JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Local moms are finding creative ways to help each other out amid the national baby formula shortage by using social media.
The Jacksonville Florida Moms Facebook group wasn’t created specifically for that reason, but the community of 16,000 moms has begun using the page to let other moms know what formulas are available where.
Ashley Yazdiya is no stranger to the struggles of finding the baby formula.
Because of her son’s allergies, she’s always had to seek out specialty brands, often in short supply.
“He had to be on an amino acid-based formula because he had serious allergies and it’s typically harder to come across it, whenever you do find it. So, we’ve been with this since June of last year,” said Yazdiya.
She found social media a big help in tracking down her brand and now, with the nation facing a shortage of more common formulas, she’s seeing other moms do the same.
“You have so many moms that, you know they’ll sit in their car, they’re crying. I have friends texting me, you know they can’t find the formula for their babies anywhere,” said Yazdiya. “So, using these groups, whereas you wouldn’t normally use them previously, you might be able to interact with somebody that you wouldn’t normally talk to and might be in an area you wouldn’t normally go to, to let you know... there’s a specific type of formula like this if your baby has an allergy that’s in-stock at this store.”
One of the biggest groups is Jacksonville FL Moms.
With 16,000 members, mothers are using
the group to help other moms find the formulas they need, posting photos to let other moms know what is in stock around town.
“Kind of similar to how Florida will prepare for a hurricane. You’ll see pictures of new stock and inventory inside of the stores,” said Yazdiya.
Yazdiya just joined the group two weeks ago, and while her son just recently weaned off formula, she said she’s already been able to lend a helping hand to some of the group’s members by giving away some formula she had leftover.
“We were hoping that we might be able to resort back to this, but we never had to, so we held onto it and it’s a really good time because we’re in a huge formula shortage. So, I’m gonna be able to pass it on to somebody who really needs it,” Yazidya.
The Jacksonville Florida Moms is a private group on Facebook, specifically tailored for mothers, but we also found a few other groups open to all parents tailored to helping families locate the baby formula they need.
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