Baby formula crisis: As the cost of living bites, meet the parents struggling to feed their infants

When her son was born with a tongue-tie and couldn’t breastfeed, Payzee Mahmod’s “lifeline” was formula. But last month, a report showed that the price of formula had skyrocketed by 24 per cent, leaving some families in so desperate a financial situation that they were resorting to theft, and even the black market. Horrified, Mahmod quickly set up her first-ever crowdfunding campaign, wanting to help those in dire need. She hadn’t expected that within days, donations would hit £5,000 – and that weeks on, messages from vulnerable families would continue to pour in.

The campaigner’s inbox is now filled with stories of parents sharing the desperate measures to which they are being driven: watering down formula in order to conserve stores, spacing their baby’s feeds further apart, or forgoing their own meals in order to afford the next tub. Others have begun using tins of condensed milk instead of formula, while in one particularly distressing case, the mother of a six-month-old little girl used cow’s milk – which is highly dangerous for babies. “Oh my god,” was Mahmod’s reaction to reading the latter message. The mother had explained that she “felt terrible, because it made her baby really unwell”.

With food inflation hitting 18.4 per cent in May, and the UK’s inflation across the board at 8.7 per cent – almost three times that of a comparable economy like the US – struggling parents are resorting to increasingly risky measures. Nothing paints the current level of despair so starkly as that mother, who told Mahmod that “I didn’t have any choice”. Just as she had no choice but to return to buying formula once her baby had recovered – and has since been cutting out meals for herself, or eating only crackers and biscuits, “because she can’t not buy formula for her child, but she just has to save money elsewhere”.

It is a tragic state of affairs, when a developed nation is failing to feed its own children. Yet 36-year-old Mahmod’s campaign appears to be among the only direct action to have emerged following what one senior paediatrician has called a “national crisis”. Last month, a Sky News report highlighted that formula theft has become so prevalent that much of it is now security-tagged or placed in glass cabinets behind tills in supermarkets, while black market sales of cheaper – unregulated, and thus unsafe – products rise. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, responding to the report, cited Healthy Start vouchers as proof that help is available for those in need.

Yet the stipend, which is available to those receiving Universal Credit (or families with an income under £16,190 who receive Child Tax Credit) equates to £8.50 weekly – less than the cheapest tub of formula. Since the scheme was digitised in November 2021, lack of clarity over new enrolment protocol means that 200,000 families – or a third of those eligible – are now needlessly missing out on vital resources.

For those hoping they can instead rely on food banks, which have in the past year handed out a record high of nearly three million parcels and seen more than 750,000 first-time visitors, red tape abounds. The “breast is best” edict, largely set by Unicef’s breastfeeding guidance, has become so pervasive in Britain that many local authorities have interpreted it as meaning that formula shouldn’t be handed out, lest this discourage people from attempting to feed their babies the “natural” way. Many food banks do not take donations of unused formula; most baby banks, which offer provisions like wipes, clothes and toys, do not have a food license, meaning they can’t distribute it either.

Unicef says that “if a family presents at a food bank requesting infant formula, our guidance is for food bank staff to contact the local health worker or infant feeding specialist team to ensure that they have access to not only immediate help, but sustained and ongoing, wrap-around support” – but this can leave many lost in the system, awaiting help from authorities that may never come. While Feed, an independent baby feeding charity, has “been making it really clear that the Unicef guidelines are voluntary and that there’s no legal prohibition to accepting donations or providing formula,” the situation shows no sign of change, explains co-founder Erin Williams. “The current support pathways are inadequate.”

Breastfeeding has been associated with improved cognitive growth in children, while the nutrients in the milk itself are believed to be best for both infection prevention and nervous system development. A study published earlier this month also found that GCSE-level children who had been breastfed appeared to perform better academically than their peers who hadn’t.

Not every mother can breastfeed, though (particularly during times of high stress) – making formula the only viable alternative. Still, government legislation around advertising formula for under-ones remains stringent so as not to encourage its use over breastfeeding; it can’t be included in any promotional supermarket deals, nor in loyalty voucher schemes – so your customer rewards can get you a free bottle of wine, but not baby food. Though there are clear guidelines for supermarkets on this, the Government has been silent on price hikes – which last month led the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) to launch a campaign over the pricing and advertising of formula products.

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Some brands now cost 45 per cent more than they did two years ago – and the disparity between product prices remains vast, with a recent study from independent charity First Steps Nutrition showing that feed for a 10-week-old ranges between £44-£88 per month. They all comprise the same ingredients – yet a 2019 study found that 40 per cent of those using formula believed the more expensive kinds were better for their babies. Aldi’s Mamia First Infant Milk has gone from £6.99 for 900g in 2021 to £9.39 now; last year, Aptamil’s 800g tub was £12, currently priced at £14.50. The same thing now costs parents anywhere between £9.39 and £19 depending on which brand you buy.

In spite of slowing sales (likely due to price rises) the global formula market is booming – worth £53.3bn in 2022, and expected to rise by 10 per cent within a decade. “It appears that companies are safeguarding their profits whilst families who cannot afford increasingly expensive infant formula may resort to unsafe practices, putting their baby’s health at risk,” according to First Steps Nutrition’s report.

As well as their price tags, the claims plastered across products appear to be snowballing. BPAS is urging retailers to make health information about the formula in question available at the point of sale, so that parents in already trying situations don’t shell out yet more for items that are no different to any others on the shelves. Williams says that a number of families in need have been specifically requesting “hungry baby formula” – which promises increased satiety, and thus fewer feeds – “but there’s absolutely no scientific evidence to back up those claims at all”. The NHS website corroborates that “there’s no evidence that babies settle better or sleep longer when fed this type of formula” – yet entire product ranges still bear the name.

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The current baby formula crisis is perhaps all the stranger given that dried milk substitutes were offered by the state, either subsidised or free of charge, from 1940. Though initially introduced as a result of wartime rationing, the scheme continued in peacetime until the Seventies, as concerns over sodium levels in formula grew. This, combined with a report in 1974 urging the Government to cut National Milk funding and spend it on breastfeeding campaigns instead, forced the pendulum to swing the other way.

While health professionals agree that breastfeeding is the best choice where possible, failure to acknowledge the need for suitable alternatives means that many are now facing unbearable choices. Current costs are in some cases so overwhelming that, in the northeast of England, one food bank reported expectant mothers looking to abort their unborn children, “because they didn’t know how they would feed another mouth,” says Emma Lewell-Buck, MP for South Shields. “It’s truly dystopian,” she rails. “It just made my blood run cold.”

Earlier this month, Lewell-Buck raised a private members’ bill in the House of Lords urging auto-enrolment in the Healthy Start scheme, so that everyone eligible has guaranteed access to resources. The money has already been earmarked, she points out – but the funds are not going where they are needed. “What it looks like to me is that [the Government has] taken money that should be for Healthy Start, knowing that lots of people aren’t taking it up when they moved it to digital, and are putting it elsewhere – and it should be going to these parents, and these children and babies.

Without any other help forthcoming, Mahmod is continuing to dispatch formula across the UK to those who can no longer wait. “So many mums say to me, I feel like I’m failing my child, because I can’t meet their most basic need,” she shares, adding that they “feel so much shame when they’re talking about this. They just feel so embarrassed.” She tells them that it is not their fault; that everyone should be able to access help without judgment. On those who do have the power to change things, however, she is less forgiving. “It’s a complete failure from the Government to have people in this situation.”