Butler WIC provider contends with formula shortage
Amid an ongoing baby formula shortage crisis that has left families, stores and health providers concerned and looking for options, the Butler County WIC office is making arrangements so that those in need can access formula for their children.
Adagio Health WIC of Butler County, a branch of Adagio Health, which manages WIC services across Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Indiana and Lawrence counties, is working to make information available to its clients about the shortage, chief of external affairs Alicia Schisler said.
“We’re trying to provide all available information on social media, and make sure that the moms that we work with know what their options are,” Schisler said. “Our WIC clients are very important to us, and we will do whatever we can to help them navigate this crisis.”
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides supplemental foods, health care referrals and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age 5 who are found to be at a nutritional risk.
Adagio Health serves approximately 1,600 WIC clients in Butler County, Schisler said. In recent weeks, the Butler office has received more requests for assistance finding formula.
“That office is receiving around 10 calls a day related to formula difficulties right now,” she said. “I want to say it is within the last week, things have picked up. The same trends that we are seeing here in Pennsylvania, or even nationally, we are seeing the same impacts that everybody else is. Our WIC moms are up against the same constraints that other folks are as well.”
WIC programs typically encourage breastfeeding infants when possible, and provide breastfeeding support. For families who do not fully breastfeed, WIC provides iron-fortified infant formula. Special infant formulas and medical foods may be provided when prescribed by a physician for a specified medical condition, according to the USDA WIC website.
Temporarily, Schisler said, substitutions for the typical formula brands allowed by WIC are permitted. A full list of those formulas is available on the WIC website.
“WIC is being more flexible with what formulas are going to be covered with WIC benefits,” she explained. “(If a mother asks), our team can explain what her options are, if she was using formula A, her benefits can work for formula B.”
At the Butler County Adagio Health office, she said, staff has also been calling around to WIC-approved stores to find where formula is available and inform mothers.
“If they can identify where the formula she is looking for or an acceptable substitute is available, they will point her in the right direction,” Schisler said.
Assistance isn’t limited solely to mothers, she added.
“It is a lot of WIC moms, but also a lot of WIC families and WIC caregivers,” she said. “There are WIC dads and WIC grandparents. We are looking to assist any of our WIC clients in getting what they need for their babies.”
Though the news of President Joe Biden’s invoking of the Defense Production Act to speed production of infant formula and import supply from overseas this week is encouraging, Schisler said, an end to the crisis may take some time.
“I think everybody is gratified to see that attempts are being made to ramp up formula production or import needed formula, but we are still hearing several weeks, though, before things begin to normalize,” Schisler said.
WIC clients in need of assistance can go to adagiohealth.org/wic, or call 1-866-942-2778 to schedule appointments. In the meantime, the WIC office is working to dispel misinformation, Schisler added.
“There's some misinformation going around on the internet, and we are doing our best to urge folks to talk to their pediatricians, not to attempt to make their own formula,” she said. “We would rather they call that WIC number.”
