One of many contributing elements within the U.S. baby-formula scarcity is a major shift in the best way mother and father feed their infants: Breast-feeding declined in the course of the pandemic, reversing a decadeslong pattern, well being practitioners say.
Since 2020, the share of breast-fed one-year-olds has plummeted from an estimated 34% to an estimated 14% this yr, in accordance with surveys performed by Demographic Intelligence, a forecasting agency that focuses on births and works with system producers together with Abbott Laboratories and Nestlé SA. Due to the small pattern measurement, the agency’s 2022 estimate has a variety of error of plus or minus 6 share factors.
