2 children admitted to Tennessee hospital due to nationwide formula shortage

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC/Gray News) – At least two children in Tennessee are being treated at the hospital due to the nationwide formula shortage.

According to WMC, neither doctors nor their families can find the formula these children need on store shelves.

Officials say both children are at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Tennessee, and they both have special medical needs and the normal formula they use is out.

“This is a crisis for us in health care,” said Dr. Mark Corkins, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.

Corkins is currently treating the two children hospitalized. He says is preschool age and the other is a toddler, and both are living with intestinal conditions.

“This is not every child, not normal children, but literally the formula recall has led to these children requiring hospitalization,” Corkins said.

According to Corkins, the children’s bodies did not tolerate the switch to a different formula, when their parents could no longer find the formula they normally use.

Now doctors are treating the children with IV fluids and nutrition until formula becomes available.

“This recall started in February. Even if you had several weeks of stock, we’re now out for the special formulas,” Corkins said. “So literally we have what we have. We have some things that we’re trying to find. We’re trying to use some alternatives but the standard ones, the ones you would think of, there is none to be had.”

Abbott Nutrition reached an agreement with the FDA Monday to re-open their manufacturing plant to help with the formula shortage. The company’s Michigan plant had been closed due to bacterial contamination.

That news is a relief for parents desperately searching for formula, but it could take at least eight weeks for products to start showing up on store shelves.

Corkins and other medical professionals say parents should not use a homemade formula to feed their children. They also say people should not dilute formula.

Call your doctor if you have questions or need help. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a website with information to help families with this crisis.