May 13, 2022

"If factory made baby formula is in short supply, health authorities need to do better than telling parents not to DIY."

"This is just another 'abstinence only' model that won't work. If babies are hungry, parents are going to feed them, guidelines be damned. The appropriate response then is for pediatric nutrition experts to publish safe recipes for emergency nutrition supplementation with explicit warnings to not deviate from the recipe with clear descriptions of the consequences that can result from doing so. If this is an emergency, treat it like one, with emergency stop-gap measures." 

That's one of many comments making the same point — the point I made 2 days ago — at the NYT article "Why Doctors Don’t Recommend Homemade Baby Formula/Amid a nationwide formula shortage, some parents are D.I.Y.-ing recipes. But pediatricians strongly advise against it."

The most absurd thing in the article is an anecdote about a baby that had a heart attack after consuming only formula made from coconut water, sea moss, and chia seeds! Just tell people the best mixture that's based on canned unsweetened evaporated milk. That's what the Baby Boomers were fed, and nothing went haywire.

They're afraid people will do it wrong, but they're withholding advice on what would be best! They don't want responsibility, but that's just forcing people to use their own judgment about the best recipe. It’s not that hard. It's not mastering the art of French cooking.

75 comments:

hawkeyedjb said...

"It's not mastering the art of French cooking."

Julia Child would say, add more butter.

howdydoody said...

If this continues, I anticipate there will be riots. It's one thing to go without toilet paper for a few weeks, you can use some other paper product. But when you can't feed your baby, well then we are entering into a truly hobbesian world. As to the politics, another nail in the coffin for the democrats with the suburban moms. I suppose that's ok with the crazy wokies -- you should have aborted your babies and then you wouldn't have to worry about feeding them.

rhhardin said...

Starving babies is great for ratings. Women eat it up.

Howard said...

It's like Fauci coming out of the gate saying masks won't help.

Eleanor said...

If the choices are starvation or diving in a dumpster, how many people will choose starvation? I mean, there could be germs on that half-eaten burger that could kill you.

Jim Gust said...

How about we ship the baby formula stockpiled at the southern border for illegals back to American citizens. Is that too much to ask?

Dave Begley said...

More fucking incompetence by the Brandon Administration and the Left.

Young mothers ought to storm the WH. A real insurrection.

Jersey Fled said...

Whatever Obama flunky is in charge or the FDA should resign immediately.

Kevin said...

I despise this attitude that citizens aren't qualified to take care of their own problems.

It was very clear in the response to 9/11, when basic self defense advice like "the airline seat cushion is a flotation device, but guess what else it is: a shield! The straps are the handle, or can go around your forearm! No case cutter is cutting through it! Use it, here's how!"

And let's not even talk about covid, zinc, vitamin d, quercetin, etc

Lyle Smith said...

Lawyers have fucked America good, haven't they?

madAsHell said...

Dr. Fauxi recommends double masking the baby to diminish the screaming.

Joe Smith said...

And my meth lab keeps exploding.

What am I doing wrong?

I've already watched the entire series of 'Breaking Bad.'

Please advise...

Howard said...

I made myself baby formula for breakfast: frozen banana some frozen mango chunks half a cup of coffee a cup of goat milk two raw eggs half a cup of 5% Greek yogurt 20g of collagen peptides 5g of citrulline malate. Whey protein disagrees with me.

rcocean said...

There's no good reason for there NOT to be enough baby formula. Action should be required from Joe Biden - his policies are to blame. Stop using this as an opporturnity to "get back to nature" and "rough it".

Again, there is NO REASON for this to happen unless its greed or incompetence. And what precisely is joe biden doing to solve the problem?

tcrosse said...

I could be a problem for some that human breast milk is not vegan.

Dagwood said...

So because a vegan mommy almost killed her child, the government doesn't want anyone making their own? How long until it releases a statement extolling the virtues of Bill Gates' faux formula?

Rabel said...

An amazing example of government bureaucracy in full bloom.

The logical conclusion from their advice is that it is better for a baby to starve to death than to give her non-government approved food.

Scotty, beam me up... said...

How about this alternative: Go down to the border in Texas, cross over to Mexico with your baby, then come back across with a group of illegals. The Federal Government has an ample supply of formula on hand at Border Patrol processing stations for illegals with more pallets of formula arriving every day. Another dirty little secret the Biden Administration was hiding from its citizens where illegals are more important than US citizens when it comes to its priorities of America NOT first. I hope that these parents remember this formula crisis when they vote this autumn to toss the Dems at all levels out on their fat a$$es.

