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Abstract

Introduction

In spring and summer of 2022, an infant formula shortage in the United States (U.S.) received extensive media coverage, widespread social media engagement, and visible political attention. The purpose of this study was to explore changes to federal infant feeding policies in relation to the 2022 infant formula shortage to determine whether the shortage provoked policy change, and if so, the nature of those policy changes.

Methods

A mapping of federal laws, regulations, and presidential documents passed or substantively amended between 2014 and 2023 was conducted to explore changes in U.S. infant feeding policies prior to and following the shortage. Fisher’s exact tests with post hoc comparisons were used to determine associations between policy topic areas and when policy changes occurred.

Results

Fifty-seven infant feeding policy changes met the inclusion criteria. There was a statistically significant relationship between the formula shortage and policies addressing infant formula supply, suggesting policy mobilization and attention from policy makers. There was no statistically significant change in policies on breastfeeding or other infant feeding dimensions associated with the timing of the shortage, suggesting that policymakers’ attention was narrow in scope.

Conclusion

It is unclear to what degree the policy changes will endure or prevent another infant formula shortage.

breastfeeding, agenda setting, focusing event, infant feeding, infant formula, infant formula shortage, policy change
Information Accepted manuscripts
Accepted manuscripts are PDF versions of the author’s final manuscript, as accepted for publication by the journal but prior to copyediting or typesetting. They can be cited using the author(s), article title, journal title, year of online publication, and DOI. They will be replaced by the final typeset articles, which may therefore contain changes. The DOI will remain the same throughout.
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© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Project HOPE - The People-To-People Health Foundation, Inc.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact [email protected].
Subject
Legal and Regulatory Issues
Issue Section:
Research article
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  • Supplementary data

    • Supplementary data

    qxaf096_Supplementary_Data - pdf file