Cosham baby hospitalised over recalled Abbott formula bacteria fears

Ashlyne-Mai Kerr-White was taken to Queen Alexandra Hospital after she fell ill after taking Alimentum formula, which is manufactured by Abbott and has since been recalled.

The five-month-old, who has an allergy to cow’s milk, was showing symptoms of diarrhoea, tummy aches, and sickness which led her mother, Angel Kerr, to take her daughter to hospital on Monday evening (Feb 21).

Angel, 23, was told to contact Public Health England about the formula who then referred her to Abbott.

She said: ‘I explained the situation on what formula I have and Abbott asked that I returned all of the milk to them. I am currently waiting for someone to come and pick the formula up now.

‘The minute they told us to stop using the formula, we went out and got more milk.’

Angel is now using SMA Wysoy for her daughter but the pharmacy has found an equivalent of the Abbott formula which is made by a different company.

QA Hospital told Angel that they couldn't clinically say for definite whether it was a salmonella infection due to the amount of time that had passed since Ashlyne-Mai took the formula.

Angel said: ‘Ashlyne-Mai did present symptoms of it but testing her more would have just distressed her more so they sent her home.

‘QA said salmonella in the gut could have been the case but as long as I kept her fluids up, it would pass.’

Ashlyne-Mai is now recovering at home following the hospitalisation and has 'perked up' according to her mother but still has a poorly belly.

It comes as Abbott recalled batches of formula with specific batch numbers last week after four children in Australia became ill and one died in the United States.

The affected products include Elecare, Similac, and Alimentum baby formula.

Angel told The News that Abbott has now stated that all formulas should be recalled back to them despite their reference numbers and for parents to stop using the formula immediately.

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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) announced on February 20 that two Abbott products have been recalled as they may contain salmonella.

The FSA website states: ‘Abbott has taken the precautionary step of recalling various batches of Elecare Similac and Alimentum Similac infant formula powders because they might contain salmonella.’

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Abbott said: ‘We are sorry to hear this and we hope the baby is doing well now. We value the trust parents place in us for high quality and safe nutrition and ensuring the safety and quality of our products is our top priority. Alimentum and EleCare are the only Abbott products affected by this voluntary recall in the UK.

‘Abbott conducts extensive quality checks on each completed batch of infant formula, including microbiological analysis prior to release. All infant formula products are tested for cronobacter sakazakii, salmonella newport and other pathogens and they must test negative before any product is released.

‘Importantly, no distributed product has tested positive for the presence of either of these bacteria, including retained samples related to the four U.S. complaints, and we continue to test.’

If you have purchased or been prescribed any of the above product, do not feed it to your baby and return to the place of purchase.

And if you have additional questions, please contact Abbott on 01795 580303.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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