Real American said...

"They're afraid people will do it wrong, but they're withholding advice on what would be best! They don't want responsibility"

Clearly, the babies should be forced to wear a mask.

D.D. Driver said...

This is the War on Nuance and it is the reason we told EVERYONE to get a vaccine, even those that had already recovered from it even small children for which there is little (no?) evidence that they have any benefit for children. It's why Fauci went on 60 Minutes and told Americans NOT to wear masks. Everything must have a one size solution because people are too dumb to make choices. It's why there are savage attacks on anything other than the official doctrine. This has lead to division and moral panics. People aren't idiots: they know you are hiding things from them and when I know someone is hiding thing I think *everything* they same is a pile of shit.

Our leaders have created the perfect petri dish conditions for conspiracy theories to thrive. In response, they double down and lie and smear outside voices and it just makes everything even worse. And at the end of the day they blame US--the lied to--for not believing in the kernels of truth corn in their information turd. Why are we so obstinate?

Jason said...

Someone asked Jen Psaki what parents should do if they can't get baby formula.

That arrogant and stupid idiot said "call a doctor."

The baby is hungry, not sick.

Andy said...

That's what the Baby Boomers were fed, and nothing went haywire. I’m trying real hard to not be a snarky gen xer but it’s hard.

Hari said...

It is a huge lie that this is a "supply chain" problem. What ingredient it infant formula is unavailable domestically? In NYC, we endless see commercials of City government officials telling parents to vaccinate their young children, but no government official at any level seems to know what to feed an infant. What is the point in being a public health official, if you cannot answer this incredibly basic question? Follow the science and answer the question.

gahrie said...

You know, it's too bad that human females didn't evolve an ability to produce a healthy, nutritious food that was perfect to feed to their babies that is not only constantly available, but free!

PhilD said...

"They're afraid people will do it wrong, but they're withholding advice on what would be best! They don't want responsibility, ..."

I suppose that's the joy of living in a culture where you can sue someone for having a paper-cut.

n.n said...

A deficit born in regulation. That said, trust the experts, then judge for yourself.

Static Ping said...

Because if they give advice and it goes wrong, they will get sued.

Because the government's health services have proven itself to be both incompetent and malevolent.

Because if they pretend it is not a problem long enough, then maybe it will go away.

wendybar said...

Jen Psaki's great advice/(snark) is to call your doctor. Are doctors now hiding formula?? They aren't hoarding it...but our Government is sure making sure illegals have the formula THEY need.

Wa St Blogger said...

This might be a result of not actually having a leader in charge who is experienced at directing people to 'giterdone." What we have is a figurehead and a committee pulling the strings. There is something to be said about having an experienced executive at the helm, but people vote stupidly all the time assuming that there never will be icebergs in the water.

Enigma said...

Althouse wrote: That's what the Baby Boomers were fed, and nothing went haywire.


Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm. It all makes sense. Condensed Milk Boomer Babies! Those how drank it would never know about the Soylent Green Nuclear Milk scandal that emerged afterwards. It's very hush-hush especially around the Boomer's because we don't want to hurt their feelings ("Ok, Boomer").


She also wrote: They're afraid people will do it wrong, but they're withholding advice on what would be best! They don't want responsibility, but that's just forcing people to use their own judgment about the best recipe. It's not mastering the art of French cooking.

Isn't that the story of this era: Know-it-alls who don't know it all controlling the lives of others? Psychologically, the web and social media must be eating the hearts out of the soft totalitarians in old school print and network media as they lose the means of information production. That is at the root of the reaction against Trump, the appointment of the TikTok Truth Minister, Biden's canned questions in press conferences, and everything else. Their totalitarian souls scream for continued control, even as they fail and look ever more foolish.

The same goes for government staff like Fauci who previously bathed in admiration while they got away with murder and pocketed $$$. A lifetime of getting away with it leads to eventual pain.

Gospace said...

Of course they don't/won't recommend what's good.

Name a government agency or medical association that has recommended taking Vitamin D supplements against the dreaded covid...

Almost like they don't actually want to keep people healthy, but would rather treat them after they get ill.

gilbar said...

