Baby formula shortage hits home for Rock Hill family. Here’s how they’re coping
Jessica Gregory realized one day in May she would have to drive 47 minutes from Rock Hill to a Target in Kannapolis, N.C., to feed her baby.
Gregory was following a routine she and her husband Trey had started nearly a month earlier — calling as many Harris Teeter, Publix, Target and Walmart stores as she could to find a can of Earth’s Best Organic baby formula.
The Target in Kannapolis was the only choice.
She had only two cans left.
The Gregorys are among thousands of parents nationwide scrambling to find formula amid a crisis that took place in February when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled formula produced in Abbott Nutrition’s facility in Sturgis, Mi. Supply chain issues and Covid-19 also were causes of the shortage.
Now finding baby formula on store shelves is hit-or-miss.
The shortage created a crisis for parents like the Gregorys, who use only Earth’s Best organic because other formulas gave their five-month-old daughter Emerson bad reactions. People started buying the Gregory’s brand formula because the other brands in the recall were disappearing from the shelves and it was the only thing left, Jessica Gregory said.
“I started noticing that everything around her formula was missing and the shelves are getting empty,” she said. “And then most recently when I went to the grocery store, they didn’t have her formula at all.”
Gregory is a 12th-grade English teacher at York Comprehensive High School who breastfed her daughter for the first three months, but had to switch to formula because her demanding work schedule made it impossible to produce breast milk, she said. Gregory said breastfeeding is no longer an option.
People continue to ask her why she does not breastfeed, she said.
“It’s an expectation that if you have a child, you need to be breastfeeding,” Gregory said. “And the research shows that it is the most nutritional and is good for the baby.”
But some women have problems with breast milk supply or their baby is not physically able to nurse, she said.
“It’s a choice and people shouldn’t be made to feel bad about the choice they make,” she added. “That’s their personal decision for their child.”
There was a period of time when Gregory said she felt guilty.
“I felt like I’m letting my child down and I should be trying to do some relactation, and you know, you do feel guilty but at the end of the day, they are fine,” she said.
Gregory said parents around the region have created social media groups to help each other find formula or breast milk.
The Facebook group “Rock Hill Moms” has a page where mothers can post formula for sale or they will list retailers that have formula in stock.
In another group “Moms Networking-Formula Shortage 2022,” parents have described their complications finding formula.
“We had to switch and switch and switch again just to be able to find formula,” one poster said. “It’s truly terrifying not knowing if you’ll be able to feed your little one.”
Some regional women have also offered their own breast milk reserves, Gregory said.
One woman in the group was overproducing breast milk and had it stored it in a large freezer. She offered the extra milk to parents who were in need, Gregory said.
“You shouldn’t have to worry about how I am going to feed my child, and we’re blessed in the sense that we do have a small supply, but there’s moms out there that have nothing and that’s where these other moms have really stepped in and helped out with that,” she said. “It’s terrifying to see brand new moms and they don’t know how they’re going to feed their baby.”
Parents in South Carolina may be able to receive pasteurized breast milk through the Mother’s Milk Bank of South Carolina, through the Medical University of South Carolina.
The milk bank is supported by the South Carolina Neonatal Consortium and the South Carolina Birth Outcomes Initiative and is accredited by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America.
The Mother’s Milk Bank of South Carolina has a Rock Hill donation office at Piedmont Medical Center. Visit https://musckids.org/locations/mmb-piedmont-medical-center to donate breast milk.
Gregory said while there’s a mentality that women should breastfeed, the community has “rallied.”
And the U.S. government also is stepping up.
On June 1, President Joe Biden launched the third Operation Fly Formula Mission to bring to the U.S. formula from overseas. United Airlines will bring Kendamil from London over three weeks to multiple airports, according to a statement from the White House.
The flights will contain more than 300,000 pounds or about 3.7 million 8-ounce bottle equivalents of Kendamil and will begin shipping the formula on June 9. The first shipment will include Kendamil Classic and Kendamil Organic formulas and will be available for purchase at retailers nationwide and online, the statement said. The shipment will be available at Target in the coming weeks.
Jessica Gregory said she has friends and family throughout the U.S. looking for formula in their regions. Family in Buffalo, N.Y., is looking and so is a co-worker’s husband who is on a business trip in Kentucky, as well as a cousin in Columbia.
Gregory has double the frustration with finding formula — she needs one can at home and one can designated for Emerson’s daycare center.
“And now that she’s getting older, she’s having more bottles and bigger bottles every day,” she said. “So it’s going a lot quicker than we would like.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
