FDA finds traces of melamine in US infant formula

Source: yahoo.com

Traces of the industrial chemical melamine have been detected in samples of top-selling U.S. infant formula, but federal regulators insist the products are safe. The Food and Drug Administration said last month it was unable to identify any melamine exposure level as safe for infants, but a top official said it would be a "dangerous overreaction" for parents to stop feeding infant formula to babies who depend on it.

"The levels that we are detecting are extremely low," said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "They should not be changing the diet. If they've been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed that product. That's in the best interest of the baby."

Melamine is the chemical found in Chinese infant formula — in far larger concentrations — that has been blamed for killing at least three babies and making at least 50,000 others ill.

....more at link...

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081126/ap_on_he_me/infant_formula

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No words.

K&R

oh wait, they aren't the only criminals destroying our way of life.

Where oh where to start?
The FDA and border inspection has been neutered and their balls cut off by the ReThugs..
Melamine is plastic. It's what outdoor lawn furniture is made of.
Just how digestible do you think that is for an infant or your puppy?
When unscrupulous company heads are busted, they are immediately sentenced to death (a bullet to the head) then their family is sent a bill for the cost of the bullet.
Doesn't seem to deter many, though. With a population of billions, life means nothing.
Someone else steps up to take their place.
This is what we're up against.

How can any amount be safe?

are the same as those of big oil, middle eastern royal families and wall street bankers....THEY HAVE NONE! They worship $$$$$$$.

This is what happens when the government does not watch out for the people.

s

Apples and oranges. Just sayin'.........

miniscule amounts of melamine.

at least for the dogs and cats in the pet food debacle. Melamine PLUS cyanuric acid contamination was the problem that caused the crystals that damaged the kidneys.

I don't know what melamine might do by itself, but I'm not interested, lol. It's an illegal adulterant, so we simply don't allow it in any food in the US PERIOD.

Back when pets were dying I said that it was probably also in our human food. Someone here called me a "drama queen" for saying it.

I wouldn't be surprised if we've all been eating small amounts of melamine for a while now. :mad:

If a woman can't breast feed, evaporated milk, Goat's is best, Karo syrup, and a vitamin supplement makes for fat, healthy babies... and it is usually a shitload cheaper than formula.

most vitamins are made in china.

I've been searching the net trying to find vitamins that are still made in the USA.
Most companies are very clever. They claim their products are made in the USA, but they don't say whether they import the Vitamin C from China(for example) when they formulate their pills.
I guess they have to be directly asked, "where is your vitamin C made?"
Then hope they're not lying.

made buy "unrefined" vitamin C from china and "refine" it here.

We used to use it on animals before good formula's were developed. Diarrhea city.

25 years ago my son could not tolerate formula. I had a very old school pediatrician who prescribed 1 can of "Pet" brand evaporated milk and sterile water to make 32 oz. Add 1 tablespoon of light Karo syrup. He soon became a little butterball. After a while a few drops of Poly-Vi-Sol was added. He did extremely well on it. It sure saved us a bunch of money too.

It was used in the forties as a formula and it is the same formula vets used to give out for baby animals.I had a whole lot of them fail to thrive and develop horrible diarrhea from it back in the day. It is not used anymore for any baby animals or people for good reason. Too high in protein and caused a lot of kidney problems and was lacking in needed trace nutrients and in vitamins. Now there are specific formulas for all kinds of animals that match closely the mother's milk composition and it really makes a difference.
In an emergency it would be better than nothing but otherwise I would not use it. Your description of your son being a butterball made me smile. I picture a happy chubby angel. :)

I was going to ask what mothers who don't or can't breast feed are supposed to do. Your reply helps. Maybe some other people can add suggestions to yours.

My children are grown, but I would hate to see anyone's infant damaged.

I have a brother who is ten years younger than me. In the fifties, breast feeding was not popular. My mother did not breast feed us. My baby brother could not keep down any type of formula. He ended up with some type of evaporated milk with a syrup, probably Karo, added to the product. That did the trick for him. When I see her, I will have to ask my mother what she fed him. I can't remember exactly.

Many of us made our own dog and cat food during that scare. Some of us are still doing it. I guess we will have to figure out what to feed our infants, too.