They don't want responsibility,

remember the NPR show "Call Talk"? It USED TO provide helpful advise on fixing or dealing with problems
It devolved into
a) listeners calling in for advise
b) Ray and Tom saying, "Well, you shouldn't let that go; you need to take in it to a professional"

WHY? BECAUSE.
Because if Ray and Tom told someone; "Those tires don't sound TOO BAD, could go a month more..
And ANYTHING happened, Ray and Tom would/could have be liable.

Same with the formula. IF the paper says; "this would work, if you couldn't get ANYTHING ELSE"
and then someone uses it (exclusively, for 10 years)... Lawsuit just WAITING to happen

MOST of the problems in America can be traced back to Lawyers (actually, can be traced back to the fact the loser doesn't pay the winners legal fees)

Freeman Hunt said...

There are likely few reasonable DIY recipes that are less healthy than starvation.

Temujin said...

First of all, we should not need to look toward Washington DC to figure out how to feed our kids. I mean, let's consider how well our leaders and talking heads did during the Wuhan virus outbreak.

There- we were told we could not even talk about where it came from. No calling it the Wuhan virus or you would be cast as a racist and banned.
When our actual leader back then proposed ceasing travel from China early on, our current leader, who was on the sidelines, called it a racist move.
They told us the masks do nothing. Then the masks did everything. Then you had to wear them all the time and stay- what was it- 6 feet from anyone else. Even though it was made clear that the 6' number was made up from a kids lesson some time earlier.

Remember our food pyramids the goverment raised us on? Yeah. How'd that work out? Getting your daily dose of carbs?

Think of the DMV and the people scowling at you when you think about your government handing out decisions on how to feed your children.

Note: For millenia, humans had figured out ways to feed their babies. Even in recent history (say the 1800s) we had folk recipes that worked to feed our kids. Or, look to Asia. What do they do? Look around the world at other humans not in a government position. Do yourself that favor.

Do you feel OK taking child nutrition advice from Jen Psaki or Joe Biden? Just asking.

Finally, there's always this. Fly to Mexico. Walk back into the US with everyone else. Get bussed or flown back home armed with a bagful of baby formula and new sneakers.

Freeman Hunt said...

I do have a funny DIY formula story. About 80 years ago, a friend (now deceased) had a baby but didn't have any family members to tell her what babies are usually fed. She took the baby to his first appointment, and the doctor said, "My god! What are you feeding this baby?!" The baby was huge. She'd been giving him heavy cream. Ha!

(The baby turned out fine, in case anyone is wondering.)

Drago said...

This baby food shortage is a conspiracy theory and doesnt exist...ok it does exist but isnt a big problem...ok it is a slightly bigger problem than expected but is only in certain areas...ok it is a general shortage across the nation but its only transitory...ok it will take longer than expected but mothers can always control the number of mouths they need to feed via abortion (actual democratical congress-chick)...Biden has always known about this and has been moving urgently to solve this problem...even though its really not that big of a problem (talk to your pediatrician if your child is starving)...plus its Trump's fault!...plus its russian disinformation!...Putin!!!!
--Every Lefty/NeverTrumper

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

Most babies transition from breast milk or formula to whole cow’s milk at around 12 months. By then, most have been eating puréed foods for a few months. If baby doctors told parents of 10 month-olds that they could go ahead and move to whole milk (or another alternative) it would take some pressure off of the formula supply, and more would be available for the younger babies. (Straight cow’s milk is can be hard on a younger infant’s gut.)
When we over-60 folks were infants, hospitals gave new moms a recipe for evaporated milk, Karo syrup, plus water to use as their formula. There are several homemade formulas circulating on the internet. Someone (pediatrician or child nutritionist) needs to say publicly which ones are best. They could demonstrate how to mix it on TV shows, Twitter, and Facebook. Just keep it simple! And parents could give the babies an infant vitamin supplement. This isn’t hard, even if it isn’t ideal. Homemade formulas could it be used, especially for older babies (past the newborn stage) to improve the supplies for the younger ones and the ones who need specialty formulas. The official helplessness and lack of resourcefulness is appalling.

Toy

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

A tweet claimed Biden is sending pallets of baby formula to crossers detained at the border, while American babies go hungry.

farmgirl said...

Isn’t this a self- fulfilling prophecy?

1. Get the people to lose all of their self-sufficient knowledge, depending only on the government.
2. Prevent any help from the organically sprung community groups that teach independence.
3. Famine…
4. Helplessness

Isn’t this where government control leads?

Sydney said...

