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Access to infant formula still a challenge for Ottawa parents

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Despite some improvements over the last few months, many families in Ottawa are still struggling to find formula for their babies.

"It's incredibly stressful. We're already sleep deprived from being parents of twins and now we have to worry about how we're going to feed them," said Rudy Mewett, a mom of six-week-old twins Olivia and Victoria. She says her girls go through one tub of formula every five to six days.

They had been using Kirkland brand sold by Costco and other than the last few weeks, it had been readily available.

Mewett says parents in Facebook groups dedicated to finding formula alert others when stock is replenished and that she rushed out to Costco when she found out their formula had finally arrived.

"I packed the two of them up as quickly as I could which is quite a challenge when you're a new parent and there's two of them and I made it over to the Costco by 10:20 a.m. When I got there there were probably 12 left," she said. "I actually just broke down in tears because it was just so stressful to get there and I was so excited to finally get some."

In a statement Costco said it can't say when the next shipment will be as it needs to be inspected before it's released and can't say when it will be permandently in stock.

On its website, Health Canada says while regular infant formula "may sometimes be out of stock, alternate formats or comparable products from other brands are usually available."

Simply switching to another formula isn't always easy and some babies also have allergies that make it even harder to find formulas that don't make them sick.

"We're just hoping that there is some consistency or at least something being done to restock the shelves as quickly as possible so that we're not left what we're going to do to feed our babies," said Mewett.  

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