welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

so where is the formula

 SO WHERE IS THE FORMULA

abotts recall of similac and some of its other formulas may have been what tipped things so we now have a shortage of baby formulas to feed babies in the united states

a few months ago it was found that the factory that made these formulas may have been the source of a potential contamination with a bacteria called cronobacter sakazakii
two babies died from this infection and two more got sick
all had been formula produced in this factory 

there are only a few makers of formula in the us
95% of the formulas used in the us are made in the us

so the supply tightened after the shutdown

the toilet paper syndrome took effect
remember how short the supply of toilet paper was during the pandemic
well
thats what happened with the formulas
causing significant shortages everywhere

unlike toilet paper where you could figure out other things to use
well
thats not the case with formulas
unless a mom had two working breast milk producing breasts

other things to try is not safe 
almost dangerous to try 

an side here
now is not the time to stop breast feeding 

when i was in medical school it was common to have either similac or enfamil as the preferred formula for new babies in the nursery

we all knew and know that breast milk is the preferred food for babies
formula companies can not duplicate breast milk
they try but they cant

what formula was chosen was usually based on the influence of the company or representative with nursery employees or medical providers

at our medical school the preferred formula was breast milk
the way it should be
thats probably the way it still is now at most maternity units

nature knows best

there are terrible stories in third world countries where women were given substandard formulas to use instead of breast feeding
the results were horrendous

so formula companies have a checkered past
they also have us where they want us

many formulas are specialty formulas that babies have to have to survive
and some adults 

eg mr hudson when he was in the throes of his kidney failure had a special formula made for kidney failure patients that he used although he used breast milk most of the time before his transplant
yes even with kidney failure patients the breast milk was the preferred formula

his nephrologist said one reason he did as well as he did for so long was the fact he was breast fed

i took care of a lot of babies in my career 
usually if they were breast fed there were less problems with feeding and feeding issues
some babies on formulas could tolerate some formulas and not others
each formula could be tweaked some to make it different

what did they do in the old days
my guess is they used whole milk or goats milk and added stuff to it
dont do this since since your baby will be missing out on important nutrition
i repeat dont do this
again
i repeat dont do this

so what are they doing about this formula thing
it is scary to think you cant find food for your baby

the abbott factory is restarting soon and will be in full production in a few weeks
the fda is allowing the import of fda approved foreign exports of formula 
eg abbott is bringing in formula from ireland

other manufacturers are amping up their production

hopefully hoarders will quit hoarding formula

soon the supply will increase

im sure moms will breastfeed their babies a lot longer
which is good for the babies

as we did with toilet paper 
so we will with formulas
an
ample supply 
will eventually return

the organicgreen doctor

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