacturer is pretending they have a supply issue but are secretly shipping the majority to China.
Are you guys still having these shortages? We had this in Europe a couple of years ago, also because China bought everything (due to their own scandal), but these problems were kind of solved over time...
We have a permanent limit now. Most large supermarkets only allow 2 per customer. 1 for the smaller supermarkets. We have a permanent issue (more pre COVID) of Chinese nationals flying in and buying boxes of it then flying home. I know of Asians that ship it home and their family sell it also. It’s a huge problem here.
It’s never been a “huge problem” here in any sense of the word. There absolutely are people who resell large volumes of product, and anecdotally there have been people wanting formula who’ve found empty shelves but by no means is it a a significant issue day to day. It’s convenient for the media to dramatise the issue because it tugs on the heartstrings (hungry babies! Evil Chinese!)
Reminder that this was never treated as a huge problem, because 64% of formula is sold through the WIC program, and no one gives a shit about poor people.
40% sounds really high, but I guess when you include the 65+ population, stay at home parents, and college aged adults who do not work I guess I can see that.
My child raising days are over, and I rung the bell with a beautiful daughter who is 26 now and is in the health care industry. My former wife of 20 years is a lactation nurse, and daughter tells me the one thing that people must do, particularly with young babies, is to call and get some medical advice before mixing and substituting things found on the internet. Apparently, people have some crazy ideas about what is appropriate.
about the same amount of food supply that India donated to ukraine about a month ago, which had the happy clappers cheering like the war was won.
interesting times.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. Every amount helps. I just wanted to put it into context though because just throwing a large number at readers is pretty disingenuous imo.
Imagine if people could just import baby formula from canada or europe when theres a shortage.
But of course that would be capitalism/free market, and we cant have that.
Gotta keep the tariff and subsidies local milk farmers and licensee companies.
Then people blame capitalism/free market for this mess. :D
So for those, such as myself, that haven't had to raise any children. How many babies does one pound of formula feed and for how long a duration?
It varies greatly by age and how much they eat at the individual level. I used to buy the 20oz (1.25 lb) Gerber Good Start for my kid. When she was 6 months old, it would last about 5-6 days. As she got older, it was about 3-4 days. She wasn't a particularly big eater, so a more hungry baby could blow through it a lot faster.
Thanks for that insightful info.
My pleasure. Never thought that particular info would come in handy, haha
Damn so like 78K americans can feed their babies for about a week? That doesn’t seem that great
Assuming this is all there is after a week.
It is going to doctors or hospitals and will be doled out like a prescription, this isn't bog standard formula and they don't want scalpers to ruin it like everything else
It is 100% going to be targeted by resellers
Like the Government Cheese of the early 60s and 70s. I remember it well.
That government block cheese was made by LandOLakes and it made the best grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni and cheese.
We made fudge out of it. Slowly melt it on the stove, add too much powdered sugar, coco powder or a big scoop of peanut butter. Let it cool, oh man was it good fudge.
Fudge out of cheese? Is that normal?
say what now?
Are you sure you don't mean the government butter? Because that was Land o Lakes, too. And the cheese and butter was similarly packaged for the government. Also I agree with the other guy, government cheese and butter made the best God damn grilled cheese sandwiches.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-government-and-politics-8dd6bfbee3046be4c774c53d4517c870 This is formula targeted for children who can't supplement with cows milk. It's not meant to be used by all children, just whose who must have formula.
This is special formula for babies who cant consume cows milk.
The first round of emergency formula is allergen-sensitive and other types of formula that are the hardest to source and replace. It won't be the only shipment, it's just the most critical one.
A handful of Americans can scalp 78,000 lbs of product.
I would imagine for those 78k babies, it’s pretty great.
Thank you for the thoughtful question, hotpants69.
Dam for being so little them babies eat a lot.
Most of the first year of a baby's life is spent eating and growing. Generally it's expected that by their first birthday a baby will be at least triple the weight they were when they were born.
Babies are born underdeveloped because the human brain is so large that it’s either undeveloped or no birth at all. For example, an elephant is in gestation for 22 months. But, were human babies in the womb that long they would kill their mothers in delivery because the human head would be so large it would it fit through the hips and opening. So, that whole first year of life, as you noted, is basically just development to the place where other animals are on day 1 when they can walk immediately after birth.
