READING, Pa. – Families of infants sickened by botulism are going after ByHeart, a baby formula manufacturer.
“Infant botulism is a very serious illness that we can treat but the child has to come to the emergency room as soon as there is a suspicion,” said Linda Bloom, MD, Chief, Section of Pediatric Hospital Medicine, Reading Hospital.
ByHeart baby formula faces lawsuits from parents saying their babies became sick from botulism.
“Unfortunately, unlike other foodborne illnesses, raising the temperature to things like boiling does not actually kill botulism,” Bloom says.
“Botulism is existent spores and spores are really hard to kill and boiling it or raising it to high heat will not protect a child from getting it,” Bloom says.
Bloom explained what botulism is.
“Infants, especially under age one, and particularly under six months, are incredibly susceptible to this illness,” Bloom says.
First, the spores are ingested.
“Once the botulism spores are in the gastric mucosa, basically like the soft lining of the stomach and the rest of the gastrointestinal tract, they can get absorbed into the blood. And the toxin is really what we’re worried about,” Bloom says.
Dr. Bloom says botulism causes a neurotoxic effect.
“Which basically means it will start to cause neurologic symptoms, now, not from the cognitive points. So babies will be awake and looking around and for lack of a better term, still in there, but they start to develop a flaccid paralysis,” Bloom says.
There are signs parents can watch out for, starting with constipation, and then:
“You might see ptosis, which is essentially the eyelids look like they’re very heavy,” Bloom says. “You may also hear a bit of a weak cry, because the vocal muscles are going to be affected.”
What are the risks involved?
“One of the concerns we always talk about is, could there be with botulism, or risk of SIDS, or what’s known as crib death, sudden infant death,” Bloom says.
Physicians recommend taking your child to the doctor as soon as the first symptoms are detected.