Quebec mothers are forced to visit dozens of pharmacies to find formula milk and worry regarding running out given the continuing shortage.
Since the birth of her daughter in September, Amélie Couture has got into the habit of crisscrossing the stores of Arvida, Jonquière, Kénogami and Chicoutimi in search of precious boxes of Enfamil milk.
“Every week, it’s a race to find some,” sighs the 26-year-old mother, who also asked her family to keep an eye out.
In Quebec, Laurence Riou, she visits up to five businesses a day in her “powdered milk hunt” which her 5 and a half month old daughter needs.
“I’m lucky, I have a car, but I think of those who travel by public transport…”, she says.
empty shelves
Because across the province, families are struggling with empty shelves, or a very small inventory of brands and types of infant formula.
Marcel Tremblay/Agence QMI
Many pharmacies have sparsely stocked shelves in the infant formula aisle.
This is despite the efforts of pharmacists, explains Pierre-Marc Gervais, of the Quebec Association of Owner Pharmacists (AQPP).
“Even if we wanted to order 8 trucks [de lait maternisé] tomorrow morning, we mightn’t, because there aren’t any. We are at the end of the supply chain,” he explains.
If the scarcity mainly concerned specialized products since last summer, it now extends to regular preparations, underlines the senior director of pharmaceutical services at the AQPP. But according to him, the problem is mainly at the level of choice.
“The cheapest options […] are often out of stock since the fall of 2022”, also underlines a Health Canada web page on the subject.
This shortage is due to the closure of a factory in the United States which manufactured several popular preparations in Canada, we can read there.
And if the factory resumed production last July, it should not return to full capacity until 2023.
Major brands such as Similac, Enfamil or Nestlé also recognize that they are currently experiencing significant supply difficulties on their respective websites.
Unnecessary angst
For new parents, this situation causes permanent and completely unnecessary anxiety.
“I tell my friends ‘if you have the chance to breastfeed, do it, it’s one less stress'”, testifies Amélie Couture, who has visited dozens of shops since the birth of her little Emma. .
PHOTO PROVIDED
Amélie Couture, Emma’s mother, regularly struggles to find formula milk around Arvida to feed her.
Faced with a stalemate, some mothers are turning to Kijiji or Marketplace to obtain much sought-following formula milk, a practice that the AQPP advises once morest.
“We can’t discourage people from being creative, but it’s a somewhat sensitive product. I would buy it from a reputable seller to ensure its safety,” says Mr. Gervais.
The latter recommends instead that parents choose a brand to which the child is accustomed, but to change the format, for example to switch from powdered milk to ready-to-drink preparation.
Health Canada had not responded to our questions at the time of publication.