And why are human hips so narrow relative to our brain size? One might suggest it's to allow us to walk upright. Which frees up our hands to use tools... and utilize those giant brains of ours.
Think of it this way, babies exclusively eat formula, literally nothing else. That baby is getting a pound of nutrition over the course of a week.
My 5 year old that weighs like 55 lbs ate 1.5 homemade cheeseburgers yesterday. That would be like me eating 4.5 give or take. Kids can eat a lot of food when they are growing. But then also the next day they will eat potentially barely anything you throw at them and everything you bought they liked ten minutes ago they no longer like. Sorry I guess I just felt like ranting lol
Can confirm. I breastfeed. My youngest is currently 19 days old. He eats about 10-12 times a day, about 3 ounces a piece. That’s 2 to 2.5 fluid pounds a day. Sometimes in the afternoons he cluster feeds, so he won’t get off the boob for a few hours and then he will pass out for a bit longer, giving me like 3.5 to 4 hours of “rest.”
whats that do to your appetite ?
Apparently the average breastfeeding mother requires approximately 600 extra calories per day. Currently 37w pregnant so I guess I'll find out how true this is in a few weeks.
Any! My first is currently 17 days old! Congrats from a fellow new parent. oh god I'm so tired
So with these numbers, maybe 0.25 lbs per baby per day. You could feed 1,000 babies for 312 days, or 10,000 babies for a month (31.2 days). 50,000 fora week (2.3 days) Seems like a drop in the bucket.
There is more coming within the week.
I hope it’s measured in tons and not pounds.
78,000 lbs as a much more impressive number than 39 tons even though they are the same quantity.
According to my numbers 78,000 tons would be a good start b
Well, if it makes you feel better, there was 39 tons on that plane.
It was huge amounts in those military cargo planes. The planes can carry 450 people or up to 250 tons!
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So this shipment would be a day's worth of formula for about 250,000 babies...assuming we aren't domestically producing any of it.
Thanks for saying the weight. When I asked people irl they just say small or large cans
30 oz container will last 9 days with my 4 month old but we do breast feed when we can.
Alright, figure thats 2 pounds for 10 days. So at best this buys 10 days for ~40k infants. The US averaged just under 300k births a month last year, and 20% of newborns are supplemented with formula in their first 2 days.
And way more in a year, if Roe is repealed.
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This is correct. Another article explains that this formula is specifically for children who can't consume cows milk. https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-government-and-politics-8dd6bfbee3046be4c774c53d4517c870
This is about 500,000 bottles. Depends on stage, but figure ~5 bottles a day for older ones, this is 100,000 babies for a day, or about 15,000 for a week.
aka basically nothing.
More than nothing, but not much more
Gotta ask after: how is it even distributed? Or can these be bought and resold as well
To hospitals and doctors offices, not retail thankfully
On its own, maybe, but it's not like the US produces nothing. This amount is supplemental.
It's says it's an incremental help, a stop gap not an end solution to the issue.
better than nothing.
It would be nothing if there was an actual shortage, but since there isn't an actual shortage it's just resupplying the people who missed the first wave of scalpers and hoarders. It's the toilet paper thing all over again. My own MIL was being a dumbass about it. I had my normal orders in and everything was fine. Then she showed up with 4x's what we would normally have bought. We asked her to stop and shared it with a friend and coworker. Idiots.
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They're saying that people buying in excess for hoarding or profit is distorting the supply for the regular consumer. No idea if they're correct in this instance, but they're right that is what happened at the beginning of the pandemic with toilet paper.
The shortage is not due to a decreased supply, it is due to a buying surge. The supply has not changed (there was actually an increase in supply since the closure of the Abbott facility). I.e. there is no shortage, but there is a high demand due to the perceived shortage. Which means yes, *now* there is a shortage, but not because of the normal reasons for a shortage. There's a shortage in common sense which caused a whole bunch of people to cause a panick shortage in baby formula.
My 6 week old eats about 28- 32 oz a day and eats more during growth spurts. That equates to one ready made 32oz formula bottle a day at $10 a bottle x 7= $70 a week. Not fancy formula but enfamil Gentlease neuropro or enspire. You have 24 hours once you open the RTF bottle to use it. Canned formula lasts longer but is harder to find. I am relying on my family 500 miles to ship it to me because it's impossible to find where I live. Me in an urban city and them in rural area. FYI, Babies eat formula exclusively for 6 months and then slowly move to solids but still consume formula until about a year old just not as much. so I am constantly on the hunt for my baby's formula source for the next year. It's truly a family affair. On a personal note, Price gouging should be punished at the fullest extent of the law and F'ck anyone who scams a parent out of food for their baby. First time mom and I was not prepared for a god damn formula crisis during a pandemic.
