One mother is speaking up about her individual experience in the middle of a nationwide child formula scarcity. Wynter Balthrop, a Tennessee mother, informed Fox News that she fears for her 8-month-old child, Blakeley, amidst formula shortages.
Balthrop’s young infant– who must have specifically developed Enfamil, a hypoallergenic child formula that is the only one of its kind that the kid can endure– is months far from having the ability to consume basic dairy or nut milks, and her mom is having a nearly impossible time sourcing the formula that her child requires.
“We went to six different stores and searched and called multiple others as far as three hours away from us,” she told Fox News Digital for a weekend interview on the shortages. “[W]e were not able to find one can or bottle of her formula.”
Rather, Balthrop stated, she was required to offer her child a generic variation– which made the child quite ill.
“I broke down in the car,” she said. “[I was] panicking and sad for my girl because we had enough formula left to make one bottle — and I knew we would have to use the generic formula that hurt her stomach again. And that broke my heart.”
Balthrop stated that she and her family are striving to toe the line between stockpiling formula and leaving some for others having a hard time in households like her own.
“We are now grabbing every can or ready-to-feed bottle we see,” Balthrop explained, “while also trying not to be greedy and leave some for others. … I’ve seen the fear in their eyes [over] the empty shelves at stores.”
The rattled mother included, “It’s sad that in today’s world, this is an issue we are having. My heart breaks for all the mamas out there suffering and panicked from this shortage.”
The infant formula shortages have actually impacted customers throughout the nation, however, they’ve actually been focused in 6 states consisting of Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.
