Baby Foods

China's troubles with tainted baby formula grew into a national crisis today as health officials reported that a third infant had died, the number of illnesses skyrocketed to 6,244 and products from 22 companies tested positive for contamination with the industrial chemical melamine. The number of infants sickened after ingesting the tainted powdered milk was five times more than what the government reported Monday.

China's product-quality chief resigned Monday as the government sought to contain a national crisis over tainted baby formula that has sickened 53,000 children and implicated the biggest dairy producers in the country. The official New China News Agency said without explanation that Li Changjiang had stepped down as director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

How quickly things can change. Exactly one month ago, China was staging the closing ceremony of the Olympics, basking in a haul of gold medals and wide praise for nearly perfect management of the Summer Games. Today it is struggling with another crisis in a year that, aside from two weeks in August, has been filled with scandal, natural disasters and ethnic troubles.

Federal regulators set a safety threshold Friday for the industrial chemical melamine that is greater than the amount of contamination found so far in U.S.-made infant formula. Food and Drug Administration officials set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical isn't present. They insisted the formulas were safe. The setting of the standard comes days after FDA tests found traces of melamine in the infant formula of one major U.S.

Cracking the baby food market isn't child's play. Dominated by industry behemoth Gerber Products Co., sales of food such as smashed peas and blended bananas for little eaters have been largely flat for several years. The news is better for premium organic or natural offerings, including those from Los Angeles start-up Nummy Nums.

State health officials are urging consumers to stop giving infants and other children a liquid herbal supplement intended to ease stomach discomfort. The state Department of Public Health said the product -- apple-flavored Baby's Bliss Gripe Water -- may be contaminated with a parasite that causes intestinal infections. The supplement is distributed by Mom Enterprises Inc. of San Rafael, Calif., which is recalling the product.

Exposure to levels of iron similar to those infants get from fortified baby formula may increase the risk for developing Parkinson's disease later in life, according to a study released Thursday. It has long been known that patients with the neurodegenerative disorder have increased iron levels in their brains. However, it is unclear whether this increase is a cause or an effect of the disease.

When Yang Kaili was born in January, her mother wasn't able to breast-feed her, so the baby was given Star of the Grasslands baby milk powder. "We don't really have enough to eat," mother Qiu Fang said, "so I can't produce milk." By February, Kaili's head had started to puff up. Her skin turned bright red and glossy, and her eyes were reduced to slits.

Two Chinese officials have been arrested for covering up the death of a baby girl who drank fake infant formula, state television reported. The fake formula has also killed at least 11 other children. Bai Qixiang and Li Tingjun are the first two officials arrested in the case in Fuyang, a city in the impoverished eastern province of Anhui, China Central Television said. It identified the two as deputy heads of a branch of the Fuyang Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Irvine police said Wednesday they have asked local grocers to inspect their stocks of Gerber baby food after a customer reported finding a note in a jar warning that it had been tainted. The request came as the federal Food and Drug Administration joined the investigation that began after the parents of a 9-month-old fed their daughter from a jar of Gerber's banana dessert blend Monday night, said Lt. Jeff Love.