“Too Young to March”
By
Gerry Niskern
Several million of our youngest citizens should have taken to the streets around the nation in protest last week. The country’s infants needed their formulas and the stores were only stocking around 43% of the usual amount.
Not all babies have a “Dairy Queen” in residence. Not all mothers want to breast feed, for many reasons. That is their choice. The giant baby formula business is cornered by four companies in the United States. Abbott, the largest owns 40% of the market.
When one of the baby formula factories was shut down in February due to problems, it caused a large deficit , along with supply chain issues that were already happening because of the pandemic. Select batches of Similac, Alimentum and EleCare were recalled. Other factories could not make up the severe shortages quickly enough. And our former President’s trade policy made it very hard to have truckloads sent from Canada.
Of course, the infant formula scare reminded me of raising my own kids. I feed the first two, but son #2 was different. A couple of months after birth he developed an allergy to milk products. Everything came up. In desperation, I resorted to consulting a pediatrician. The family doctor who delivered them always took care of any kid’s problems. After checking the baby out thoroughly the specialist recommended I give him buttermilk! He accepted it, loved it, and thrived on it. Who knew?
I was also reminded of stories I heard about great-grandmothers, on both sides of the family, resorting to “sugar tits” to keep a fussy baby happy. As it was explained to me, long ago mothers used to mix some sugar and butter together and place it on a clean cloth which they rolled into a cone and gave it to the baby to suck on. Hey, whatever worked!
Luckily babies in today’s world have every type formula to meet their nutritional needs. Our country has very strict standards but our government has arranged for some European countries who meet those standards are going to help supply the desperately needed formula.
The shortage is an ongoing problem and we are going to have to look for a more permanent solution. Production and supply demands must be meet. Every day the need grows.
Feed those young citizens!