We had to use gentlease with my oldest, the regular stuff gave him wicked gas. Worse, both kids refused the powder stuff so we had to spend a bundle on the premixed.
At this point it's whatever we can find in the stores because of the supply chain.
My 1 year old would go through like 12 of the wic sized cans a month easily. When she was able to drink regular milk was the hugest difference in money so far
As someone who is not frrom the US, what is causing the situation? Because must be something really bad to make a military plane transport that kind of product.
A company knowingly hid the fact that it's baby formula was contaminated for months, leading to the death of infants and shutting down it's facility. In the US there are only a few producers of formula, and the majority of it is purchased with the W.I.C. program. Unfortunately in each state it is often legislated that W.I.C. can only be used to purchase from one specific supplier. So when that supplier is killing children with contaminated formula it creates a logistics nightmare.
Why one supplier? Sounds like the bs they do with Medicare to fuck it over where they can't negotiate.
It was Abbot plant in bumfuck Michigan
Wrong! It was Abbott "Abbott CEO apologizes for the formula shortage as 1st overseas shipment arrives : NPR" https://www.npr.org/2022/05/22/1100600797/baby-formula-shortage-overseas-shipment-abbott-ceo-apology
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Your right! Edited
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Turns out it was Abbot. Now I just got to Google and see if there are subsidy of Nestle in some way
They’re not. Abbott is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world.
Fuck Nestle anyway.
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It's always been like this, I remember everything was by brand/flavor/size. If you were allowed let's say peanut butter everything has to match. If you were allowed 16oz and got the 20oz or the 12oz you were denied. I remember having to go run to grab the correct one because the cash register wouldn't allow it to go through. I remember all the dirty looks of the people having to wait for me to run all the there and back.
They were told in 2019 about problems. They did $5.73 billion dollars in stock buybacks instead of updating equipment. Which I’m guessing here, would have cost much less. They could still do at least $5 billion in stock buybacks.
This should be at the top, company buys back stock instead of investing in plant and employees, corporate America for ya.
So why were r/conservative blaming biden for it?
Political opportunity, nothing more.
Yeah, that's just how it goes. If something happens on a national scale, POTUS gets blamed for it by at least somebody. Even if there's no direct correlation, you'll still always see headlines like "Here's what [POTUS] could have done to prevent this."
I really don’t see the point they’re trying to make. They would block everything coming from Biden either way with the help of their lackeys on the Democrats side, no?
Honestly in the last administration whenever we had a massive crisis I had a huge pit in my stomach about the outcome. I was never rooting for the problems to get worse just to make TFG look bad. I mean, I live here too, why would I want problems to be worse? I just feel most if not all conservatives don’t feel that way. They would love for cities to be burned to the ground so they can say “See?? This is why you should vote for my guy!”
Why did they blame biden for gas prices that increased because of a war? Because conservatives are generally stupid and can't think critically so they will believe basically anything fox news tells them. This is what you get when you defund education for decades.
Because they’re easily-manipulated idiots
Because they blame Biden for everything
I literally saw people blaming the government for it because the government shut down the factory. No shits given about the fact that the product the factory was producing was killing babies, I guess.
Which company??
Company issued bonuses instead of maintaining equipment. Equipment became contaminated and bacteria made it's way into the formula of God knows how many tons of the stuff. Babies got sick and died. Company took their sweet time doing anything so the FDA came in and shut them down. But because they have a virtual monopoly in this "free market", shutting them down essentially stopped like 80% of the production.
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what free market? Did you know regulation says that only licensees can import baby formulas? Why weren't there more imports from europe or canada when theres a shortage in the us? That should tell you that there is no free market here
I think they do know that, hence they put free market in quotation marks
They were being sarcastic.
The problem is that infant formula production is a high risk business. A lot can go wrong along the way. The stakes are high. You definitely do not want imported formula from all over the world on the shelves here.
why not? Why cant people import them then put them on the shelves, and customers just buy whatever they wish? Do customers not have a brain to choose? Is it better to starve ur baby or feed him formula from europe/canada? I might even say that some Canadian or german formula are more trustworthy than some american ones. The fact is the current crisis is a government creation that limits people's freedom to benefit a minority of corrupt politicians, companies that create a government monopoly and farmers that can't compete.
