Department of Nutrition, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
NY Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Nutrients. 2024 Mar 5;16(5):748. doi: 10.3390/nu16050748.
In May of 2022, millions of U.S. parents encountered uncertainty in safely feeding their infants due to the infant formula shortage.
An anonymous, electronic, cross-sectional, retrospective survey was used.
U.S. parents ( = 178) whose infants were ~10 weeks old during the shortage completed the survey. Of parents, 81% switched formulas during the shortage, 87% switched because they could not find the formula they typically used, 34% switched 3-5 times, 29% of parents visited ≥4 stores/24 h and 26% of parents traveled >20 miles/24 h to purchase formula. Use of infant formula increased ( < 0.01); in infants requiring specialty formula, use of intact cow's milk formula increased ( < 0.05) and use of premature infant formulas decreased ( < 0.05). Infants relying on specialty formulas experienced at least one undesirable outcome compared with non-specialty users. Parents used social media, relatives/friends and healthcare providers for support during the shortage, but their helpfulness scores were suboptimal. Parents reported the need for greater infant formula availability, free prenatal lactation education and postpartum lactation support.
Government, regulatory and healthcare policy oversight are needed to protect the infant feeding system, including more commercially available products, access to banked donor milk and lactation support.
2022 年 5 月，由于婴儿配方奶粉短缺，数百万美国父母在为婴儿安全喂养方面感到不确定。
采用匿名、电子、横断面、回顾性调查。
在短缺期间，其婴儿约 10 周大的美国父母（=178）完成了调查。在父母中，81%在短缺期间更换了配方，87%更换是因为找不到他们通常使用的配方，34%更换了 3-5 次，29%的父母在 24 小时内访问了≥4 家商店/24 小时，26%的父母在 24 小时内行驶了>20 英里/24 小时购买配方。婴儿对配方奶粉的需求增加（<0.01）；在需要特殊配方奶粉的婴儿中，使用完整牛奶配方奶粉的需求增加（<0.05），使用早产儿配方奶粉的需求减少（<0.05）。与非特殊用途用户相比，依赖特殊配方奶粉的婴儿至少经历了一种不良后果。在短缺期间，父母使用社交媒体、亲戚/朋友和医疗保健提供者寻求支持，但他们的帮助评分并不理想。父母报告说需要更多的婴儿配方奶粉供应、免费产前哺乳教育和产后哺乳支持。
需要政府、监管和医疗保健政策监督来保护婴儿喂养系统，包括更多商业上可获得的产品、获得银行捐赠的牛奶和哺乳支持。
