Canada faces a lack of hypoallergenic formulas

Five -month -old Liam has health problems and can only eat one nutritional formula, Similac Alimentum.

When we switched to Alimentum milk, night and day really. He started drinking a lot of milk and gaining weightexplanation of his mother, Marie Chantal Vincent.

But over the past few weeks, this hypoallergenic nutritional formula made by the Abbott company has been out of stock. The same goes for Nutramigen, from Mead Johnson, which is an equivalent product.

I call anywhere, at all the pharmacies on the corner, and nothing, nothing, nothingsaid Mrs. Vincent, who even went to the United States to try to find some.

I crossed the lines and went to Plattsburgh, which is 45-50 minutes from here. I went to many stores: Target, Walmart, pharmacies …

Many parents contact pharmacies to find one of two hypoallergenic formulas on the market.

The recall of certain Abbott products and the temporary closure of its plant in February was the reason for this shortage.

People started buying ready-to-serve. It snowballed and put pressure on formula makingexplanation by pharmacist Beverly Salomon.

This is worrying because there are children who really need these formulas, with severe allergies to beef proteins where options are extremely limited.said Pierre-Marc Gervais, director of pharmaceutical affairs for the Quebec Association of Proprietary Pharmacists.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services said it was looking for suppliers in Europe to fill this shortage.

Marie Chantal Vincent is still worried. So far, we have enough for the moon, but what are we going to do? Especially since the United States is also out of stock. The tablets, I saw. They are empty.

Abbott expects inventory to be recovered by the end of the summer. As for Mead Johnson, Nutramigen products could return in mid -June.

Based on a report by Marie Isabelle Rochon