Burlington native's company helps families get baby formula and lactation support
BOSTON - Andrea Ippolito is a Burlington native and mother of three who started SimpliFed after giving birth to her first daughter in 2019.
The company provides virtual lactation support for moms and access to insurance covered breast-pumps, but Ippolito recently announced they would be trying something new - offering families access to formula.
Ippolito told WBZ-TV it might sound counter-intuitive for a lactation support company to sell formula, but says she wants to break down the stigma around how parents choose to feed their baby.
"Right now, families in the U.S. face an extraordinary amount of judgement. Sometimes that judgment is from family, friends and health care providers from the hospital setting even after you've had this major medical procedure. I think families and I know I felt that way, have had enough with that judgement because most parents feed their baby with both. With both breast milk and formula. No matter how you feed your baby, we should be supporting families," Ippolito said.
The CEO says she choose to partner with Nature's One. The organic infant formula is available on SimpliFed's website right now at $24.99 for 21 ounces.
"It's a brand new infant formula facility and that is particularly important in light of what happened with Similac last year. It was an older facility and that's where the bacteria were, so it was really important to us to select a partner in a state-of-the-art facility that was new so parents could feel good about it," Ippolito explained.
The company is hoping the announcement will help parents who are still feeling the ripple effects of the infant formula shortage and closing of an Abbott manufacturing plant last year. Plus, Ippolito says company research found 75-percent of their patients were supplementing feeding their baby with formula to some extent anyway.
"As a mom I did both. I both breast fed and used formula .I also pumped, I did it all and by the way most parents do all of the above as well," Ippolito said.
Parents can also take advantage of the other resources on SimpliFed like virtual lactation support which is mandated under federal law to be covered by health plans and access to insurance covered breast pumps. Ippolito says even if you don't have insurance, SimpliFed will work with you to help you get access to the resources you need.