Similac formula recall

Oh, no. Some powdered Similac formula is being recalled because there might be beetles in it:

http://abbott.vo.llnwd.net/o18/similac/recall/default.htm

(I guess better beetles, which are gross but not poisonous, presumably, than chemicals or something else, but still.)

Click through the link to find the serial numebrs to see if yours is in the recall.

Comments

[caramama]

@MrsHaley - "And contrary to my fears and suspicions, the Poison Control ladies do NOT keep a running tally of how many times you call and send the baby snatchers to your house once you're reached the magic number of accidental poisonings!"

That's totally what I've worried about! Having a toddler who could get into "child-proof" containers was a tough period!

[the milliner]

@Wilhelmina,

Yep, DS is big into 'Away' right now. As in putting things away in their rightful spot. Not always. He does often have books and things strewn about. But especially if the living room is mostly tidy and a few of his toys or puzzle pieces are out (and he's not playing with them) he brings them to me, says 'Away' and then, well, puts them away. I can't say I have any issue with this and only hope it continues!! I suspect perfectionism definitely has a bit to do with it. Hmmm...no idea where he gets that from...

Ugh, the molars. I think his 2nd year molars are coming in now. Fingers crossed, so far they are not as bad as the bottom canines (one of which has finally popped. YAY!). I'm hoping his 2nd year molars are like the first, which is to say bad, but not as bad as canine teeth.

@Erin, What is up with the months and months and months it takes them to come in?! Double ugh. Every time he his cheek/ear hurts (he touches these spots and cries) I'm not sure if he's in teething hell or earache hell. Don't want to go to the doctor again (take time off work) to find out his ears are fine, and it's 'just' teething. But don't want him to suffer with an earache either. Grrr.

We're sleep training/night weaning again and it's going fairly well. We're sticking to our plan and things are generally moving in the right direction in a two-steps-forward-one-step-back kind of way. I think his teeth are waking him up now. But otherwise he seems to be getting better at putting himself back to sleep. I'm no worse for the wear (as compared to the night wakings/BF nights of the past), so there's that. And one night he slept from 7:30pm - 4:30 am, so I'm feeling more human again. The craziness of 26 months seems to have passed and sanity has returned to our house. So hoping 28 months is our magic point too.

Thanks for remembering everything!

[Wilhelmina]

@ the Milliner,

I am so happy that more sleep is happening for you and that night-weaning is working better this time. That's great news.

I'm afraid with DD she did the night- and all the time- weaning herself, but she still can't really put herself back to sleep. Well she does now post-molars, but it's because one of us parents co-sleeps with her in the marital bed and the other parent has the nice single ( twin) bed we got for her. Ahem.She cuddles up closely and goes back to sleep. It's much better honestly.

Before molars it was hard. All told the molars took five months of like @ Erin says of drooling and bleeding. DD gets teeth in pairs and the top two were through within two months. DH and I were doing the alternating beds as above so one of us was a shattered zombie and the other human.

We had two weeks of calm and the bottom two started and stopped and even covered over with gum again, that happens says the dentist, and then there was more bleeding and more not eating for 16 weeks. And the toothbrushing, oh my.

The canines were hard but not as hard for her. Molars first year and second year were our Waterloo really.

I am sure that most two year molars are not the same drama as at ours. And you're well ahead of the game as DS can self-soothe. I wish him speedy and none too painful molars and his parents more rest !

Less off on a tangent on the formula thing, I used ready mixed formula as that was what the hospital had when DD was born, and kept on using it for some weeks as a top-up until she was no longer jaundiced. Our differing Rhesus status was suggested as a cause for it.

So I never mixed formula from powder, but I thought that you're always supposed to boil and cool the water for it? I'm probably behind the times. It's really scary when your water turns out not to be safe. Maybe we are told to boil and cool as none of ours is too safe anytime?

[Erin]

@ Wilhelmina - if we are supposed to boil formula water nobody ever told me.

