事件记录
这个问题已经持续了几个星期了, parents scrambling to try and find baby formula amid the shortage. 那你该怎么做? 你有个饥饿的宝宝需要吃东西.
Like many women, I was unable to completely provide enough breast milk to feed my boys. 相信我. It wasn't for lack of trying to increase my supply with supplements, 药物, 泵, working with my OB and five lactation consultants. 大发娱乐了解到, 对我来说, I have a medical condition that just won't allow me to make as much as my kids needed, 所以我必须补充. And I find this is often the case for many of my patients' mothers.
Often, some women just choose not to breastfeed, and they want to just give formula. 这也没关系. Most important is for the baby to be fed and loved.
So what exactly happened to cause this formula shortage? 雅培产品的制造商, 雅培营养, recalled powdered formula brands due to bacterial contamination in some of their batches. This, combined with supply chain issues, triggered a nationwide formula shortage.
For families that were affected, this has triggered a lot of questions about what to do. The easiest thing that parents can do is to just switch to a different infant formula. 我知道这听起来很吓人, 但许多商店品牌和其他品牌, 比如Enfamil和Gerber, 有和Similac一样的配方吗.
Most babies do just fine on a cow's milk-based formula, and there are a ton of variations for whatever your babies might need — gentle formulas, 软性排便配方, 母乳补充配方, formulas with extra ingredients to help with digestion and brain development. 有太多选择了.
I often recommend generic or store brand formulas because they're cheaper, but they still have the same nutritional quality as the brand names. We used generic versions of gentle formulas for both of our boys and found they actually tolerated them better than the brand names.
What if your baby is on a special formula, like for milk protein allergy or prematurity? The good news is these formulas really aren't affected by the shortage as much. Your pediatrician can help figure out what is best for your baby in those situations. There are milk banks where women who have excess breast milk donate their milk, and that's a great source for babies who are preemies. Neonatal intensive care units often work with milk banks to get milk for preemies. 牛奶经过严格筛选，绝对安全.
What about mixing infant formula differently to make it last longer? 这是一个大大的不. 添加额外的水来稀释配方是不好的. 这种事我见过不止一次, where parents do this and it has actually landed their babies in the intensive care unit. What happens is that too much water upsets the balance of salts in their body because the babies' kidneys can't process that much water. That causes the babies' sodium levels to drop to the point that the babies have seizures, 这可能是致命的.
Babies will not get the correct amount of nutrients if the formulas are diluted. That is why we have specific instructions on how to properly mix formulas.
What about all of those homemade baby formula mix recipes? 这也不是个好主意. 而, 在过去, 人们自己制作婴儿配方奶粉, that was before we had a really good handle on the specific nutritional needs of infants. And those homemade baby formulas don't provide the right concentration of nutrients that we now know babies need. Some babies have even been hospitalized after being given homemade formulas.
最后，如果你的宝宝快一岁了怎么办? 你能早点开始喝牛奶吗? 嗯，这取决于多早. Babies actually need the nutrition that is in formula until they're 12 months old. I would say that if they're within two weeks of turning 1, you can start transitioning to whole milk. Transitioning before that puts them at risk of iron deficiency anemia because milk has no iron in it. 也, 一旦他们开始喝牛奶, they need to limit their consumption to 16 to 24 ounces per day, or they could develop iron deficiency anemia as toddlers.
Parents often ask what milk kids can have if they don't want to give their kids cow's milk. 幸运的是，有很多选择. Soy and pea milk are the most similar to whole milk in terms of nutrition. They can also have oat milk or nut milks, like almond or cashew milk. Plant-based milks are good for calcium and vitamin D, but they may not have the best nutrition when it comes to protein, 脂肪, 和热量, 1到2岁的幼儿需要的东西, 因为他们的大脑还在发育. And other milks, like goat's milk, can cause pernicious anemia due to vitamin deficiencies.
The good news is there are reports that the formula shortage should start to improve in a few months once the factories get the okay from the Food and Drug Administration to resume production. Until then, hopefully, parents are able to find alternatives.