The Observation Deck

What!!!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_bi_ge/infant_formula;_ylt=AoLtLDJJVmWcdLAWxNJtIm2s0NUE

I certainly hope that we get a new FDA Chief that thinks putting poison in infant formula isn't okay.

I know I read the article that they get it from the chemicals used to clean some of the machines - or the packaging. Is it that hard to change the cleaning solution or the packaging?

I know I'm not a scientist - but it bothers me that we may not know the long term effects of this until much later. We are seeing increases in autism and other problems as well. Seems to me we can do a better job of keeping buisness without risking our children's safety. (I'm even against it in pet food.)

there's got to be a safer way to get milk.

It's really disgusting what is allowed in our children's food. It's sad how much we have to watch and investigate our children's food, we should be able to trust that the government is concerned about it's littlest citizens but obviously not.

How soon we forget the 1987 Beech-nut Apple juice Scandal.

Beech-Nut sold colored sugar water as "100% Apple Juice" in the baby food section. They were eventually charged and paid $2.2 million in fines.

The sad thing is that this was deliberate; they knew exactly what they were doing selling sugar water to be fed to infants and babies. Disgusting.

There is no safe level of melamine. Hopefully, this will encourage more women to feed their babies human, not cow milk.

Grace there are many women who for whatever reason aren't able to breast-feed. I nursed four of my five and I am glad I was able too. But for women that can't nurse the least the government can do is guarantee that formula is one of the safest and healthiest items on our grocery shelves.

Even if babies are breast fed, what mom eats goes to babies.

Grace O'Malley wrote:
There is no safe level of melamine. Hopefully, this will encourage more women to feed their babies human, not cow milk.

This story and your comment disturbs me on many levels. First and foremost, I had to feed both of my children formula. Not because I didnt want to breastfeed, but I was not able to successfully for either of them despite trying everything in the book that should have 'made it work.' Breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world, but I can tell you that it is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I took herbs, drugs, bought a pump, rented a hospital grade pump, cried as I tried to will myself to make more than a couple ounces at each time. Im getting too personal here, but suffice to say, I had to let go of the plan to EBF my babies and make my peace with that.

I am well aware of the irony that while I try to eat and feed them organic foods, foods without HFCS, I am literally feeding my baby a chemical concoction designed to mimic human breast milk and it made me sad. But it was a necessity or they would not have thrived. What was most important was that they are healthy and happy despite my own shortcomings that I could not control.

I am by no means an uneducated person who was too lazy to BF or not smart enough to know better, and I find your comment an oversimplification and somewhat hurtful. I've been on the receiving end of comments and judgements, and I try not to do the same to others because you cannot know the other person's struggles or situation.

However, I DO agree that there should be NO safe level of melamine set for such a product. There isnt a safe level, as far as I am concerned. If I am to rely on such a product for my baby, I expect it to be without reproach as far as the health and ingredients for my child. When the stories started coming out from China about this, I knew it was merely a matter of time before it was discovered here in some fashion. I am not surprised, but most certainly disappointed.

When the BPA stories broke, and the FDA waved them off with research GIVEN to them BY the plastics companies all bets were off and I knew that it was up to me to protect my kids as much as I could from those products.....I threw out a bunch of items, changed bottle types with my last baby, even though I knew that they would be getting it from other places that I didnt even know about. This melamine thing bothers me more because it was a product I had to rely on and could not change it because it was my child's only food source for a few months. And it stinks.

I am truly disappointed in the govt. on many levels. Whoever said that if anything, THIS item should be the safest thing on grocery shelves is right. Some people have no choice and we should not have to worry about something like this.

As a side note, I've boycotted Nestle products for a long time due to their scheming promotion of formula in Africa. Since the 1980's, they've run a campaign to poor countries telling mothers there that formula was SAFER than their own breast milk, would give out samples that the mothers used while their own milk supply went away. By that time, they were dependent of formula that they could not afford and could not get and their babies would suffer from malnutrition. Formula can be a blessing to many of us, but can also subvert others at the same time...or at least a company that makes it can.