Yeah I keep waiting for the molars to be over, and it keeps on going. But happily DS appears to be one of those rare kids your ped tells you about (is never adversely affected by teething n sleep or behavior). Mostly I'm tired of changing his shirts & sheets all the time.

[caramama]

"Bugs I can deal with. It's the cat poop that made me want to die after bleaching out the baby's mouth." (@Brooke)

I've never been so glad my dog went after the cat poop pre-kids, like @the milliner. We've had to put the litter boxes in an area where no dog or baby or kid can get to.

[caramama]

@Meredith - "Quality control has gone down." Isn't that the truth?!

As for the formula recall, my understanding is that some of the formula made some babies have gasterial intestinal problems and not want to eat. So there was an effect for some babies.

Which must really suck, cause I think we all have been through phases when our babes don't drink as much milk or formula as we think they should be drinking. I know I've been panicked when my first reduced the amount she was drinking, and I thought there must be something wrong. It would be really upsetting to have to wonder if she really just wasn't eating or if it was a problem with what she was drinking.

My heart goes out to all that are affected by this recall! I hope all the babies are doing just fine in spite of any issues digesting the bugs. And I really hope it helps those babies build up their immunity for all the gross things they will ingest as they grow. ;-)

[caramama]

Finally, molars. My boy's first year molars have been working their way through, and it's been sucky. He finally got both on the bottom, and I'm hoping things will ease up a bit for him now.

Good luck to the others going through the molar teething misery!

[SarcastiCarrie]

Oh, re: boiling water for bottles...the can of formula does say to boil and cool the water, but that will only protect you if there is bacteria in your water supply. If your water is contaminated with benzene or perchlorate or something, the boiling won't help.

At almost 2 years old, I'm still mixing bottles for Bobo. I use warm tap water (monitored, municipal tap water from Lake Michigan). Some people in the family, ahem, find that gross and think I should be using Britta or bottled. They can be the ones stumbling around at 2 am if they'd like to complain.

[Brooke]

I would just like to point out that I did have the litterbox where the baby couldn't get to it. But the turd must have stuck to one of the cats' fur and fallen off in the living room.

And we are also in two-year-molar-prolonged-agony.

[Melba]

Couple things...

Re: water for mixing formula... if you use bottled water, your babe is missing out on the flouride that is added to most treated city water. If you don't live in a city that does this, or if you live somewhere with compromised water, then hey I'd be all over the bottled stuff. But seeing as I myself have terrible teeth and am more prone to cavities than most, well I use tap water for mixing formula and for drinking to make sure we all get our flouride.

And re: cat poop. Stop reading if you're squeamish. Most cats have parasites. Even domestic house cats who never go outside. Recently my husband had a live blood test done (which was super cool - they look at your blood under a microscope and check for stuff, and you can see it right in front of you) and they saw cat parasites in his blood. They told him if he has the microscopic blood ones, he likely has the intestinal ones too (ahem... roundworm. size of a bic pen. eeeewwwww). Their eggs are in cat poo. If you have a cat in your house, the simple fact that he walks in his litter and then on your floors makes it pretty likely that everyone in your house has cat parasites, unless everyone washes their hands every 5 minutes.

Sorry to gross everyone out about the cat poo. Yech.

[the milliner]

All this cat poop talk makes me more convinced than ever that we should have trained our cat to go on the toilet.

P.S. Sorry for all my off-topic diversions!

[FriendWithMilk]

@Julie -I hadn't even though of that. I've encouraged my friend to discuss it with his ped., I specifically mentioned she may want me to take a blood test and perhaps follow dietary precautions, etc. And he has talked to her about it, that's why we're holding off until the baby gets the all clear. I imagine my friend will follow the ped's lead if she thinks screening is necessary.

What does milk screening look for? It is for every unit of milk or first time screen to check I'm okay? What does it do to the milk? What are the risks for informal sharing? Appreciate any insight you can give.

