How a healthy baby's life was put in danger by milk powder                    27-4-2004     South China Morning Post

 

Five-month-old Zhang Xucheng's (張旭成) grandparents brought him to Beijing from Hebei (河北) this month seeking treatment for what they thought was a skin disease.

 

But they soon learned that Xucheng is one of scores of babies suffering from malnutrition as a result of substandard milk powder. The infants are dubbed "big-headed" babies due to their appearance.

 

Xucheng is 17cm shorter and 5kg lighter than a baby five days his senior who lives in the same neighbourhood. Doctors say Xucheng is malnourished and anaemic as a result of a two-month diet of milk made from powder that sanitation authorities said idd not contain the nutrients required by a growing baby.

 

Xucheng cried continually while being held by his grandmother, Ren Xingai (仁新改). "He can't sleep for a whole night, and is always waking up crying. I've lost 10kg just looking after him."

 

Ms. Ren said Xucheng was a "fat baby" – weighing 4.25kg – when he was born in November. His mother went to Beijing to work two months later and his grandparents started taking care of him.

 

"I fed him Aomeng milk powder that I bought from the local supermarket," Ms. Ren said.

 

Ms. Ren brought Xucheng to Beijing early this month to seek out a dermatologist after his black hair started to whiten and fall out, his cheeks grew larger and darker and his skin reddened and peeled – all symptoms of malnutrition. The dermatologist suggested that Xucheng's skin irritation might have been caused by his clothing and prescribed skin cream.

 

The family's landlady, Liu Xiying (劉希英), suggested that milk powder could be to blame before the news of the Anhui (安徽) case became widespread, and so the family switched brands of milk powder. But when Ms. Liu read about the Anhui cases, she called the Beijing Times.

 

On Thursday, Xucheng was taken to the Beijing Maternity Hospital for a check-up, where they discovered that he was malnourished and was lagging in mental development.

 

The Beijing Sanitation Supervision Bureau confirmed yesterday that Aomeng milk powder, produced by an Inner Mongolian company, was substandard and ordered it off the shelves.

 

"When he cries, he shakes his head and scratches his ears. We hear that the babies in Anhui had problems with their heads, and fear that this might be a sign," Ms. Ren said.

 

"No matter how much money it costs, we're going to cure this baby."

 

As of Sunday, mainland authorities had detained at least 22 people suspected of producing or selling fake milk powder that killed or sickened dozens of babies.

 

Seven out of 10 randomly selected brands of milk powder tested by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Shaanxi province (陝西省) do not meet national standards.

 

Xinhua reported that two brands contained even less protein than the baby formulas in Anhui (安徽) which left hundreds of infants malnourished.

 

Authourities in the province have confiscated 20 tonnes of powder made by Tianli and detained eight suspects.

 

CCTV reported that Zhejiang (浙江省) authorities had seized about six tones of more than 30 varieties of substandard milk powder.

 

Police in Henan (河南) found a Yingyang Dairy Company factory was producing substandard and fake milk powder, CCTV reported. (Reporter: Irene Wang)