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Two Green Country moms work to help families who are struggling to find baby formula

Owasso, Okla. — Two Green Country Moms are calling for the community to step up and help parents who are struggling to find baby formula in the shortage.

Stores across the county have been hit with supply chain problems and a safety recall.

>>>MORE: Baby formula shortage: FDA approves plan to release some Abbott-produced formula

Baylee Burgess, a Sand Springs mom, has been to 10 different stores this week in the Tulsa metro area in search of formula for her 8-month-old son Bishop.

“Everybody’s really upset and scared,” Burgess told FOX23. “I would have thought that we would be panicking trying to feed our children.”

It’s a nationwide problem.

So Burgess went online and asked her nearly 10,000 Instagram followers for help.

She started getting hundreds of messages, videos and pictures from people across the country letting her know where she could track down formula. She managed to get some sent to her from out of state.

“I did have a follower who found some in south Tulsa at a Walgreens,” Burgess explained. “My mom has a friend in Minnesota who bought me two cans and is shipping it to us. And a friend in Miami, Florida who bought seven cans. Me and another local girl are splitting that.”

She said she’s now got enough to feed her son for a couple of months. So she is now helping other Moms out by coordinating an effort on social media to find formula and inform families on where to get it.

“I’ve just been asking people to take pictures if they’re at a grocery store ... to post the location, tag me,” Burgess said. “Hopefully someone can find their formula. It’s sad that we’re even having to do that in this day and time.”

She said it’s important to help the community.

“A lot of local Moms who have got done with formula and have like half cans left have also just been handing it out to moms,” she told FOX23. “They’re really coming together as a community to help other moms out.”

She said she’s had hundreds of messages on social media with people trying to track down formula.

>>>RELATED: Why is there a baby formula shortage; what can parents do?

Meanwhile in Owasso, Claire Collard is so worried for other parents trying to feed their babies that she’s offering to give her extra breast milk supply to parents who can’t find baby formula.

She’s breast feeding her 6 month old son, Rome, and says she’s giving away bags of the milk she doesn’t need for free.

“I’ve seen the moms struggling with the formula shortage,” Collard. “It’s heart wrenching because I can’t imagine being a parent and trying to figure out how to feed my child.”

“I just thought maybe there’s a parent out there that would want to use my breast milk I have an extra stash in the freezer so why not?” Collard said.

She posted on Facebook about her extra breast milk. Within 15 minutes three moms had already reached out to her.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends not feeding your baby breast milk gotten from other individuals or through the internet.

“When human milk is obtained directly from individuals or through the Internet, the donor is unlikely to have been adequately screened for infectious disease or contamination risk. In addition, it is not likely that the human milk has been collected, processed, tested or stored in a way that reduces possible safety risks to the baby,” the FDA said in a statement.

Collard told FOX23 she’s going to continue to pump and will give out all her extra milk.

“I wish I could give it to all the moms out there, but I’m going to keep pumping and storing to give it to the moms that do need it,” she said.

Collard said she follows all the guidelines surrounding the storage of freshly pumped breast milk.

South Tulsa pediatrics - say there’s a rule of 5 – the milk is generally good 5 hours at room temperature 5 days in the fridge and 5 months frozen.

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