[MrsHaley]

The two year molars are making me claw my face off.

The worst part of it around here is the diaper rash from the bloody drool he swallows all day -- his poop is straight liquid and I'm giving him water all the time because I'm so afraid he'll get dehydrated.

So we are on the baking soda sitz bath routine 3x a day, lotrimin on his bum under the desitin, which goes under the cornstarch, which goes under NOTHING as often as I can manage -- but that gets very messy.

I love it when they say teething doesn't cause all this weirdness. Come to my house and tell me what's causing it then! At 2am!

Also? Intestinal parasites the size of a pen? Horrifying. What kind of treatment do you get for that?

[Cloud]

Well, I'm terribly allergic to cats, so I suspect we are cat parasite free....

But, have y'all heard of the hygiene hypothesis? It is the idea that the reason we have so many more allergies and related diseases in Western societies is that we're too clean, and our immune systems are basically bored and start attacking benign things. It is not proven by any stretch- but, there was some research awhile back that implied that if this was a factor, it was likely our decreased parasitic load that was the culprit. Specifically, infection with parasites called helminths was protective against allergic diseases. Apparently, some really desperate folk with really bad asthma or IBD fly to Africa and attempt to infect themselves with helminths (this basically involves walking around barefoot). And they swear it helps. Fascinating stuff.

*Disclaimer: I can't be bothered looking any of this up right now, so it is all from my memory. Which is a tad impaired from the beer I'm drinking. Yeah, the quality control on my milk has gone down, too.....

[the milliner]

@MrsHaley

"I love it when they say teething doesn't cause all this weirdness. Come to my house and tell me what's causing it then! At 2am!".

OH YEAH. Our doc is all over the symptoms being related to that mysterious, general, 'virus'. Pfft.

@Cloud, Well, that theory makes me feel a bit better about the likely cat parasites in all our bodies.

"*Disclaimer: I can't be bothered looking any of this up right now, so it is all from my memory. Which is a tad impaired from the beer I'm drinking. Yeah, the quality control on my milk has gone down, too....."

Bwahahahahaha! Yes, I suspect the quality control on my milk has gone down as well.

[Brooke]

@Cloud-YES! There was a thing on This American Life about it. Although I learned about it as an immunology grad student, but that was a long time ago. Cats are apparently not as protective as dogs to have for your kids.

Also I think beer in the milk means quality control is going up, myself.

[caramama]

@MrsHaley - I love our ped because she doesn't discount things like teething for all the wierdness. She shrugs and says could be and that all sorts of wierd things happened to her kids during teething. It always makes me feel so much better. Cause each of my kids had all sorts of wierd things with the teething!

@Cloud - My BIL was just talking about that study. Also, a recent issue of The Economist had a blurb about some study by an Italian scientist who looked at the gut flora of children somewhere in Africa and in Florence. He seems to think the more "western diet" is part of the problem with the lack of diversity in the gut and the rise of allergies. I wish I could blame my lack of looking things up on a beer, but I'm just lazy...

[SarcastiCarrie]

Hygiene Hypothesis means my (lack of) housekeeping standards are PROTECTING my children. Yes. Excellent.

I've heard having parasites and other GI tract infections is protective against colon cancer too (you know, if you live through the cholera to make it to old age).

[Erin]

@Friendwithmilk:

Milk screening looks for any disease that can be passed through breast milk - the ones that come to mind most directly are Hepatitis and HIV. That is, it's a blood test *on the donor*; the milk itself isn't tested. Though contamination through breast milk is rare, you have to test free of these disease to donate milk. I can't remember the others they test for (it's a panel), because I did my initial blood work a couple of years ago, and while I recently re-screened I didn't look at the paperwork. At the milk bank they re-screen every 6 months, but otherwise, it's a one time blood test to make sure you're all clear. At the milk bank, they pasteurize the milk to make sure it isn't contaminated with bacteria and test to make sure it has a good cream-skim mix (in fact at the milk bank they mix everybody's milk together). Pasteurizing the milk is a bit controversial because that kills some of the good antibodies, but they have to make sure the milk is as safe as possible for the NICU babies with compromised immune systems.

