Milk powder blamed after babies develop breasts
Aug-09-2010

Parents and doctors in central China fear hormones in milk powder they fed their infant daughters have led the babies to prematurely develop breasts, state media reported.

Medical tests were done on three girls, ranging in age from four to 15 months, who were fed the same baby formula.

The tests indicated the levels of hormones in the girls exceeded those of the average adult woman, the China Daily reported.

"The amount of hormones in the babies definitely means there's a problem," Yang Qin, the chief physician in the child care department at the Hubei Maternity and Children's Hospital, was quoted as saying.

"The parents should stop using the formula to feed their children and the powder should be analysed."

The infants showed unusually high levels of the hormones estradiol and prolactin, the China Daily said.

But local food safety authorities refused a parent's request to investigate the formula, made by Synutra, based in the eastern city of Qingdao, saying they do not conduct tests at consumers' behest.

The suspected baby formula is still being sold in the Hubei provincial capital Wuhan - at discounted prices - and is still on store shelves in Beijing despite the concerns which surfaced last month, the Global Times said.

Synutra insisted its products were safe.

"No man-made hormones or any illegal substances were added during production," it said in a statement.

Wang Dingmian, the former chairman of the dairy association in the southern province of Guangdong, told the China Daily the hormones could have entered the food chain when farmers reared the cattle.

Chinese dairy products were recalled worldwide in 2008 after it was revealed melamine, which is used to make plastics, was widely and illegally added to the products to give the appearance of higher protein.

Melamine was found in the products of 22 Chinese dairy companies in a massive scandal blamed for the deaths of at least six infants and for sickening 300,000 others in China.

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