KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Families in the Kansas City area are struggling to find baby formula on shelves and online amid a nationwide shortage.
At the Walmart Supercenter on NE 72nd Street in Kansas City, Missouri, many shelves lay empty with signs limiting five cans per customer.
It's a scary sight for parents trying to feed their babies.
Kansas City, Missouri, mother Anastasia Coleman said it's been nearly impossible in the last month to find the type of formula her 9-month-old son Ike, needs.
"We just can't find it anywhere at all," Coleman said.
Coleman said it's been challenging for the last seven months or so.
Her in-laws had to purchase the Similac Pro-Total Comfort Ike needs near the Lake of the Ozarks and bring it to her and her husband.
Things got even more challenging after the Similac recall, but she was still able to order it online.
However, she hasn't been able to get it in recent weeks and is down to her last can and a half, which lasts about a week and a half.
"I was hoping that the situation would just rectify itself, that by the time we really ran out that they would restock, but it's just getting worse and worse," Coleman said.
Coleman said she's in several Facebook groups where another local mom offered to give her a sample can of the formula her son needs, but she'll need more before she knows it.
"It mostly stresses me out that he would have to go to something else, and that would get him sick, and he would be uncomfortable and that breaks my heart," Coleman said.
Coleman said Ike has a check-up with his pediatrician next week where she plans to ask about other safe options.
She said it also helps that he's starting to eat solid foods so she can ration the formula if she needs to, but she feels for other parents whose babies are younger.
With no end in sight to the shortage, she hopes panic buying doesn't make the problem even worse.
"If you see formula and you know someone who needs it only buy what you absolutely need, that way we can hopefully all get through this together," Coleman said.
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