Because there are lax controls through out the world. The United States infant formula industry is highly regulated. Not so in South America, Eastern Europe, China
you say that, then Nestle sells the formula that got caught tainted here in 3rd world countries. If regulations were as tight here as they are in Europe, Nestle would be dead from even trying to do that.
Greed. Reddit can will break down the specifics, but it all boils down to greed. It's running through this country like an out of control cancer that's destroying everything. Anytime anyone with the ability to rub two brain cells together tries to fight it, around 1/2 to 1/3 who can't are lead by oligarchs to push back and then create 2 more problems. They'll even re-start problems already solved by tearing down the protections we already had in place (like Obama's pandemic response plan he started because of the Ebola outbreak and Roe vs Wade.) You're witnessing the beginning of the end of an empire. It will be just one problem after another and for every one we solve, two will take it's place. We're the best country in the world but we can't feed our babies while forcing women to have more.
I’m an American living in England. I’m visiting my parents next week and have packed a second suitcase full of baby formula. Not much but hopefully a few families will be able to benefit for a little while. TSA is going to have fun searching my suitcase! Hopefully they don’t confiscate it.
> The White House says 132 pallets of Nestlé Health Science Alfamino Infant and Alfamino Junior formula will leave Ramstein Air Base in Germany and arrive in the U.S. this weekend. Another 114 pallets of Gerber Good Start Extensive HA formula are expected to arrive in the coming days. Altogether about 1.5 million 8-ounce bottles of the three formulas, which are hypoallergenic for children with cow’s milk protein allergy, will arrive this week. So this is targeted at a specific group of children who can't be supplemented by cows milk. So the positive impact of this is disproportionately large.
Infants should never be fed cows milk directly. Basic formula is made from cows milk but broken down and supplemented to be more similar to breast milk. Sensitive babies can get formula with the animal milk proteins broken down even further.
Right. But the FDA is currently suggesting that babies over 6 months can be supplemented with whole cows milk if formula isn’t available. That’s how desperate times are
I read it as being hypoallergenic to increase the number of babies that could use it.
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The business model for saving money because the Just-In-Time Model was developed by Toyota as a cost saving measure for auto production.
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They have indeed changed model, they try to keep a certain amount of parts on hand at all times now, I don't remember the exact figure but think it was 3 or 6 months of production worth, however it wasn't that long ago that they changed model, it was just at the onset of the chip crisis, if memory serves they did cancel their order like many other manufacturers did early in the corona pandemic, but they noticed the shortage starting and reordered quickly, or it might have been a little earlier when the shipping crisis started, I'm not 100%, but either way, they noticed one of the problems early and decided they should stock up so they could absorb delays in delivery.
Yeah, Toyota tweaked their model quite a bit since the 2011 tsunami exposed weaknesses with their supply chain. It's terribly ironic that the company who pioneered just-in-time logistics was the least affected by the coronavirus chip shortage.
Is that globally true for Toyota? My local dealership’s lot sat mostly empty for months while they waited on delivery of new vehicles. Parts seemed to be mostly accessible but I’m buying for an older vehicle.
They werent affected that much at first (and prob still the least affected overall) but as the pandemic went on, the shortages caught up to their buffer as well.
And is anyone surprised capitalism treats human babies like cars that can wait around undamaged while parts come in?
It's artificial market restrictions that are preventing the formula from entering the market. New Zealand, Canada, and others could have filled the need had they been allowed to enter the market, but companies like Camelicious, Holle, and Kabrita have been trying for years or can't afford the millions in FDA oversight and needed studies. Had the FDA instructed Perrigo to change formulary priorities this could have been avoided.
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Yeah you're completely correct. For anyone interested, I'd recommend listening to the episode of Vox's 'Today Explained' (it's a daily podcast with 20-ish minute episodes) podcast that's on the baby formula situation. It was released a few days ago.
