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A 1,200-mile road-trip and no baby formula to be found. This is a nightmare | Anna Gazmarian
Expired products, cow milk, homemade formula – desperate parents are trying anything and everything to keep our babies fed
I heard warnings about the formula shortage shortly after the mask mandate lifted in my town in North Carolina. My family was thrilled that life appeared to be going back to a semblance of normalcy, that my eight-month-old daughter could finally see people’s faces in public, that I could comfort her at the grocery store with a smile. Our hope was short-lived.
The original formula recall announced by the FDA in February did not include the brand we used for our daughter, which made me assume that we would not be affected. As a first-time mom already concerned about keeping her baby safe during the pandemic, I didn’t need another thing to worry about. I thought that the government would step in before families had to go out of their way to find food. We noticed the large empty spaces on shelves at every store but remained optimistic that help would arrive soon. Yet the shelves only grew emptier.
Anna Gazmarian’s memoir about mental health, southern culture, and evangelicalism is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in October 2023
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