Agree 100%. On one of the internet physician groups I frequent, the pediatricians are hyperventilating at the thought of people feeding their infants something other than formula. It is true that formula is superior nutritionally to anything based on nonhuman milk, but nonhuman milk based drink is better than water or juice or pedialyte. The risk is mostly malnourishment with an evaporated milk product. Same with regular cow’s milk. But I would think for the short term, it’s better than nothing. I seriously doubt there are enough breastfeeding moms who can wet nurse the poor formula less babes.

hombre said...

Let's see, assuming homemade formula can be perfectly safe, why would anyone not want parents giving it to their babies?

Hmmm?

Tomcc said...

No better way to underscore the utter uselessness of our national media.

Bill Harshaw said...

Why don't they want the responsibility?

It's the lawyers, and fear of suits. As a retired law professor at least you're no longer contributing to that plague.

:-)

Rusty said...

" That's what the Baby Boomers were fed, and nothing went haywire.'
Oh, ma'am. I beg to differ.

mikee said...

A great moment of my early fatherhood was when my 3 month old son, having vomited for a day and a night, listened with me as the ER doctor explain that whatever it was, wasn't serious. Then my little man projectile vomited all over the doctor. Score one for the concerned parent in the ER on Saturday afternoon, as the doctor suddenly took the issue much more seriously.

Turns out that our change from one brand of formula to another wasn't sitting well in our baby's tummy, and a change back to good old Enfamil from Similac cleared it up instantly.

There are consequences to formula shortages. Kids aren't car engines that don't care if Castrol or Valvoline is poured into the oil hole.

Kevin said...

Where is Fauci?

If gun violence is "a serious health problem" which requires CDC intervention, how can they pass the buck on this one?

Owen said...

We were told, way back in fall 2020, that now the adults were in charge. And since then:
(1) raging inflation and supply chain havoc
(2) total loss of control of the border
(3) random gushers of Federal largesse to enable even more free masks, vaccines and tests that help convince us that Wu Flu will continue to spread death and despair
(4) FBI "interviews" of parents who dared to ask their employees (school boards) WTF they were doing
(5) utter breakdown of foreign policy environment, including Biden trying to goad Putin into WW3
(6) utter breakdown in race relations
(7) and now utter breakdown in basic food logistics for the next generation

Amazing.

Kevin said...

Shorter Government response: Let them eat cake!

Howard said...

Whatever you feed a baby, give them a tablespoon of cod liver oil every day.

Kevin said...

Even Jimmy Carter didn't let babies starve.

Chris Lopes said...

The obvious answer is to let your baby starve to death so the authorities will not have to take any action and take any responsibility.

Jupiter said...

"pediatric nutrition experts"

It's amazing how fast they can retrain a COVID mask expert!

Jupiter said...

My Mom had these bumps on her chest ...

Richard said...

Let them eat cake!

Bart Hall said...

Were I in the situation I would contact a dairy supply place and get some calf milk replacer. You'd need to boost the sugar a bit -- I won't say how much without doing a bit of research and tight calculations, but I could do it. Also add some ascorbic acid [Vit C] as we humans are one of the few animals which don't make our own.

reader said...

My mom didn’t produce enough milk for my sister and me. There is a handwritten note my mom made when her doctor told her what to feed my older sister. I remember that it started with evaporated milk and I’m pretty sure it included egg whites. It’s in my sister’s baby book.

What’s nice for moms today is that things like egg whites and honey can be found pasteurized making them much safer now then in times past.

So doctors/nutritionists should be capable of providing current recipes for moms. This would leave formula for babies that are on formula for medical reasons.

Michael K said...

The risk is mostly malnourishment with an evaporated milk product. Same with regular cow’s milk. But I would think for the short term, it’s better than nothing.

I posted a link yesterday that provides a recipe for formula which adds the proper nutrients,

Here it is again.

JaimeRoberto said...

Shortly after I was born in the log cabin I built, I started making my own baby formula. It ain't that hard, people.

BUMBLE BEE said...

As has been established upthread, M.D.s have targets on their backs. An M.D. friend of mine advised me that the P.I. lawyer is a voracious beast who has been starved by the pandemic. Locally, the ambulance chasers have more than doubled down on the ads.
Probably could find something in a Mother Earth News archive though. Never underestimate Joe's ability to fuck things up was an expert's warning.
Biden Harris was a judgement call. Tells a lot about the American Democrat, doesn't it?

