Maybe you don’t have a baby anymore, but your heart is broken hearing about a formula shortage on the news. You may wonder how you can help make sure babies are fed. Here are a few ways you can help:
- Have you breastfed recently? If you are a formerly breastfeeding mom, you can start to pump again and donate your milk to milk banks. If it hasn’t been more than a year or so since you did it, you can train your breasts to produce again. Do your research to make sure you are not on meds that are contraindicated for breastfeeding.
- Ask the parents in your life about their babies’ formula. If you see it at the store, send that parent a text.
- Do you belong to some membership wholesale store like Costco or Sam’s Club? Stores like that have been doing a good job at keeping formula on the shelves. Connect with mothers in your area and buy for them.
- Have some money to donate? Give some money to a mom in need so she can afford the more expensive ready-to-drink formulas.
- Take a picture of your store shelves. If you are out shopping, take a picture of the formula shelves at the store and post it publicly on social media with information about where the store is and something in the text about formula so that parents can look it up, rather than driving all over town.
- Do not buy formula unless you have a particular baby in mind. Don’t blindly buy to donate because you could be donating it to a place where it isn’t needed when a parent behind you at the store really does need it.
It can be scary, but as a community, we can help get babies fed. Parents would greatly appreciate your help.
By Bethanie Ryan
