As the United States face a severe shortage of baby formula for months, a mother living in UK, left no stone unturned to help parents in the neighbouring country. She had been selling her breast milk to thousands of desperate parents who have been struggling to feed their kids.
Alyssa Chitti currently has more than three freezers full of breastmilk.
“I figure I'm running out of room, so might as well help someone else," she said. “I know I have over 3,000 ounces (88 litres). 3,000 ounces downstairs and probably almost 1,000 (29 litres) upstairs.”
She had first considered donating it to a local milk bank. But, she found it was much easier to list and sell it online, reported Fox 13 .
“I have looked into it," said Chitti. "I was working with a group on it, but my daughter has spinal muscular atrophy, and we've been in and out of primaries, and so it's just been hard to go do the bloodwork and go do all the other stuff, and that's the only thing that stopped me from doing that part.”
Chitti told Fox 13 that she was hoping to sell her breast milk at $1 per ounce, but was willing to negotiate with parents because she understands what they’re going through.
But, after the her interview with Fox 13 was aired, Chitty began receiving negative feedback which led her to stop selling breast milk.
Currently in the US, a mass product recall of baby formula has aggravated pandemic supply chain woes, sending families on sometimes desperate hunts for the vital supplies.
And it has been going on for months, according to Sara Khan, the mother of three children aged 10, seven and six months.
"I've known about this issue for almost seven months," she told AFP. "This did not happen overnight."
Khan described the struggle to find just a few bottles of formula, and the distress at being faced with empty shelves at pharmacy chains and supermarkets.
"It's horrible, terrifying," she said, adding that she even ordered formula from Germany.
The situation took a major turn for the worse on February 17 when, after the death of two infants, manufacturer Abbott announced a "voluntary recall" for formula made at its factory in Michigan -- including Similac, a brand used by millions of American families.
A subsequent investigation cleared the formula, but production has yet to resume, exacerbating already ongoing scarcity caused by supply chain problems and labor shortages.
The White House vowed Thursday to take action to boost supplies of baby formula as President Joe Biden was slammed by Republicans for crippling shortages nationwide. A top White House economic adviser cautioned on Friday that the shortage of baby formula in the United States could last for some time.
Last week, the average out-of-stock rate for baby formula was 43 per cent, according to Datasembly, which collected information from more than 11,000 retailers.
(With inputs from AFP)
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