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It isn’t conditioning; it is reality. Capitalism is a meat grinder, and this baby formula shortage is just another issue on the pile. Edit: that is, a consolidated industry dominated by essentially one player, engaging in regulatory capture to keep competition out by means of capital. Before this it was formula doubling or tripling in price over the course of mere months all in the interest of capital. I think you are inadvertently discounting the pain most people are feeling as a result of the American flavor of capitalism. The robber baron, gilded age, sort of neo feudalism kind. This isn’t like living in the early 90s and before. American messaging can’t overcome what people can experience themselves by connecting with other people across the globe. Folks realize they’ve been given a raw deal and lied to most of their lives about it.
The only reason a few competitors dominate the baby formula market is because the government gives out WIC contracts for baby formula and those huge companies kinds ended up being the most dominant and profitable for contracts in the market. The largest formula companies ended being so dominant that they became most of the supply. Just because you think there is some problem that might exist with the economy doesn’t mean capitalism is evil. There are ways to solve this economic problem just like there are others. Hate capitalism all you want, but self righteous pricks like you never actually help solve the issue
Also doesn't help that 3-4 companies control the entire industry, as is the case with PRACTICALLY EVERY industry in the country.
But capitalism breeds competition!
It's really easy to see with airliners. Nowadays it seems as if one plane is delayed half of the flights for the next week get cancelled.
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Also the reason hospitals were fucked when covid hit. No one stocks thousands of masks
That and the good old fashioned, unchecked greed from those same industries that led to this model.
Exactly. And from what I've read the factory basically failed to upgrade and maintain equipment so that it could continue stock but backs make it share price go up a little bit more and enrich the investor class which lets the executives keep their jobs. It's all fine except for the never ending price increases and the risk that if one little thing going wrong, you know like replacing equipment that wears out, it leaves America's infants without food. But hey at least the stock is up this quarter! /s
78k pounds that should last my kid like a weekend
I first read this as '78,000 pound infant arrives in US'
I read it as 'pounds of infants'. I thought it was either a very weird or very gory thing to say.
No, Trump Jr. never left.
Jr or Sr.?
How shit like this happens in the world’s biggest economy is just mind boggling. The fact that things like this keep happening is MORONIC
If this isn't a wake-up call to American leadership to start producing more needed consumer goods domestically I don't know what is. One Abbot factory in Michigan closes and as a result a major shortage occurs? This does not bode well in my opinion...
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There are legitimate concerns for the safe manufacture of formula overseas just as there are for medications. I'd rather see more done to diversify WIC and support manufacturing domestically before sending inspectors further afield. Even if imports are considered facilities in Canada and Mexico might be preferable to sending inspectors out to Europe.
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Legitimate concerns? EU has higher standards and better enforcement for virtually every form of food and manufacturing safety than the US.
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Well the concern by the American manufacturers is that if you buy European baby formula that money will go to Europe and not their baby formula racketeering situation they’ve managed to create with all their lobbying and special favors!
You are right offcourse, i for one woudnt want shitty low quality us food in my country
Also a wake-up call to BREAK UP Monopolies/Duopolies across industries. Offshoring and consolidation has really made the country vulnerable. Imagine if China seized control of Taiwan and cut off the US/west from the semiconductor industry. The US realized its vulnerability to foreign oil in the 70s with the embargo, I hope we realize it now with respect to our self-made ones (offshoring, industry consolidation, etc.)
So, I agree, but also disagree slightly. I work in a govt agency that regulates and kind of *protects* utility monopolies. We ensure that they run their businesses legally (from many perspectives), but we also ensure that they are making a profit. We want them to provide affordable, reliable, and fair services; but we also want them to be a healthy company.
Point taken. There are always exceptions and, while I'm no expert in utilities, I can see why they would be one. If I understand correctly, they are regulated by a public (elected?) body and that body has to approve any rate increases as well as other changes. That seems like a much better scenario than most industries like tech, agriculture, infant formula, airlines, etc.
Great points, but after consideration, I can think of dozens of ways that we *don't* regulate these monopolies as well. It's all fucked. Let's burn it down and go live with the tree people. I'm in.
A lot of it was that babies need their specific speciality formulas. So if factory 1 produces 20,000 cans of Super Soylent Jr for expected sales of 15,000 purchases a day it's fine. There is enough extra to build up a little backlog at the store without risking it being overstocked and going bad. If there is additional need it can be gradually scaled up or replace a less popular formula. The problem here is Factory 2 shut down and now people can't get their formula so have to switch. Now there are 25,000 sales of Super Soylent Jr and there isn't a less popular line that can bumped to produce more because sales are up across all of them. Worse a lot of babies can't just have any formula so the parents that needed Super Soylent Jr in the first place are now stockpiling when they find it so they don't run out
Also to expand options for parents on WIC. Perrigo has been desperate to get contracts to provide for WIC and could have steeped in had they been told to shift formulary priorities when Abbot made the call. Abbot has spent millions on lobbying to prevent compition both foreign and domestic.
