The Elemental Formula, a food that is prescribed to infants who are intolerant of their mother’s milk and milk substitutes, has become unavailable in the city, doctors and parents said.
Families of infants who need the food are spending anxious days, not sure when it will arrive again.
A doctor said infants who require the Elemental Formula — a powdery substance that is mixed with water and fed to babies — have to be given saline as an alternative.
“There are some babies who are intolerant of their mother’s breast milk. Some of them cannot even take milk substitutes that are easily available in the market,” said Apurba Ghosh, a paediatrician and the director of the Institute of Child Health in south Kolkata’s Park Circus area.
Those children, Ghosh said, are generally allergic to lactose. They can even be allergic to cow milk protein.
“The Elemental Formula is very important for them. We usually prescribe it for them till they complete six months. The Elemental Formula provides the essential nutrition to these babies,” said Ghosh.
By the time a baby is six months old, they slowly start taking solid food and the need for the Eelemental Formula is no longer felt.
“But for a month or so, the Elemental Formula is not available in the market,” Ghosh said.
Dipanjan Das, father of a two-month-old boy who is dependent on the Elemental Formula, has visited scores of stores, distributors and retailers in the last 20 days looking for the food. Nowhere did he find it.
“My son was admitted to hospital on December 22, after which we came to know that he was intolerant to lactose. He was discharged on January 10. We had to again get him admitted on January 13 as he started vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea in the absence of the Elemental Formula,” Das said.
During his son’s hospital stay, Das came across at least five more children whose parents, too, were worried about their wards following the disappearance of the Elemental Formula from the market.
The food has to be imported as it is not manufactured in India, Ghosh said. Elemental Formula packets were earlier available in stores outside hospitals for children. Agents of the manufacturing companies, too, would procure them directly for the children who needed them. But the flow has been hit.
An executive with a company that manufactures the food said: “Permission has to be taken from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) before every import of the Elemental Formula. This delays the import. For the last few months, obtaining permission has been taking a lot of time. Once permission is obtained, we place an order with the manufacturing unit and the consignment is despatched. If the permission comes quicker, the crisis can be averted.”
The Telegraph sent a mail to the chief executive officer of the FSSAI, G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, around noon on Monday seeking a comment on the crisis. There was no response till Tuesday evening.