And what about the rest of us? What will they poison next?

couldn't hold down formula except this stuff that was going to cost my sister 600 bucks a month.... she used what I wrote above (it's what we were raised on as babies) to keep from going broke and my niece really packed on the weight. (perhaps too much, but once she started walking she slimmed down)

>>According to FDA data for tests of 77 infant formula samples, a trace concentration of melamine was detected in one product — Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron. An FDA spreadsheet shows two tests were conducted on the Enfamil, with readings of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million.

Three tests of Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid, a melamine byproduct.

The FDA said last month that the toxicity of cyanuric acid is under study, but that meanwhile it is "prudent" to assume that its potency is equal to that of melamine.

And while the FDA said tests of 18 samples of formula made by Abbott Laboratories, including its Similac brand, did not detect melamine, spokesman Colin McBean said some company tests did find the chemical. He did not identify the specific product or the number of positive tests.

:dem: :kick: & Recommend!!

over 2 years ago

We've been supplementing with Nestle Good Start.

He said it was completely unnecessary and yet another example of a corporation creating a "new" market to exploit.

After weaning, cow's milk is fine, no fancy schmancy extra product is needed.

As solid food replaces the calories and nutrition in formula, I would simply slowly taper off on the formula, replacing with water and juices.

Somehow millions of babies survived before Good Start. Score another one for Madison Ave.: carve out a new market by convincing people they can't live without Product X (even though they've lived without it just fine for hundreds of years). If the product is shoddy, substandard or even dangerous, too bad so sad. :eyes:

it is horrible

Unless someone here is an expert on melamine, nobody here knows if these levels are safe or not.

Unless there are any experts who are speaking out against this, I don't think it is a big deal.

They refuse to set a safe limit for formula, no doubt because of the politics.

Also "Last night, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) confirmed its estimated tolerable daily intake (TDI) of melamine at 0.5mg/kg -- effectively saying a person can safely eat 0.5mg of melamine each day for each kilogram of bodyweight."

It apparently leaches out of plastic containers into food. So if your tests are sensitive enough, it can be found in lots of food.

food that was contaminated with poison from China. Why don't we start calling it poison? Isn't that what it is? And now our babies aren't even safe. My grandson is 11 months old and I am scared so much for him and his future. What a legacy Bush has left this planet! I blame him and his Administration for this terrible scurrilous actions that have left us now in a terrifying environment!

How awful...

I wish I could say that this comes as a surprise but I can't.

It isn't surprising at all. How sad is that?

You guessed it - they were Made in China! Going back Friday.

the B*sh misadministration has, and I rarely would use this term but it fits, raped this country for fool's gold. They are getting wealthy, but will fall ill to their own nasty web they have weaved - they, their children, their relatives, are all being poisoned because of their foolish thievery.

A shame of unknown proportions is on them. I've felt since 9/11 that they were a wicked bunch of "leaders", and their total ignoring of the problems at hand say all good people need to know.

I will be disappointed if our next administration doesn't do as I expect - but I'm staying hopeful.

Bush Family Paraguay Hideaway Update:

WMR's Paraguayan sources have confirmed that George W. Bush recently bought 42,000 hectares (over 100,000 acres) of land in Paraguay's northern "Chaco" region.

http://www.cco.net/~trufax/general/bush_family_paraguay_hideaway_up.html

The land, near the town of Chaco, sits atop huge natural gas reserves, according to sources in Asuncion. Moreover, the land deal was consummated in a dinner meeting between Bush's daughter Jenna and Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte. Although Jenna, who was in Paraguay under the cover of a 10-day UNICEF trip to visit child welfare projects, put the Bush family seal of approval on the land deal, the actual legal papers were worked out by Bush family lawyers and business representatives. Jenna Bush is supposedly working for UNICEF in Panama City. The Bush land is close to a new U.S. military installation, the Mariscal Estigarribia Air Base. It is also nearby a huge tract of land purchased by Sun Myung Moon that sits astride Latin America's largest water aquifer, the Guarani aquifer. According to earlier Madsen reports, Bush and the Carlyle Group are also the owners of major tracts of land along the proposed US super-highway linking Mexico and Canada, land that will be worth hundreds of millions more when the highway is completed.

..........

And now you know why Jenna went there 2 years ago and did so much "volunteer" work.



:argh:

I'm just sayin'.

you if half the ingredients were imported from China. It's frightening.