Amid the ongoing nationwide shortage of infant formula, New Hampshire workers with the Division of Public Health Services are making phone calls and trips to local formula vendors to figure out where families can go to find the product.
“We never thought that it would come to this,” said Lissa Sirois who oversees New Hampshire WIC, or Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
Nationally, WIC participants under 12 months of age consume over half of all infant formula in the U.S., according to an estimate from the USDA.
Each state contracts with a single provider of infant formula. Abbott Nutrition is the exclusive provider to about half of infants in WIC nationally, and all infants in New Hampshire.
While the infant formula shortage has worsened in recent weeks to what Sirois calls a “crisis” level, the trouble all began for New Hampshire families who use WIC in late February.
That’s when there was a recall of the Abbott formula. In early March, WIC temporarily expanded the brands, container sizes and types of baby formula that caregivers enrolled in the program can buy.
Dr. Erik Shessler, a pediatrician and the associate medical director of general pediatrics at Dartmouth Health Children’s, says for most families, switching brands while sticking to the same type of formula is the way to go.
“Luckily for most families, we are going to be able to find an alternative product,” he said.
In New Hampshire, there were around 14,000 participants in the WIC program as of April. About 2,500 were infants, and 2,000 were fed with infant formula.
WIC staff are also encouraging new and expecting parents to try breastfeeding.
“Our local breastfeeding staff are really trying to help moms increase their milk supply,” Sirois said, “so that they can rely more on breast milk and less on formula.”
