Mississippi WIC program again adds baby formula options amid national shortage

The Mississippi Division of Well being introduced on Thursday that the state’s Ladies, Infants and Kids’s Diet Program (WIC) is including new child formulation to its permitted product record to enhance entry amid the nationwide components scarcity. 

Earlier than the scarcity, solely 4 kinds of components may very well be bought with WIC advantages in Mississippi except an toddler obtained an exemption via a medical analysis. The division made eight new merchandise out there on June 1 and have now added six extra. These further choices will probably be WIC-eligible at the very least via the top of August.

The brand new choices added on Thursday are all different Enfamil merchandise, together with new formulations and product sizes. An inventory of latest permitted formulation could be discovered right here.

Mississippi has the second-lowest fee of breastfeeding within the nation, and the components scarcity has left some dad and mom struggling to feed their kids.

There have been 84,000 girls, kids and infants who participated in WIC in Mississippi in 2018, in response to the U.S. Division of Agriculture.

Provide-chain points associated to the COVID-19 pandemic are one explanation for the components scarcity. The scarcity was closely exacerbated by the recall of three main child components manufacturers manufactured by Abbott Diet after a probe by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration discovered bacterial contamination at one Abbott facility in Sturgis, Mich. At the least 4 infants have been hospitalized and two died after consuming contaminated components, the Meals and Drug Administration mentioned. 

The Sturgis facility, which is estimated to provide one-fifth of the U.S. child components provide, shut down in February as a result of contamination. It reopened on June 4, however was shut again down once more simply 9 days later as a consequence of flooding. The plant resumed operations once more on July 1, however has not resumed manufacturing of Similac, its hottest components model. 

The Biden administration has tried to bolster U.S. components provides via efforts like Operation Fly System, which used the Protection Division to fly in components from different nations. Regardless of these efforts by the federal government and others by producers to spice up manufacturing, shops are nonetheless struggling to inventory their cabinets.