Mom makes a heartbreaking plea amid a formula shortage while her son faces irreversible brain damage

Alexa Beichler's son was born with classic phenylketonuria (PKU), a metabolic disorder requiring lifelong infant formula.

As she has done all month for the past year and a half, on May 10, Alexa Beyhler walked out her doorstep in Leesburg, Virginia, to provide a scheduled delivery of medical formula milk.

A few days earlier, Beichler had ordered Nutricia formula for his youngest son, both born with a metabolic condition called classic phenylketonuria (PKU), in which their bodies cannot process the amino acids found in protein. A lifelong diagnosis, established at birth by a newborn heel prick test, requires boys to follow a special diet that limits them to two grams of protein a day.

But this spring morning, Beichler soon realized that the broadcast wasn't over yet. As he counts cases of a unique formula for his younger son Jacks, Beyhler discovers that his middle son Taylor's shipment is missing.

"We only realized it then. I asked myself, "Why am I missing two big boxes of Taylor's formula?"

Then, says the mother-of-three, she realized that a nationwide shortage of baby food had finally arrived at her doorstep: her choices were minimal, as formula could only be shipped through manufacturers.

I called them, and they said, "Oh, sorry, that's an out-of-stock order." I said, "What? will someone tell me? he said." I immediately emailed our doctors, but no one got a response. You still don't have an answer. We have about two weeks left."

Beyhler's sons "loving and friendly" Jax, six months, who "always smiled," and "sweet and independent" Taylor, 20 months -- derive nearly 90 percent of their daily diet from an ever-growing supply of medicinal formula. thinning. (You get an extra gram of protein from a limited selection of fruits and expensive canned medicinal foods.)

The harsh reality, the concerned mother said, was that her son would soon be out of their unique formula, and the results would be devastating and irreversible.