Meghan Farrar holds her four-year-old son Bentley as he gazes out the window while formula is being administered through his gastrostomy tube at their home in Lynchburg, Va. on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
Bentley was born with CHARGE syndrome, a disorder that affects many areas of the body including causing heart defects, airway abnormalities, feeding issues and obsessive compulsive disorder, as well as sensory and balance issues and loss of hearing.
Five times a day, Bentley takes a 250 mL container of Compleat Pediatric formula through his g-tube. Meghan receives a set shipment of the formula every month, and this month the box did not arrive. The formula cannot be bought in stores and Bentley's supply quickly started to run out.
Baby formula has been in short supply recently, triggered by a safety-related closure of the country’s largest formula manufacturing plant, the Abbott Nutrition facility in Michigan. Meghan’s church was able to help find a small emergency supply of the formula and some infant/toddler formula, but that formula will eventually make Bentley sick.
“Now I’m in panic mode,” Meghan said. “I’m really stressed too and I’m very scared. This is definitely real.”
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