“China investigates claims babies sickened by fake milk formula”, 14 May 2020

Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hunan are investigating a baby products shop after at least five infants developed swollen heads allegedly from drinking fake milk formula sold by the store.

Officials in Yongxing county, Chenzhou, are investigating the alleged sale of a protein drink known as Bei An Min passed off as milk formula at an outlet of the chain Love Baby’s Workshop…

The parents of five children alerted the county’s market supervision authority that their babies developed eczema, lost weight dramatically and developed a swollen head after having the drink. The children would also slap themselves on the head repeatedly and were all diagnosed with rickets, the site reported…

According to Hunan TV, which first reported the cases… parents went to the store to buy an amino acid-based milk powder for their babies who were allergic to regular formula.

Shop staff recommended Bei An Min, saying it was the best formula in the store and had been fed to many infants with allergies.

One of the parents, identified only by her surname Zhu, said the product was labelled as a protein drink but the shop assistants said that was just another name for baby milk formula…

It was not clear how long the babies had been fed the powder but all were underweight, were stunted and had a vitamin D deficiency, according to the report…

No doctors of medical institutions had been implicated in the alleged sales.

The store bought 47 tins of the protein drink from Changsha-based Hunan Waverock Health Products and sold them all by October of last year... A Waverock employee was quoted as saying that the product was marked clearly and the company did not falsely advertise the product…