A North Carolina mom had no idea there was something wrong with the baby formula she was giving her 9-month-old daughter until her daughter fell ill.
According to First Coast News, the police are looking into reports that people are buying baby formula, swapping the formula with baking flour, and returning the package to the store.
Madeline Roque told WCNC that she was one of the unsuspecting parents who purchased tampered baby formula.
Roque admitted that she didn’t realize anything was wrong with the formula until her 9-month-old Adeline started getting sick. She told WCNC that after giving her daughter the “formula,” Adeline began to cry, vomit, and refuse to drink from her bottle:
“She was throwing up throughout the day passing a lot of gas … I just knew something was wrong.”
However, while the mom knew something was wrong, she couldn’t put her finger on what could be making her child sick. Then she inspected the “formula” she was giving her.
Roque said she purchased the product from a local Wal-Mart. After noticing that it looked different than the formula she purchased in the past, she let the bottle sit for a while.
Roque said the mixture began to separate, something it’s never done before:
“I looked at the milk and I realize something’s definitely weird, the color is different, the texture was different. […] And then when I poured it, the bottle, into the sink. I saw how it got, that’s when it hit me. I saw how it clumped up and I’m like oh my god my daughter’s stomach is just the same or worse.”
The mom said that while she can’t be for sure, the foreign substance reminded her of flour.
After making the harrowing discovery, Roque contacted Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s communication team told NBC Charlotte that their policy is to not put returned items back on the shelf. However, an investigation is ongoing.
And this isn’t the first time parents have discovered that the baby formula they have purchased had been tampered with.
As Dearly previously reported, the popular brand of baby formula known as “Enfamil” was removed from the shelves of all CVS stores. Multiple families claimed that their sealed purchases smelled like baking flour and made their children sick.
As WCNC reports, it’s always important to make sure the baby formula is sealed before it’s purchased. It’s also important to know that all formulas seamlessly mix with water. So if the formula that was purchased does not, that can be an indication that something is wrong with it.
As Roque concluded, “It’s happening, and it’s not right.”
Thankfully, the mom’s daughter is doing well now that she’s no longer drinking the formula.