Until Catie Weimer’s baby, Arlo, was 4 months old, he would scream and pull his head away from the bottle every time she tried to feed him formula. If she got any of it into him, he’d vomit.

He was born at 37 weeks, and she was already worried that he was on the small side when she learned that he had a milk protein allergy and was put on the lactose-free formula Alimentum.

“It completely changed all our lives to get this diagnosis,” Weimer said of her son’s allergy. But Weimer, 33, has not seen Alimentum on the shelves for weeks in Ogden, Utah, where she lives.

Adding to her anxiety about finding the formula at all are the limitations on the size and quantity that she can purchase as a recipient of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Programme for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

“The way the checks work, if I only find three cans at a store, I can’t get a reimbursement to get an additional can later,” Weimer said. “I find a store with four cans, or I’m just down a can.”

Before the pandemic, she drove to two to three stores before she was able to find four cans in one place. With store stocks depleted, she wonders, “Am I going to have to force him to drink a milk-based formula because that’s what I can afford?”

The lactose-free formula that her son needs can cost almost twice as much as a milk-based formula.

Before he switched to Alimentum, Arlo cried all the time and barely slept. Now, at 7 months old, he’s “the happiest kid”, she said.

Like Weimer, parents and caregivers across the country and at all socioeconomic levels are searching multiple stores for essential baby products such as formula, diapers and wipes.

Alia Anderson, 35, who has a 2-year-old, a 1-year-old and a high schooler, said that in Woodbridge, Virginia, she has not been able to find baby wipes for two weeks. “We go to the wipes section at Walmart, Target, Food Lion, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree,” and it’s all empty, she said.

Lauren Whitney, 36, a mother of four who lives in Washington, Utah, broke down at her local Walmart because she could not find diapers in the size she needed at several other stores.