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Looking through youtube. homemade baby formula seems to consist of nothing more than full-fat evaporated milk, purified water, a little light karo syrup, and a baby vitamin/mineral supplement. The danger seems to be too much water is bad for a baby's kidneys. So, they're basically telling people to let their kids starve because they're afraid that once people start using the homemade stuff they won't come back to the commercial when it becomes available again.

realestateacct said...

I notice that the CDC us recommending that babies under 12 months be fed only breast milk or formula. Speaking as a babysitter in the 60's, the parents were feeding the kids Gerbers much earlier than that.

reader said...

My sister’s baby book also has a note that the doctor told my mom to drink beer to try to increase her milk production. She tried it even though she didn’t like beer.

RNB said...

"Someone will get sued." Don't you basically have to get the federal government's permission to sue the federal government?

John henry said...

Mad ss hell

If you triple mask the baby the whole formula problem goes away permanently. Added bonus, no more diapers and you can use the baby's college fund for a new tesla.

Be sure to get a good Tight fit. For added effectiveness put a layer of tinfoil between mask 2 and 3. No virus has ever gotten through an aluminum mask

John LGKTQ Henry

Charlotte Allen said...

Homemade baby formula works just fine. My mother never could produce enough milk for her offspring, so all of us--I and four siblings--fed on homemade baby formula either after my mother tried breastfeeding without much luck for a few weeks, or else right from the get-go. There was no such thing back then as commercially produced formula. The homemade stuff consisted of canned evaporated cow's milk, sugar, and water. We had (glass) bottles of it stored in the fridge, and when a baby got hungry, the bottle would be warmed up in boiling water, then tested on someone's wrist to make sure it wasn't too hot or cold. Since I was a teenager when my youngest brother was born, I became an experienced warmer, tester, and bottle-feeder, although I don't recall mixing the stuff personally. We all grew up to be enormously tall adults and pretty smart. (UC-Berkeley and Stanford were our alma maters.) Now, it may be that today's commercial formula is nutritionally superior to homemade, but homemade will do just fine. I can't believe that doctors are discouraging it in these days of shortages of the commercial stuff.

Ralph L said...

Whey protein disagrees with me.

When I was lifting weights before shingles, I tried storing it in the fridge, then the freezer, but a couple of weeks after opening a container, my gut would still go haywire. But I have that problem with every dairy product ~4 days after opening. There's something in the air.

wendybar said...

Ignorant Hollywood actress chimes in. Stick to murdering babies, Bette. Little does SHE know that not every mother CAN breastfeed, and some BABIES can't handle mothers milk. Ignorance is bliss on the left, and all we can do is point and laugh at them.


bettemidler
@BetteMidler
TRY BREASTFEEEDING! It’s free and available on demand.

Browndog said...

There is no baby formula shortage because I haven't personally experienced one.

If there were, it's because of Russia, or covid. It's not because the FDA shut down the nation's largest manufacturer in Michigan because two babies died from a bacteria that cannot be traced back to the plant.

Further, the baby formula being shipped to the border by the United States is critical because...it's necessary.

Note: the evaporated milk w/caro baby formula is being posted all over the internet. Pretty sure that's why I always saw a cupboard full of evaporated milk when I was little. Sorry to say, I didn't make it.

I died.

Christopher B said...

I'll second or third the supposition that more than a little of the panic, and probably all of the official reticence to provide substitutes, is likely driven by the long standing recommendation that babies get *only* formula for 6 months, and formula regularly for a year. While that is understandable for infants that lack capacity to consume enough nutrition, I remember that my son started on semi-liquid rice cereal at about 4 months since he was never satisfied even with a full bottle. Our pediatrician's opinion was if he ate heartily it wouldn't hurt him. He started baby food before a year also. At 6' 3" and 200+ I don't think it hurt him any.

Still, I can sympathize with those parents who do need it and can't find it, especially the specialized. The seeming indifference of the Biden junta is appalling.

David Begley said...

Abbott controls 40% of the market. The minute that plant closed, the Biden Administration should have acted. Apparently Canada can’t sell baby formula in the US per the USMCA treaty. There should have been a waiver of the treaty in February 2022.

David Begley said...

Biden got $40b to Ukraine overnight. But fix this, too much.

walter said...

Perhaps Pete and Casteb can advise.

Tom T. said...

The DIY may be easy, but if we actually hit the point of having to do it, there won't be any evaporated milk left on the shelves.

Drago said...

Why dont the babies just identify as teenagers and start slamming hot dogs and doritos?
--Leftists

Narayanan said...

so it all can be summed up and down to : Birthing people are too much trouble-makers