this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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I was just thinking the other day about how back in 2022 during the baby formula shortage it seemed like Democrats didn’t fucking care and talked about fucking Ukraine instead.
Then I had kind of a hunch about something, looked it up, and bazinga! Turns out infant formula usage skews based on socioeconomic status/race.
What was interesting is that, in a rare W, the Biden admin actually did act fairly quickly to arrange new imports and stabilize the supply. But then they never communicated any of that shit to voters for the upcoming midterms.
In which way?
Sorry, I don't have kids.
Poorer families generally rely more on baby formula. If you are working full time, it is not really possible to produce enough milk for all the times a baby needs to eat, especially considering that you need to eat good nutritional food as well, which is expensive.
Baby formula is a real fuck for poor families, because it is real expensive but also needed, and people can be very judgemental about it because not breastfeeding is seen as a choice (because it's "free"). It's another moment where the sadism of poor social policy is individualized as personal failure.
The stigma about formula is really awful. In addition to the socioeconomic considerations, some women just don't have sufficient milk production. So now they have feelings of guilt and failure because they can't feed their baby, that is then reinforced by society saying that it is "the right way". Fed is best is often repeated, but only goes so far to counteract the background radiation
Pumping and storing milk is a middle class privilege.
My sister bought a $500 milker and separate storage fridge so she could plan out her pump schedule and meals for her newborn. She also had the kind of email job that has a private pumping room with plush chairs, dim lighting, and nobody asking questions as to where you were for the last hour.
The average mother of 3 working at Taco Bell needs to resort to using formula