Georgia mom Quinn Shealey videotaped her 6-month-old twins Alana and Alani on Wednesday afternoon and was delighted with their reactions. She saw her kids smiling and laughing with both bellies full as they now had dozens of cans and bottles of baby formula.
This would not be possible without the help of strangers after watching her story on Fox 5 Atlanta. In an interview with the media outlet, the Chamblee-based realtor shared that she was driving to dozens of stores every day to look for the hypoallergenic baby formula, Nutramigen, that her girls badly need.
The mom said she visited 25 stores and called more than 50, but no one had the formula she needed. Shealey's twin daughters, born prematurely at 33 weeks, need that formula as they have severe food allergies and digestive issues.
Formula donations restored Shealey's faith in humanity
She said she is breastfeeding them but cannot produce enough milk to sustain both of her twins. According to Shealey, she was running out of formula for four or five days at a time. To address the shortage, she tried to supplement what powder and liquid formula she could find with apple juice, cereal, and water.
Shealey can be seen in a home video trying to feed one of her girls a bottle of water. She said that this was her daughter's third bottle of the day, and she was no longer interested and getting frustrated. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised parents not to make or feed homemade formula to their babies.
The mother expressed that she did not know what to do anymore because she physically couldn't feed her children. The response to her heartbreaking story was quick and overwhelming, with the mom saying that it restored her faith in humanity. She revealed that people from Chicago, Nevada, Florida, and Alabama sent her formula, and they now have all the formula they need.
Shealey hopes people will donate to Helping Mamas
Shealey hopes everyone who wants to help her twin girls will donate to a baby supply bank like Helping Mamas in Norcross, Georgia, which is running critically low on baby formula because of the ongoing nationwide shortage.
Helping Mamas CEO Jamie Lackey said the ongoing shortage, driven by a combination of a safety-related shutdown of the nation's largest manufacturer of formula, Abbott, and a shortage of key ingredients in formulas, is very real and is still happening.
Lackey said the best way people can help right now is to bring unopened and unexpired formulas to their office, which is located in Norcross. They also have drop-offs throughout the city.
