Some families have resorted to stealing baby formula as tub price tags keep rising (Picture: Catherine Delahaye)
More than 26,000 people have signed a Metro.co.uk petition calling on the Government to give struggling parents more ways to pay for baby formula.
The cost of baby formula, also called infant formula or formula milk, has soared amid the deepening cost-of-living crisis.
Even the cheapest brand of formula has increased by 45% in the past two years, First Steps Nutrition found.
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Other brands have risen between 17% and 31%, the public health charity said.
But parents and guardians have little choice when it comes to the ways they pay for baby formula due to strict laws.
Families can’t pay for a tub of baby formula using a supermarket loyalty card or coupons, and retailers can’t put it on a deal like buy-one-get-one-free.
Metro.co.uk’s Formula for Change campaign, in partnership with family support charity Feed, is hoping to change that.
In just a week, the campaign petition has been signed by 26,595 people at the time of writing, with more than 6,139 signing today alone.
Signatories have included Katherine Ryan, Ashley James and Michelle Heaton.
FORMULA FOR CHANGE: HOW YOU CAN HELP
Join Metro.co.uk and Feed in calling on the government to urgently review their infant formula legislation and give retailers the green light to accept loyalty points, all food bank vouchers and store gift cards as payment for infant formula.
Once we have reached 10,000 signatures we will take our petition to No.10 to show the Prime Minister this is an issue that can no longer be ignored.
Things need to change NOW.
Click here to sign our Formula for Change petition.
‘I may have breastfed as a mum but I support all mums whatever their feeding journey,’ comedian Ryan, a mother-of-three, previously told Metro.co.uk.
‘The fact that there’s no way for families to make formula cheaper or work with their budget with loyalty rewards, price promotions or even vouchers just isn’t okay,’ she added.
Baby banks and resorting to stealing formula outright are among some of the ways desperate families with babies are getting by.
Others have looked into making homemade formula using online recipes or watering down store-bought tubs to make sure their babies stay fed – even if it means they themselves have to skip a meal.
Baby formula law, which the Government says aligns with guidelines by the World Health Organization (WHO), limits how tubs can be made, sold and bought.
Retailers can’t promote formula through a deal like buy-one-get-one-free, price cuts, samples or any other promotional gifts, special displays, discount coupons, price reductions or special sales.
Even the cheapest tub of baby formula has seen a price increase (Picture: Getty Images)
Shoppers can only cash in their loyalty points for certain products (Picture: Metro.co.uk/Getty)
But Feed says these ironclad regulations mean some parents hard-done by rising grocery and bill costs are struggling to feed their babies.
The NHS’ Healthy Start Scheme, a free voucher for people on low-wages or social welfare to pay for baby essentials, no longer covers the cost of formula milk, The Food Foundation found.
Formula milk is a necessity for some. Lower-income mothers working hourly jobs, such as fast-food restaurants or retail, often don’t have the time to breastfeed.
Some babies can’t drink breast milk (or enough of it to stay well-fed) and some parents can’t breastfeed or produce enough to nourish their babies.
Erin Williams, the co-founder of Feed, told Metro.co.uk that some parents and guardians are simply ‘out of options’ with how unaffordable formula is.
‘This can’t be allowed to continue,’ Williams said, ‘we can’t let babies go hungry.’
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Rigid laws limit how families can pay for formula in the UK.
