Seems this particular baby formula is produced by Humana (Germany) on a special line for labelling as “Kosher”, and that sometime around April vitamin B1 (thiamin) was removed from it…
Suddenly, babies started coming down with “Beri-Beri”, a disease no one has seen here in ages. The disease (and cause) was finally diagnosed last Friday (Thanks, Dr Fatal-Valevski!). Three deaths from last week alone have been linked to thiamin deficiency, without going back in time to re-examine “unknown” causes of death in babies over the past half-year or so.
Why do I suspect that nobody is going to stand up and face the music? After all, we’re only talking human life and grieving parents here! What are these as opposed to a few more bucks (or euros) in the bank?
Conversely, how long will it take for conspiracy theories (“The germans did this on purpose because they are anti-semitic!”) to surface, completely blowing the issue of the chain of responsibility out of the water?
And why do I suspect that Humana (manufacturer - German) and Remedia (distributor - Israeli) will play “pass the buck” in such a way that legal recourse (like, hopefully, enough billions in damages to wipe out both companies) will be well-nigh impossible because of international law complications?
In short, why do I suspect that the baby killers are not going to pay the price?
OK, I’ve gotten this off my chest. You can ignore me now
TeaElle - first thanks for actually addressing the OP!
To your point - the problem here was not that the formula could never be a suitable replacement. It had been such a replacement for years. And some families just need the replacement (especially in cases like this - this is a non-dairy formula for lactose-incontinent babies).
The problem here is that the manufacturer failed to put sufficient quantities of thiamin in the product. Not that they didn’t know it should be there - it was listed right there on the box, at the dosage which the formula should have contained - but rather that, through some mechanism of failure I hope someone gets to the bottom of, the vitamin was listed but not present in the formula itself. This happened following a different, supposedly minor, change in the formula about half a year ago (a change in the source of the Fat contents, I believe)
I’d rather keep this thread away from the breast-feeding vs. formula debate. Although it is important in its own right, it was not the topic I chose to rant about… But thanks again for taking the time to say something actually relevant.
As to all the rest of you above - given the subject matter, are you all proud of your Dead Baby jokes?
What stories like this - and we had a not entirely dissimilar one here involving a vitamin company that produced a whole lot of supplements that turned out to contain things that weren’t supposed to be there and not contain things that were, with pretty bad results - remind me of is the degree to which we all rely on people very distant from us doing their jobs. It doesn’t seem to me that the Ministry did too much wrong. And it may be that the company thought they had systems in place to prevent this sort of thing from occurring - although given the potential for harm, clearly someone should have been doing batch checking. But it may be this was one person just not doing their job diligently. And at some level, there’s nothing a government or a company or a consumer can do about that.
Now it may be Noone Special that someone with deepish pockets failed badly, and if so, I hope that they are held accountable in a way that serves notice to others. But we are all vulnerable to strangers who can’t be given sufficient incentive to take their jobs adequately seriously.
We are not all as vulnerable as babies who are fed on fake baby milk. And formula makers around the world, led by that venerable institution Nestle, are known for their slimy practices which put the health and lives of babies at stake. This is nothing new, this particular iteration is unique, but is sadly just another of a number of horror stories.
On the whole, there’s nothing particularly trustworthy about huge multinational corporations who claim to have the capacity to create a product which very few people ever need to use but do use, putting trust for the entire existence of a fragile young life in the contents of a can mixed up by strangers. It’s a horrifying proposition all around, as far as I’m concerned.
Chances of anyone actually being adequately punished (like spending the rest of their lives in prison) are slim and none.
That assumes that all mothers are capable of breastfeeding in a manner that sustains the child, TeaElle.
My mother told me, with hopefully a little bit of exaggeration, that I almost starved to death when she tried to breastfeed me. She simply could not produce enough to satisfy my appetite. My sisters came up on formula, and for the most part I did after that failed experiment, with no ill effects. My son had formula as well, and e’s nearly three feet tall and around 27 pounds, and he’s very happy. This at 15 months.
So, sure, breastfeeding is the ideal, but it’s not the be-all end-all of child rearing that you’re making it out to be. People do just fine on formula. Situations like this are exceedingly rare.
