Friday, September 24, 2010

Bug-Tainted Similac Baby Formula? Paremnts Worried about Recall


The last thing parents need is creepy crawlers doing the backstroke in little Debbie’s baby bottle.

Isn’t life tough enough without this added extra?

The Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul) reports that worried parents have bombarded the maker of Similac with phone calls and peppered Facebook and Twitter pages over fears about insects in the top-selling baby formula after millions of cans were recalled.

But the company said Thursday it's unlikely any of the formula already sold is tainted, and doctors offered more reassurance: Even if babies drink bug-tainted formula, the chance for serious harm is slim.

"There's no reason for parents to panic," said Dr. Joseph Gigante, an associate professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tenn. Symptoms might include a mild upset stomach, but he says that should last only a few days.

Still, parents like Stephanie Roseman of Farmington Hills, Mich., are upset. Her 3-month-old son seemed like he had a stomach ache this week after drinking formula from one of Abbott's recalled lots. So Roseman's switching to a rival formula.

"He was definitely fussy, and he's not a fussy kid at all," said Roseman, 33. "I wish they were a little more careful screening what's going into the formula."

North Chicago, Ill.-based Abbott voluntarily recalled 5 million cans and plastic containers of Similac powdered formula only as a precaution after small common beetles were found at its Sturgis, Mich., manufacturing plant, said company spokeswoman Kelly Morrison.

The bugs are a common warehouse beetle that were found near a production line late last week. Abbott immediately stopped production and then tested containers of formula from that line. Morrison said "99.8 percent of product was not contaminated."

"Chances are really, really remote" that beetle parts made it into formula that was sold to consumers, but the products were recalled just in case they might contain beetle parts or larvae, Morrison told The Associated Press. Similac is the top-selling infant formula in the United States.


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