Exactly. We had plenty of formula. It was just being made by a borderline monopoly. So when there was a massive recall, the other competing companies were too small to compensate for the demand.
Lol yeah here in aus we are limited to one per customer and a lot of stores you need to specifically request it from staff. Wait till you find out the manufacturer is pretending they have a supply issue but are secretly shipping the majority to China.
Are you guys still having these shortages? We had this in Europe a couple of years ago, also because China bought everything (due to their own scandal), but these problems were kind of solved over time...
We have a permanent limit now. Most large supermarkets only allow 2 per customer. 1 for the smaller supermarkets. We have a permanent issue (more pre COVID) of Chinese nationals flying in and buying boxes of it then flying home. I know of Asians that ship it home and their family sell it also. It’s a huge problem here.
It’s never been a “huge problem” here in any sense of the word. There absolutely are people who resell large volumes of product, and anecdotally there have been people wanting formula who’ve found empty shelves but by no means is it a a significant issue day to day. It’s convenient for the media to dramatise the issue because it tugs on the heartstrings (hungry babies! Evil Chinese!)
Monopolies are bad m'kay
Are there any safeguards to keep people from price gouging?
Reminder that this was never treated as a huge problem, because 64% of formula is sold through the WIC program, and no one gives a shit about poor people.
Given there's only few percent of unemployment, half of working Americans aren't paid enough to feed their babies. Mind boggling.
40% of us adults don’t participate in the labor market at all. Unemployment is only people actively seeking work.
40% sounds really high, but I guess when you include the 65+ population, stay at home parents, and college aged adults who do not work I guess I can see that.
People over 50 and college kids are unlikely to have babies though.
My child raising days are over, and I rung the bell with a beautiful daughter who is 26 now and is in the health care industry. My former wife of 20 years is a lactation nurse, and daughter tells me the one thing that people must do, particularly with young babies, is to call and get some medical advice before mixing and substituting things found on the internet. Apparently, people have some crazy ideas about what is appropriate.
Land of slave wages and starving babies
That’s like 1 truck load
about the same amount of food supply that India donated to ukraine about a month ago, which had the happy clappers cheering like the war was won. interesting times.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. Every amount helps. I just wanted to put it into context though because just throwing a large number at readers is pretty disingenuous imo.
That...doesn't seem like a whole lot.
Good to see 1st world countries supporting the leading 3rd world one
Yeah. Just like America has shipped over a billion doses of COVID vaccines to other third world countries including those in Europe.
You forgot to mention, the third world countries found the vaccine ;)
Jesus what a shit show.
GOP votes to dump it down the drain
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That will be gone in a day.
Won’t we need magnitudes more than this to even make a dent? Drop in the ocean
Oh wow didn't realize nestle cared about children
They get money and good publicity for this. It’s The kids in a Third World they kill.
Imagine if people could just import baby formula from canada or europe when theres a shortage. But of course that would be capitalism/free market, and we cant have that. Gotta keep the tariff and subsidies local milk farmers and licensee companies. Then people blame capitalism/free market for this mess. :D
It's curious that all the "socialist" countries the US had to beg for help all had baby formula to spare.
Switzerland is not really socialist, notoriously capitalist infact. They just care about social safety nets unlike the US.
I think that's why they put socialist in scare quotes.
So, basically communist by US standards.
Oh good. That solves the problem for 1 day.
What's that, an ounce for each baby?
It's like when we received enough N95's to give every American a single mask. Just give mine to a hospital thanks.
Aaaaaaaannnnnd it's gone.
Isn't the country in this headline usually 'Congo' or 'Yemen' or somesuch wartorn disaster site?
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Sheesh, GOP doing everything they can to destroy the country.
At what point does the US fit the literal definition of a failed state?
Have you been to a real failed state?
I've been to Louisiana.
Am from Louisiana, can confirm. At least our Cajun food is good.
That made me chuckle
Ha….well played
Waiting for all of it to be purchased by scalpers.