ALERT

This article is quoted from www.cbc.ca

FORMULA TAMPERED WITH

"The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has warned people to inspect cans of powdered infant formula after two cans were found to be tampered with at a Zellers store in Saskatoon.

The cans of half-empty Enfamil brand baby formula were found to have puncture holes, concealed by the label. The agency said it is investigating and will decide whether to do any testing on the cans and their contents.

"Consumers using powdered infant formula products should look under the label to inspect the cans for signs of tampering," said a bulletin issued by the agency on Friday.

There have been no reports of illnesses since the suspect cans were found, the agency said.

The agency said the cans were likely punctured while in the store, rather than being returned products that were put back on the shelf.

A spokesperson for Mead Johnson, which manufactures Enfamil, said there had been no sign that any substance was poured into the cans and the tampering appears to be an isolated case.

An inspection of Mead Johnson products at other large retail stores in Saskatoon has not turned up any problems.

The company said a consumer bought the first can in January and reported the tampering to Mead Johnson, while a company official found the second can in February.

In August 2006, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued a bulletin urging the public to inspect cans of powdered infant formula after four suspect cans were found at stores in Windsor, Ont.

One of the cans was found to contain what was believed to be a detergent. But in that case, there were no reported illnesses after the tampering was found."

www.cbc.ca

CAR-SEAT WARNING

"Updated Fri. Dec. 8 2006 11:29 AM ET

From WWW.CTV.CA News Staff

A new British study is warning parents not to let their babies sleep in car seats because there is a risk they could stop breathing.

Researchers of the study in the British Medical Journal looked at more than 40 infants in New Zealand who were referred to a hospital service that studies newborns at high-risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Of those infants, nine suffered some sort of life-threatening event between July 1999 and December 2000 after being left in car seats.

According to the study, four of the babies were described as "limp and unresponsive" when they were found.

All of the babies, aged three days to six months, were described as "blue" or "not breathing."

When the researchers reconstructed the scene using the infants' own car seats, they determined that all nine of the babies had been sitting their heads with flexed forward.

"When they then went back and tried to reconstruct the situation, they found that none of these babies had any kind of abnormalities, their jaws were fine, their airways were fine. It was the positioning within the seat," Dr. Lou Francescutti told CTV's Canada AM from Edmonton on Friday morning.

They found the babies' heads tended to flop forwards, pressing the jaw into the chest. This position blocked the airways, making breathing a challenge.

"All but one case occurred when the infants had been left in the car seats indoors, allowing them to fall asleep unrestrained in an upright position," said a report by the researchers, led by Dr. Alistair J. Gunn, an associate professor of physiology and pediatrics at the University of Auckland.

Because "the infants (in the study) were very young (and their) head control is not well developed," the study authors suggest that this position is a potentially life-threatening one.

Francescutti, an expert in the field of injury control, explains that infants have not yet developed the head control or the muscles to reposition themselves when they have trouble breathing.

All of the infants survived but the parents were warned about leaving their babies in car seats for prolonged periods of time.

Parents should not be tempted to leave their sleeping babies in the car seat once they take them out of the vehicle, the study warns.

Allowing babies to fall asleep when they are restrained in a relatively upright position could be fatal, the authors said.

"It's tempting to leave them there because they're sleeping. You're probably better off waking them up and repositioning them either in a crib or some other safe area," Francescutti said.

But the authors say other factors could also have played a contributing role. Half of the mothers in the study were smokers and smoke exposure is known to increase the risk of SIDS.

The authors of the study say that infant car seats could be modified to prevent baby's heads from flopping forward.

"What they're saying is that car seats should actually be redesigned so that they have a little bit of hole in the back so the baby's head can fall backwards and open up their airways," Francescutti said.

However, experts were keen to emphasize that parents should not stop using car seats.

Car seats can reduce injury by up to 90 per cent to 95 per cent when used correctly, said Dr. Michael Hayes, of the Child Accident Prevention Trust, who wrote a letter accompanying the study."