The baby formula shortage is terrifying for parents of babies and young toddlers. Help should be coming soon, as the F.D.A. and Abbott Laboratories announced a deal May 16 to restart production at Abbott within two weeks, per The New York Times. But if you need formula before that, there are resources available to help right now, including a new website created by Shawn Johnson and her husband, Andrew East, called Baby Formula Exchange.
This website allows you to select if you “Have Formula” or “Need Formula,” then it asks a series of questions: what brand and type of formula do you have/are looking for, your name and email address, and more. Then they will help connect you to other parents who either need or have formula.
They created the website after Johnson struggled to find baby formula for her almost 10-month-old son Jett. She shares the story in an Instagram video posted May 15.
“So last week I was trying to refill Jett’s formula,” she said in the video, where Jett is sitting happily on East’s lap. “And, I wasn’t able to find it anywhere.”
A post shared by Shawn Johnson East (@shawnjohnson)
This is a scary situation that many parents are going through right now! Luckily, someone reached out to help her. “A friend of a friend actually connected me to her friend in Pittsburg who was able to find and ship it to me.”
Then East said, “In case you haven’t heard, there’s a nationwide baby formula shortage.”
“Which got us thinking,” says Johnson, “is there a way we can actually connect all of you to other mamas who have formula?”
“So we created the Baby Formula Exchange to create a place for those people who have extra formula to match with those people who need formula,” added East.
Then Johnson asks parents to look for unopened, not expired formula they don’t need and sign up BabyFormulaExchange.com to donate. And if you need formula, she encourages you to sign up here as well, and they will try to match parents in need with the formula brands they are currently using. This is so awesome!
You can find other resources to buy baby formula online here and information on ByHeart’s Formula here. If you need to switch baby formula brands, you can read more about how to safely do that here. You should always talk to your pediatrician if you need help finding formula, have questions about formula, or need more tips on how to switch formula.
Browse the cutest graphic diapers here.
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