Senthil Kumar
Port Blair, Sept 10: Unavailability of Nestle Lactogen-1, a popular alternative to mother’s milk, has left parents of newborns to a state of extreme unrest in the city.
Stocks of the vital Infant food has reportedly exhausted in almost all the retail outlets here about a week ago and parents are forced to run pillar to post to procure a pack of the item to feed their newborns.
Despite reports of depleting stocks of Lactogen I, the lone agency procuring the item failed to ensure timely replenishment of the stock.
“My wife delivered a baby girl after a caesarian surgery yesterday. As she is unable to breast-feed the baby, I rushed to medical stores to purchase a pack of Nestle Lactogen -1, but was shocked to learn that stocks have completely expired about 7 days ago. Nestle is one of the most popular and trusted brands of baby milk powders in India and even doctors suggest feeding Lactogen to newborns. I searched the item in every stores of the city. But it’s nowhere in the market. I am extremely troubled as I don’t know how to feed my newly born baby,” says stressed father, from garacharma.
It is learnt that same company Nestle sells another brand of Baby food for newborns with brand name Nan Pro-1 but cost of that is almost three times of Lactogen-1. Sadly even Nan Pro-1 packets have also vanished from local market.
“Being located far away from mainland, the Civil Supplies Department should lay special thrust on procurement of essential products particularly Baby food. There are some other brands of Baby food available, but they are less known and rarely available in the local market. Yesterday, my neighbour came to me asking for some quantity of Lactogen-1 for their newly born child. As I too have an 18-day old child and just a half-pack of the commodity, I couldn’t provide it to my neighbour. Lactogen-1 is considered best among doctors to feed newborns in cases where mother couldn’t breastfeed due to medical conditions and traders here should ensure round the year availability of the product,” says a resident of Haddo.
Andaman Sheekha tried to contact the dealer over phone but the dealer was unreachable.