[Erin]

PS The milk bank also has pretty strict rules concerning how much caffeine per day you can drink, you have to wait 12 hrs after having a drink to pump, and various other times for medications (even tylenol and advil). But these are very conservative - if I were sharing in a more informal way, I would think that one would just use the same diet for milk-sharing as for one's own milk, unless the donor baby has some kind of intolerance. (At the bank they're always looking especially for women who will give up dairy, because some babies have sensitivity to breastmilk with dairy protein in it.)

[Erin]

I always use the hygiene theory to rationalize my slovenly housekeeping as well as why I don't wash my toddler's hands more often. But I believe, too. I bought a cooking for people with allergies cookbook a while ago, and there's an intro by a pediatric allergist who expounds the hygiene theory. So, to sum up - cat poop = good, antibacterial soap = bad. It makes me crazy to see those ads on TV for Clorox trying to convince mothers to bleach their babies' toys. . .

[MrsHaley]

I've heard the hygiene hypothesis credited with why kids who grow up in agricultural families have fewer allergies -- like, farmer parents come home with allergens (mostly seasonal) all over their clothes and skin, so the kids are exposed and desensitized at an early age. Also farmhouses are less likely to have A/C to filter the allergen-laden air.

I wonder if the reason dogs are more protective is because they are more likely to carry allergens in their fur since they go both inside and outside, whereas many cats are inside-only.

Also, @Friendwithmilk - would your friend be opposed to allowing you to actually nurse his daughter? Even just from a supply perspective, having that stim might be good for your production. Plus that kind of contact would be nice for her. That might be too intimate for him, but maybe not ...

[FriendWithMilk]

@Erin, thanks for the information, much appreciated! I was getting confused between screening the milk and screening me. I totally expect they would want to screen me.

As for cutting back/eliminating caffeine/medications/drinking/dairy etc. .. that makes total sense and I've actually been bringing more awareness to my choices. I think my 16 month old can roll with it, but not so much a 4lb10oz little one.

Regarding the milk bank pasteurizing the milk. That's very interesting. I was just thinking this morning that the baby would benefit by getting my antibodies if I pick up a cold/flu (not that I would seek it out) esp. during flu season.

[Erin]

@Friendwithmilk - you're totally right about your friend's child benefiting from your antibodies during this cold/flu season, especially as such a little one. What important protection for a preemie! Mrs. Haley's idea is a beautiful one as well - babies thrive so off the skin-to-skin. I think we're unnecessarily squeamish about cross-nursing in our culture. Women have been cross-nursing for millenia.

I'd be happy to share with you the milk bank's instructions to me regarding diet and medication if you'd like (offline - maybe Moxie can set you up w/ my email address since I don't have a blog?)

[Wilhelmina]

Not the place to share how my uncle acquired a tapeworm abroad while in the army, and how many feet long it was when it was finally discovered to be the source of his ill health years later then.

I always feel irrationally guilty over the hygiene hypothesis. Long line of very cleanliness inclined ancestors etc. But DD was born overdue with a rash and that turned to eczema within two weeks. That then led to egg-, milk-, and peanut allergy.
The allergist said to expose your eight week old to a cow-pat as prevention, jokingly, but that would have been too late for her.

On teething here all symptoms of teething are dismissed by doctors as " teething" was a leading Victorian cause of child death. Lots of dread fatal illnesses were put down to teething.

But it was awful even though it ended. The gums and no sleep was hard, but the teething acid poo just broke my heart. My daughter's eczema turned it into blisters at every contact.

It went all over her legs as it is like water sometimes and she was in so much pain. Baths, drying the bum with a cool hairdryer, lots of ointment and sadly steroid cream under the nappy from time to time helped a lot, but it stayed sore till the teething was done.

It does end though, really!

