[TinyRedLeaf]

China milk powder blamed for 'baby breasts'

Beijing (Aug 9, Mon): Parents and doctors in central China fear that hormones in milk powder they fed their infant daughters have led the babies to develop breasts prematurely, Chinese media reported today.

Medical tests indicated that the levels of hormones in three girls, ranging in age from 15 months to four years, and who were fed the same baby formula, exceeded those of the average adult woman, the China Daily reported.

"The amount of hormones in the babies definitely means there's a problem," chief physician Yang Qin of the child-care department at the Hubei Maternity and Children's Hospital was quoted as saying. "Parents should stop using the formula to feed their children and the powder should be analysed."

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

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

Synutra insisted that its products were safe. "No man-made 'hormones' or any illegal substances were added during production," it said in a statement, even though the China Daily reported that the infants showed unusually high levels of the hormones estradiol and prolactin.

Chinese dairy products were recalled worldwide in 2008 after it was revealed that melamine, a toxic chemical 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 making 300,000 others ill in China.

AFP