Baby-formula shortages fueled by declining breastfeeding rates

one of the contributing factors US baby-formula crunch There’s a significant shift in the way parents feed their babies: Breastfeeding has declined during the pandemic, health practitioners say, reversing a decades-old trend.

Since 2020, the share of one-year-olds who are breastfed has fallen from an estimated 34% this year to an estimated 14%, according to surveys conducted by Demographic Intelligence, a forecasting firm that specializes in births and with formula manufacturers. works. Abbott Laboratories And to shelter Because of the slightly smaller sample size, the firm’s 2022 estimate has an error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.