The U.S. baby formula shortage has left many families scouring online for supplies.

This stock tracker automatically monitors baby formula online and alerts you of restocks at any one of your favourite retailers.

We've certainly been no stranger to product shortages over the past few years. But one shortage continues to brace the U.S. and has left parents reeling: Baby formula.

Many hare scavenging for finite access to the product they rely on to feed their babies. The onset of May saw a baby formula out of stock rate of 43% from nationwide retailers, compared to less than 5% at the start of 2021.

If you’re one of these parents, there are automated online services that will forage local formula availability for you.

Visualping.io is a website change monitoring service that checks web pages for changes. It's often used by frenzied shoppers during the holidays to snag limited edition sneakers, PlayStation 5 stock and other sought-after merchandise.

You can use it as a stock tracker to recurrently check baby formula at your local online retailer.

You just choose the web page you want to monitor – like your local retailer’s product page for baby formula – and Visualping will automatically check the page for product availability at preset intervals. When the product becomes available and there's a page change, Visualping sends you an email alert. It includes a screenshot of the page with the changes highlighted.

Abbott Laboratories recalled several powdered infant products – Similac, Alimentum and EleCare – when a federal investigation began after four babies taking the formula developed bacterial infections, two of whom died. Traces of the bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii were found in Abbott Nutrition’s plant in Michigan. The U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA) shut down the plant, resulting in nationwide shortages.

Baby formula supply was already being impacted by pandemic-related supply chain issues, but the Michigan plant closure “really exacerbated things”, said Dr Christopher Duggan, director of the Center for Nutrition at Boston children’s hospital.

Visualping, which also helped people find open Covid-19 vaccine appointments amid vaccine scarcity in early 2021, sends you an email alert when there's a web page change. Attached to the alert is a screenshot of the page, with all the changes highlighted.

It also includes a link to the monitored page, so you can see the changes in the site itself, and promptly make your purchase. The service has over 2 million users worldwide.

On the free subscription, Visualping can check for inventory updates on the product pages daily, and up to five pages at once. To increase your odds of snagging formula sooner, you can opt for higher frequency monitoring through several affordable freemium subscription options.

But simply getting alerts isn’t enough – you have to act fast. Make an account with the retailer beforehand, and be already logged in. You wouldn’t want to get an alert for restocked formula, only to miss out because you were met with the “Log in” page and had to waste time scrambling to punch in your payment and shipping info.

Also be sure to have your email notifications set up on your mobile, and have them switched on. Make sure your computer and smartphone aren’t in Do Not Disturb mode. Turn up the volume to ensure you’ll hear the alert, and make sure your phone isn’t in low-power battery-saver mode; this can slow down notifications.

The Biden administration has launched its own website to help refer families to local food banks and government-aid services that may have in stock baby formula. The administration is also working with manufacturing companies to more quickly restock formula in stores, including importing formula from overseas.

In the meantime, stock trackers like Visualping may help you find sparse baby formula at your local retailers.

But don’t wait until you’re completely out of formula to use the service—restock times are unpredictable. It’s a good idea to get set up with the stock tracker now, so you can order more formula before it runs out.

Step-by-step instructions on how to get set up with the baby formula stock tracker

Step 1: Copy and paste the URL of the formula product page you want to monitor into the search field on Visualping’s homepage. You don’t need to first sign up. Click Go.

Step 2: Once the page appears in the viewport, select the part of the page you want monitored. For monitoring stock availability, this is usually the part of the page around the Out of Stock label – this usually changes to Back in Stock, or Add to Cart when the time is right.

Step 3: Specify the frequency you want Visualping to check the page – every 5 minutes, 30 minutes, hourly, daily, etc. On the free plan, you can check the page daily.

Step 4: Type the email address you want the alerts to be sent to. Click Start Monitoring, and that’s it!

Step 5: Visualping will send you an email, asking you to make a password for your account. Don’t forget to do this. The password completes your account, and allows you to login to your user-dashboard, where you can view all the baby formula product pages you’re monitoring, and previous alerts, in one central location.

Visualping takes automatic screenshots of the product page at regular intervals – every 5 minutes, 30 minutes, hourly, daily, etc – and compares each image to the last to check for changes.

Lastly, be patient. Retailers are working diligently to restock baby formula. As reported by USA Today, Matthew Blanchette, the Senior Manager of Retail Communications at CVS, says "We’re continuing to work with our baby formula vendors to address this issue.”

Abbott’s Michigan plant has recently made an agreement with the FDA on outlining steps to resume production. Once the FDA approves, Abbott could reopen within two weeks. From the time of reopening, it may take six to eight weeks to get products back on the shelves.

Baby formula will be restocked soon and, when it does, Visualping will let you know.