“I panicked,” said Johnson. “I remember placing it in my cart and just staring at the shelves. I was worried about how I was going to make this small can last.”

Johnson said after gathering a few other needed items in the store, she returned to the baby food aisle “hoping for a miracle” and found another mother staring at the empty shelves. She told Johnson that she had driven 45 minutes in hopes of finding her child’s formula which was one of many not in stock.

“Leaving Target, I felt sad, worried, and scared,” said Johnson. “How can this be happening?”

Johnson’s story is a common one for mothers of infants and special needs children throughout the country currently as parents scramble to find formula amidst a supply chain shortage and recall crisis. Rural Iowa isn’t immune to the shortage. Supply chain constraints began affecting product availability in January. Later, a formula recall was issued in February causing the closure of the Abbott production facility in Michigan which further exacerbated supply chain shortages.

Alisha Credit, of Fort Dodge, has struggled to find formula for her 6-week-old twins, Lylah and Lukas, who were born prematurely and need specialized formula.

“I haven’t been able to find one can of Neosure since I have been out of the hospital,” said Credit. “Once I was out of the hospital, I was given 12 cans in April from WIC. This month we haven’t found anything yet so they were only able to give us four cans because they are running short. This formula crisis has made me very depressed. I don’t want my babies to not get the nutrition that they need.”

Webster County Health Department’s WIC program continues to serve more than 400 families throughout the region, including approximately 200 in Webster County, who receive formula from the federally funded program.

“We are trying to do everything we can do to accommodate families because we know this is scary and frustrating,” said Tricia Nichols, a Webster County Health Department nurse. “Often our hands are tied, and we are changing (WIC) packages while families are standing in the stores and then changing them again in a month when the formula put on is no longer available.”

According to Nichols, the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) is working with Abbott and retailers to monitor supply and demand. IDPH has allowed the Webster County Health Department to temporarily offer alternate options whereas previously it was only able to offer Similac products which were part of the recall which began in February.

“Webster County WIC families have been impacted by the formula shortage,” said Nichols. “Now it’s mostly families that need special formulas. The regular formula has been readily available at most stores for a few weeks now. Families looking for special formulas have been searching all of the stores in Fort Dodge, and multiple have gone to Ames and Des Moines to look but with no luck.”

Emma Dayton, of Fort Dodge, is also frustrated with not being able to find specialized formula for her 5-month-old son, Maddox.

“The entire time he’s been alive, it’s been a struggle to find his formula,” said Dayton. “He has a sensitive stomach and it’s really hard when we have to switch types or brands of formula. As a parent, it’s really scary running into issues with where your child’s next meal is going to come from.”

Dayton, who also utilizes WIC benefits, said she is discouraged with finding the formula that works with her son’s medical needs and that also works with WIC.

“I would like to see people of power acknowledging this crisis and pushing administrations like WIC to help the people who utilize their benefits,” said Dayton. “When the shortage happened, (Iowa) changed the benefits for that month to store brand. That caused all of the store brand to be wiped off the shelves and then they went back to Similac the next month. But Similac hasn’t been in production since the recall.”

Stephanie Davis, of Manson, has struggled to find formula for her 9-month-old twin girls, Maren and Millie. Before the recall, Maren was using Similac Pro Total Comfort. Millie was using Similac Soy Isomil due to a genetic condition that only allows her to have soy.

“The Similac Pro Total Comfort (for Maren) has been increasingly hard to find for a couple of months now,” said Davis. “For awhile we bought as much as we could every time we could find it. We recently had to start mixing it with the generic Target brand. The soy formula (for Millie) has become tougher to find. But we stocked up on hers as soon as Maren’s became hard to get, so I’m hoping it will get us to their first birthday.”

Davis said that friends and family from all over the country — and in some cases even internationally — are on the hunt to find Similac cans or even an equivalent to send to them to ensure that Maren and Millie have formula.

“Motherhood is hard enough as it is, and adding a formula shortage/recall makes it all the more stressful,” said Davis.

Johnson said she posted on Facebook about her fear of not finding formula for Alexis and immediately friends and family jumped in to help.

“We had friends in the Ames area offering to order formula and deliver to us,” said Johnson. “Others were sending us links to Amazon. Another mom offered advice on formula we could gradually transition her to. A good friend sent the picture to her brother who works in Des Moines. The outpouring of help from others was reassuring and I can’t thank them enough.”

Dayton said her family members in Iowa, New York, Florida, Minnesota, and Virginia are also trying to track down formula for Maddox.

“We’ve even had friends offer to donate their breast milk,” said Dayton. “It honestly feels very dystopian. We are currently using everything that was gifted to us.”

Johnson said a coworker recently asked her how she was doing in finding formula and from the stress of the shortage.

“She made the comment that a formula shortage isn’t like a toilet paper shortage,” said Johnson. “That comment really hit me. We should be better prepared for a shortage by having regulations set by the FDA or a quicker response from the government and better awareness about the current shortage. This is really scary!”

Johnson noted that with her daughter’s age, she will soon be able to start introducing baby food, but in the meantime is doing the best she can to find formula.

“I’m afraid to think about what will happen when the can of formula is empty,” said Johnson.

On Thursday, IDPH released a press statement saying that the FDA is working alongside infant formula manufacturers to increase supply and to ensure that production at Abbott’s Sturgis facility can safely resume. IDPH also reminded desperate parents not to make homemade formula based on recipes being found online.

But that doesn’t help the stress that parents are currently facing in hoping that they find a can of formula on the shelf the next time they’re at the store.

“Last night, I actually started crying because we are running low on formula and I just don’t know what we can do for our babies,” said Credit.