[Julie]

Thanks to Erin and others who gave FriendWithMilk such good information!

[Hera]

@friendwithmilk - I just wanted to thank you! I have ben looking into donating to a milk bank but after reading your post realized that I should offer my frozen supply to my bff. She and her partner are doing AI, she is the pregnant one but she had a bilateral mastectomy because she is BRCA positive. I called her today and she is thrilled. Apparently not being able to offer breastmilk was a big source of personal stress to her. I never would have thought of offering to an individual if I hasn't read your comments. Thanks!

[Hera]

Oh, I should have read todays comments too. I will email my friend the link to this post while we try to figure out how to make it work.

[FriendWithMilk]

@Erin - I've created an email account: friendwithmilk at gmail.com, if you'd like to send me the milk bank's instructions that would be awesome! I'm interested to see what their standards are.

@MrsHaley / @Erin- It's been in the back of my mind to offer to nurse. I'm thinking we'll take it one step at a time. There's virtually no possibility that she would somehow prefer to nurse instead of bottle feed, right? Isn't it usually the opposite. I wouldn't want to create a situation I can't live up to. Along those lines, I'm thinking they should combine the milk and formula in one bottle so she won't develop a taste preference.

@Hera - all right! *high five* I'm so happy for you and your friend and I hope it all works out!

[Alexicographer]

Threads like this one are why I love this blog. What a wonderful discussion.

I don't know that I'll win any awards, but I would close my 18-month old in with me while I mucked my horse's stall (the horse wasn'ts in there with us); letting him wander around picking through the shavings seemed far better than allowing him to dash under the feet of other horses in the barn. I don't know that any handsful literally went hand-to-mouth, but it's a safe bet plenty of dirty shavings and bits of manure ended up stuck to his hands and ... yeah (though I'll admit this sort of thing is one reason why I was a fan of the pacifier at an age far past when many mom's tolerate it -- a kid with a pacifier in his mouth is a kid who's not putting poop in his mouth). I'm sure there were bug parts in there, too.

[MrsHaley]

@FriendWithMilk, I would say it's probably not likely for *him* to have a problem with her preferring to nurse than to take a bottle *from him* but if she nurses from you, then she will probably fuss to nurse from you when she's around you and can smell you. You can hardly blame her, right?!?

Also, you can tell him (when it seems appropriate and he's ready to hear) that the more she nurses from you, the more your body will become tuned in to her needs and your milk will adjust its composition to what she requires as far as both nutrition and antibodies. This might be especially important for a preemie during the upcoming flu season. When a human mother is tandem nursing, the body adjusts to the youngest nursling's needs. You nursling(s) will benefit from that adjustment -- it will be like a multivitamin for them!

But like you said -- baby steps. In this case, it's a nursing triad (instead of the typical dyad!) so everybody has to be comfortable with every aspect of the relationship, every step of the way.

My heart is full with the beauty of what you & Hera are doing.

[caramama]

"My heart is full with the beauty of what you & Hera are doing." (@MrsHaley)

Ditto! You ladies are wonderful!

[Lori]

I just want to thank you all for being such supportive, encouraging and FUNNY women. I came across this post after a friend emailed me a link on "sleep regressions" and feel MUCH better about the unfortunate circumstance that caused me to turn to formula for my baby's nourishment. Although I live in Canada and haven't been affected with the recall...I really needed to read these comments :) However, I am now DEVASTATED to think of WHAT my son will be ingesting by his own choice in the near future....yikes!! I may rethink getting that Cat or Dog to add to our family dynamic :) hahahaha...

[SarcastiCarrie]

So, I got a padded mailer in the mailbox last night with a letter from the makers of Similar alerting me to the recall. Funniest thing: I've never purchased Similac (though I did sign up years ago for their coupons and gave them to a friend). So they had my address, though by now any child I had would be grown out of the Similac stage.

[Nike Vandal]

The man who has made up his mind to win will never say "impossible ".