Desperate parents in need of infant formula turn to strangers online as prices in Canada have nearly doubled since 2017

Cassandra Shedden sometimes has to rummage around her house, finding stuff, to pay for baby formula.

Today, the 33-year-old mother of three in Thunder Bay, Ontario, describes the price of formula as “gross.”

According to Statistics Canada, formula prices have increased nearly 84 per cent since 2017 and nearly 30 per cent over the past two years.

“Sometimes you’re trying to choose between paying bills and feeding your kids,” Shedden said.

She said she would make the minimum payment on bills or try to supplement her Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) money and other government income by earning a few extra dollars for a delivery service — just to make sure her baby’s bottle was filled with formula and her children were fed.

Shedden’s six-month-old daughter Charlotte is exclusively formula-fed and requires more than the minimum because she has trouble gaining weight.

Shedden said she tried her best to breastfeed her two youngest children, but couldn’t. Today, she said, the formula costs her $90 to $120 a week.

“And it’s the cheapest brand of formula we can find. The formula usually only lasts about three days.”

I feel like I fail (my kids) when I get into these dire situations where I’m looking for a home… for a little extra money for the kids.– Cassandra Shedden, mother of three in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Shedden said that recently, posts from other parents in their Facebook groups tell a similar depressing story.

“People will post, like, ‘Anyone have a 0-6 formula, just to keep me going until the 20th (the monthly date for federal Canada child benefits)?’ Everyone is counting on (that benefit) to make sure they have even one box of formula. It’s really sad.”

Lisa Ierullo, who helps run the Facebook group Everything’s Free – Thunder Bay, said she’s received direct messages from strangers late at night asking for help getting baby formula.

“A mom contacted me. Her direct payment wasn’t due to arrive until midnight and she only had X amount of formula left for her baby, and it wasn’t going to last all night.”

Irullo said he immediately sent the money transfer loan to the woman, who repaid it. Ierullo said this isn’t the only time he’s been asked to do this.

Something is very wrong.– Leslie Frank, Canada Research Chair in Food, Health and Social Justice at Acadia University

Leslie Frank is the Canada Research Chair in Food, Health and Social Justice at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

Frank has been studying issues related to the cost and availability of infant formula for nearly two decades. He said similar social media groups are emerging across Canada and requests for help in obtaining formula are increasing.

Frank calls it “trying to get a formula online and making desperate pleas”, adding his research on formula issues paints a grim picture.

“There are open cans of formula for sale. You have to be desperate to get on the bus to get an open can of formula because that’s your only option for feeding your baby.”

Frank also notes how stores often have the formula under lock and key.

“That’s because it’s one of the most commonly stolen food products in Canada, which is a real sign that something is very wrong.”

Frank said increasing the Canada Child Benefit amount could help ease the struggle to afford formula, as well as enacting a right to food for breastfeeding women and all children under the age of four.

Noting that most of the formula in Canada comes from the largely consolidated US market, Frank argues that there is no incentive for larger companies to be competitive or reduce costs.

To really ease the crisis, Frank said, more formula needs to be produced in Canada.

He said the federal government could consider nationalizing production to ensure supply meets demand and strengthen the supply chain, so Canadian parents are not at the mercy of U.S. production stoppages, recalls or shipping delays.