Formula Race

I’ve been away from this blog for awhile but busy as ever with our baby. In the month or so since my last post, Marianne has continued to grow, so much so that the doctor warned us to watch her weight during our last visit.

It’s not to say that she’s fat, but our daughter is now pleasantly plump in a Michelin Tire Man sort of way (we can now count three little rolls of baby blubber on her legs as opposed to the two from just a few weeks ago). Her growth is quite normal, of course, but we can’t help but wonder if her now nearly exclusive diet of Similac baby formula is a little too nourishing (my wife’s breast milk supply has, alas, gone almost completely dry).

Nevertheless, we have been stockpiling baby powder over the past few weeks – mainly because like many parents in China, the recent news that formula powder is going up due to rising milk prices around the world has compelled us to buy in bulk. 

Word on the net (and from our delivery guy from Leyou.com) has it that some brands (i.e. Nestle) will see up to a 30 percent increase in prices, while other will see 5 to 20 percent increases, along with a decrease in the volume of powder in each can. Carrefour, for instance, reports price rises from a little over RMB 130 a can to RMB 159.

For many, the news is so ominous that Hong Kong recently instituted a purchase limit of four cans per consumer because so many people were going there to buy huge quantities of powder at a time, presumably to bring back to the Mainland to sell.

While it’s still hard to say whether or not this will actually happen this month, the rampant inflation that China has seen in recent months is reason enough for us to jump on the panic buying bandwagon. According to the latest news reports, the consumers are predictably unhappy – and there is even talk of a lawsuit against the milk powder companies.

Thus we are heeding the advice to go ahead and buy a couple of cartons of powder – enough to last until Marianne is primarily eating solid food. And for any fellow cash-strapped parents of formula-fed babies, you’d be well advised to check out www.leyou.com and www.lijiababy.com.cn for home delivery options (ask a Chinese speaker to help if you can’t read Chinese).

More links: http://www.21food.cn/html/news/35/286212.htm