Melamine

Melamine is a chemical with a number of industrial uses, and an already scandalous history as one of the major contaminants in the 2007 Chinese pet food debacle. It is suspected that it was added to milk at milk collecting stations in China to disguise the fact that milk was being watered down, since melamine artificially increases the testable protein content. We don't yet know how long this has been a problem. According to Sanlu, a popular budget formula manufacturer implicated in this event, contaminated milk was used in the manufacture of infant formula processed before 8/6/08, as well as in other dairy products like liquid milk, frozen yogurt, and coffee creamer.

Turns out that children who were adopted from China as far back as 2005 were exposed to the melamine tainted powdered milk. Given that Josie was born in 05 and lived in China until March of 2006, we are having her tested.

We are unable to learn what brand of formula she was given by the orphanage or her foster family. Also, news reports state that 22 different brands were found to be tainted but not one report lists all those brands. I have spent endless hours on line trying to find pictures... turns out we have some photos in which our bags of formula are in the background. I was hoping to match the photo to find out if the brand we were given in China was included in the recall. I also brought back one package of the formula from China because we were transitioning Josie from the Chinese formula to American formula.

Josie is an exceptionally healthy child, so we're not in panic mode. We're working with our pediatrician and following the advice and treatment plans offered by the American Pediatric Association for Adoptive Families.

Josie will have a urinalysis, a blood draw and a renal/urinary tract ultrasound to be sure all areas of concern are addressed. We are on the same tract as our pediatrician who believes "better safe than sorry".

We'll let you know how our little one makes out.