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Social media posts are urging parents who face baby formula shortages to make it themselves. But pediatricians told media they do not advise patients to use homemade formula, warning it may lack vitamins and nutrients key to helping infants grow and thrive.
One formula recipe, said to be from 1960, has been shared on Facebook hundreds of thousands of times, urging parents to mix evaporated milk, water and Karo corn syrup.
Parents in the United States say purchasing restrictions and price gouging have left them increasingly desperate to get their hands on the food required for infants who are not breastfed. But the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) cautions against formula made at home.
Tanya Altmann, author of several parenting books and founder of Calabasas Pediatrics in California, agreed.
“I advise my patients not to make homemade infant formula,” she told AFP. “It won’t meet your baby’s essential nutritional needs, can be very dangerous to their growth and development and can even make your baby sick.”
Looking at the recipe circulating online, Altmann said the added sugar would not be safe or healthy for infants.
“Karo syrup was once used to help ease constipation, but it is not advised as it’s not effective and can even contain harmful bacteria,” she said…
