Are you feeding your baby expired baby formula?

Melanie Lawson Image
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Are you feeding your baby expired baby formula?
When a local dad went to the grocery store to buy baby formula, he came home with something potentially dangerous to his newborn sons

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- When a local dad went to the grocery store to buy baby formula, he came home with something potentially dangerous to his newborn sons. Now the family is sharing their story, so other parents don't make the same mistake.



Manuela Betwa spends about a hundred dollars a week on baby formula for her two-month-old twins.



Last week, her husband bought nine containers of Similac formula from the H-E-B on Fountainview then brought them home to feed the babies.



"We noticed that they were more fussy than usual. They were throwing up a lot through the mouth and through the nose, which they do, but that day they specifically did it a lot," Betwa said.



When it was time for their next feeding...



"As I poured the formula into the bottle I noticed that the consistency was unusual. And I decided to check the bottle, the container, and I realized it was expired," Betwa said.



The "use-by" date printed on several bottles was December 1. But the family says they purchased the formula on December 15, more than two weeks after that expiration date.



So clearly two week old formula, I'd be concerned at that point about the actual milk being bad and potentially being harmful.



Pediatrician Dr. Stan Spinner says always watch for symptoms.



"Hopefully, it's just a localized thing that the child can get out of his or her system; they throw up, they have some extra bowel movements, and then they can pass it out of their system quickly, but clearly that child should be checked out," Dr. Spinner said.



When we reached out to H-E-B, they issued this statement:



"H-E-B is committed to upholding the highest food safety standards in our industry... We encourage her to bring the product back and/or receipt for a full refund or we will gladly replace the product with another of equal value."



Meanwhile, this mom learned a lesson she wants to share.



"Now I know to check every can, every container before I bring it home," Betwa said.



We did some spot checks in neighborhood grocery stores and found out-of-date formula on store shelves so, be sure to check before you buy, and alert your store's manager.

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