Formula is a wonderful medical
food and in terms of overall health
for the mother and the child.
The healthiest product is the
mother's breast milk followed by
donor human milk followed by formula,
but they're all wonderful
ways to feed your child.
We in here in the United States we
have had formula readily available.
We have safe clean drinking water
and so using formula as an infant's
diet is a very safe way to feed them.
And and in terms of your other question,
the differences between breast milk and
formula, did I catch that correctly?
Yeah, so formula and has the
similar calorie content.
Similar carbohydrate or energy,
protein and fat as breast milk,
but breast milk is.
It's almost impossible to mimic
breast milk and formula companies
do try hard to try to mimic breast
milk as much as possible.
There are some very special
immune properties in breast milk.
They're impossible to replicate and formula,
but for many babies who are
formula feeding because of either
maternal choice of the maternal,
you know if there's a health issue
in the mother or the baby where
they were not able to breastfeed.
Formula is a great option for those families,
so the formula shortage has been in our
community here in Sacramento has been
an issue mostly in the outpatient setting.
I have not heard of babies who have been.
Admitted to UC Davis Children's
Hospital as of today,
who because of a formula crisis.
I personally am an outpatient pediatrician
and I have been managing this
conversation with my patients this week.
It's primarily affecting infants
who are on specialty formulas,
so that might be an infant who has
very severe allergies or maybe some
other medical problem like they're in
have kidney problems or problems with
their liver and they're on special formulas,
and so for those babies.
And their families.
It's been an extremely scary time where
people are switching between formula.
They're working closely with the dietitian,
but luckily here in Sacramento we
have not seen patients admitted to the
hospital because of formula crisis.
So for the majority of babies who
do use formula and they're on a
cows milk formula,
think about Similac or Enfamil or you know,
Costco's version Walmarts version and the
good news is that all of those versions are,
nutritionally.
The same, they're exactly the same.
Sometimes some families can notice,
so there's a difference.
You know,
maybe maybe babies a little bit gassier
on a formula versus another one.
So certainly we want to encourage
people to stick to the brands
that they know impressed,
but to just not feel worried.
If hey,
they're their preferred brand is out.
They need to try another one
for families whose children have
medical problems and are on a
specialty formula if their formula
is not available at the store,
that's when we encourage them
to contact their doctor.
To talk about other options because
sometimes even with specialty
formulas there is another brand
option that you can try out.
So my understanding is that our supply
at UC Davis Health has been fine and the
supplies of infant formula to hospitals
around the country has been fine.
I have not heard of it shortage
inside of the hospital.
Certainly after infants you know receive
if they're on a specialty formula,
they've received it in the hospital.
The hospitals are working hard to
order that formula for the family,
so it's available for them
by the time they get home.
But there have been some
issues with that aspect,
and that's where we've been.
Managing those issues after
patients leave the hospital.
So formula is a necessary
medical food for infants,
and so not having your primary source
of nutrition could cause catastrophic
effects for infants in terms of their
nutrition and could potentially affect
morbidity and mortality in infants.
And we absolutely do not
want things to get that bad.
I heard that it maybe was as
recently as this morning or yesterday
that the federal government.
Has passed an emergency defense act
in order to increase the formula
supply in their country and hopefully
very soon we'll be able to have
a quicker wait for formulas that
have been demonstrated to be safe
in other countries to be available
in the United States.
So that might be formulas that people
are familiar with that are in Canada
or in Western Europe and you know,
our medical.
Opinion is there's really no
difference for these formulas,
and as long as they're deemed safe
by the Federal Drug Administration,
we would love to have them
available for our families.
And is there any kind of alternative
that's not formula or breast milk
that kind of has the same nutritional
supplementation as formula and breast have?
Yeah, good question.
So for babies who are six months and less?
These are babies who like their entire
nutrition is all formula or breast milk.
And so when we introduced other substances,
whether it's a homemade formula
or it's you know,
teas,
waters juices if it can actually really
be really detrimental to the baby's.
Both and their ability to process
their nutrition have enough nutrition,
and also if we're introducing things
besides standard formula or breast milk,
there can be a dangerous change in the
baby's electrolytes or salt contents
in their blood that can lead to
catastrophic things such as dehydration,
vomiting, seizures, and even death.
So for babies or six months and less it,
there really is not very good.
Other options.
There have been online.
Circulated copies of prescription
formula or homemade formulas that
people use in the 1950s and 60s,
but we're trying to avoid using
those older prescriptions.
And until we've exhausted all of
our resources and people have met
with their pediatrician to discuss,
like,
hey,
there's literally no formula on the shelves.
What do we do now?
And for older than six months,
there are some other options
that you can talk about
when there are formula emergencies and and
you can discuss those with your doctor.
Might be short term,
other options for a few days,
so formula or breast milk composes the
primary nutrition source for babies
for the first year of their life.
It's their sole nutrition source for the
first six months of life and then people
start to introduce complementary foods.
Think about baby purees and baby foods,
and then between six months to 12
months as babies get more and more.
People to feed themselves
and enjoy table foods.
The importance of formula or
breast milk as a part of their
nutrition diminishes overtime.
The World Health Organization
recommends breastfeeding for the
first two years of babies life,
so you can continue to breastfeed for
as long as it works for mother and baby.
But for formula,
you can actually stop formula at
12 months and switch to cows milk.
I just want to let the people of
Sacramento know that if you are
experiencing a formula emergency
and you have no access to formula,
no way to feed your baby,
please contact your pediatrician.
It is a medical emergency and we don't
want you facing that problem alone.
Absolutely reach out to your community,
your places of worship,
your friends on social media.
You might be surprised to find how
many people are willing to help.