Adoptive parents fear milk taintings

Seek answers, testing in U.S.

By | Saturday, January 3, 2009

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Beth Flanders was on her way to China to adopt her 17-month-old daughter in September when she received a warning from her adoption agency: An industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones had been found in Chinese baby formula, and parents should not feed it to their children.

Ms. Flanders' daughter had no symptoms. But in November, an ultrasound revealed two kidney stones, which are unusual in children. Now the Los Angeles-area nurse wonders whether melamine is to blame.

China's worst product-safety scandal in years has hit home for thousands of adoptive parents, who are seeking answers about potential effects of melamine in tainted formula and other foods. Many are requesting medical tests for children even if they were adopted long before the contamination became known.

The American Society of Pediatric Nephrology recommends ultrasounds and other tests for infants exposed to tainted formula in late 2007 and 2008 if they have blood in their urine, kidney pain, unexplained crying or other symptoms.

With no studies of melamine's effect on humans, some doctors say they aren't sure whether other children should be tested as well.

"Nobody's really going to know what the best thing to do is at this point, which is the scary part," said Ms. Flanders, whose daughter is from China's Jiangxi province, where tainted formula was found, and was not eating solid foods when she was adopted. "We're all in the dark together."

Ms. Flanders adopted her daughter just days after the China Health Ministry ordered a nationwide probe of milk powder linked to kidney stones in infants. China says six babies likely died and nearly 300,000 suffered urinary problems from drinking melamine-tainted milk powder.

The nitrogen-rich chemical used in the production of plastics was dumped into watered-down milk so higher protein levels would register during food-quality tests. It has since surfaced in eggs, milk, candy and other food products, triggering product recalls worldwide.

Melamine also was found in exported pet food blamed for killing dogs and cats in North America in 2007.

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