- ALLERGY, RESPIRATORY
- Obesity May Raise Kids' Allergy Risk
- Childhood Food Allergies on the Rise
- Overweight Moms More Likely to Have Asthmatic Kids
- ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
- Garlic Yields Up Its Health Secret
- Ginkgo No Shield Against Alzheimer's
- Meditation, Yoga Might Switch Off Stress Genes
- ANIMAL CARE
- Animals Respond to Acupuncture's Healing Touch
- Rest Easy. When It Comes to Swine Flu, Your Pet Is Safe
- 'Comfort Dogs' Come to Emotional Rescue
- BONES & JOINTS
- Tai Chi May Help Ward Off Knee Pain in Seniors
- Put Your Best Foot Forward Next Year
- Active Young Women Need Calcium, Vitamin D
- CANCER
- Low Vitamin D Levels May Initiate Cancer Development
- Poor Women Seem to Be Skipping Breast Cancer Drugs
- Omega-3 May Safely Treat Precancerous Bowel Polyps
- CAREGIVING
- Birthmark or Blood Vessel Problem?
- Caregivers Face Multiple Strains Tending Older Parents
- Babies Born in High Pollen Months at Wheezing Risk
- CIRCULATORY SYSTEM
- Mercury in Fish Linked to High Blood Pressure
- Vitamins Do Older Women Little Good
- Varicose Veins May Mask Larger Problem
- COSMETIC
- Contact Lenses Boost Kids' Self-Image
- New Genetic Links to Baldness Discovered
- Gum Chewing May Cut Craving for Snacks
- DENTAL, ORAL
- Acid Drinks Blamed for Increase in Tooth Erosion
- An Oral Approach to Heart Disease
- Periodontal Disease Impacts Whole Health
- DIABETES
- Fructose-Sweetened Drinks Up Metabolic Syndrome Risk
- Study Shows Turmeric May Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
- 'Standard' Glucose Test May Be Wrong One for Obese Children
- DIET, NUTRITION
- Natural Oils Help Lower Body Fat For Some
- Mediterranean Diet Plus Exercise Lowers Alzheimer's Risk
- Fish Oil's Benefits Remain Elusive
- DISABILITIES
- Could Your Cell Phone Help Shield You From Alzheimer's?
- Review Finds Marijuana May Help MS Patients
- ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
- Dementia Underestimated in Developing Countries
- Most Mt. Everest Deaths Occur Near Summit During Descent
- Gas Cooking Might Up Your Cancer Risk
- EYE CARE, VISION
- Kids Think Glasses Make Others Look Smart, Honest
- Hybrid Cars Pose Risk to Blind, Visually Impaired
- Blood Sugar Control Helps Diabetics Preserve Sight
- FITNESS
- Women Who Run May Benefit From Extra Folic Acid
- Fall Cleanup Is a Prime Time for Accidents
- Run for Your Life
- GASTROINTESTINAL PROBLEMS
- New Guidelines Issued for Management of IBS
- Traditional Nonsurgical GERD Treatments Not Impressive
- HRT Use Raises Risk of Stomach Trouble
- GENERAL HEALTH
- Winter's Bitter Cold Poses Health Dangers
- Swine Flu Loves a Crowd
- Common Social Groups and Race, Seem to Help People Relate
- HEAD & NECK
- Many Children Will Outgrow Headaches
- Ski Helmets Encouraged for All
- Zen May Thicken Brain, Thwart Pain
- HEALTH & TECHNOLOGY
- Magnet Therapy May Ease Hard-to-Treat Depression
- The Internet Is Becoming One-Stop Shopping for Health Help
- Save Your Aging Brain, Try Surfing The Web
- HEART & CARDIOVASCULAR
- B-Vitamins Help Protect Against Stroke, Heart Disease
- Rheumatoid Arthritis a Threat to the Heart
- Shedding Light on Why Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Help the Heart
- INFECTIOUS DISEASE
- More Medicinal Uses for Pomegranate
- The HPV Vaccine: Preventative Medicine or Human Sacrifice?
- Swine Flu Loves a Crowd
- KID'S HEALTH
- Should Your Child Be Seeing a Chiropractor?
- Heart Defects in Newborns Linked to Antidepressants
- Even Young Kids Can Learn CPR
- MEN'S HEALTH
- Drinking Green Tea May Slow Prostate Cancer
- Could Chinese Herb Be a Natural Viagra?
- Strenuous Daily Workout May Keep Cancer at Bay
- MENTAL HEALTH
- Shop 'Til You Drop: You May Feel Better
- Fear Response May Stem From Protein in Brain
- Man's Best Friend Helps Mend Broken Hearts
- PREGNANCY
- Before Conceiving, Take Folic Acid for One Full Year
- Exercise As Well As Acupuncture, May Ease Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
- Sleeping Could Help Women Lose The Baby Fat
- SENIORS
- Community Exercise Programs Boost Seniors' Strength
- Healthy Diet Could Cut Alzheimer's Disease Risk
- Vitamin D May Help Keep Aging at Bay
Tainted China Formula Caused High Rate of Kidney Stones in Kids
By eHolistic.com Published: 02/04/2009
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 4 (HealthDay News) -- The melamine-tainted infant formula in China that sickened more than 50,000 kids last fall resulted in more than 10 percent of the youngest ones developing kidney problems, according to just-released Beijing research on the scandal.
About 20 percent of melamine-exposed infants in Taiwan and 10 percent of those who drank the formula in Beijing ended up getting kidney stones. And children born prematurely had an even greater risk, concluded the authors of a study released online Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine and scheduled to appear in the journal's March 12 print issue.
"We've had reports of roughly the number of children affected, but this is the first report that is more systematically looking at the ramifications of the exposure in kids," said Dr. Michael Somers, a pediatric nephrologist with Children's Hospital Boston and a spokesman for the American Society of Pediatric Nephrology. "This is from the hospital in Beijing, which is their equivalent of a big academic hospital with very good pediatric nephrology."
The children involved in the study all survived and are basically thriving after their encounter with melamine-contaminated formula, said Dr. Craig B. Langman, author of an accompanying editorial and a kidney diseases professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Less is known about the children who fared poorly. And their future remains unclear, Langman said in his editorial.
Much more study needs to be done, he wrote, "before we know whether apparently thriving children have a major ongoing health risk from previous melamine exposure through their infant formula."
Melamine is an industrial chemical found in plastics and other products. It was added to infant formula and other foods in mainland China to boost the protein content and help the products pass muster on food-quality tests.
Since September, such melamine-contaminated baby formula sickened more than 54,000 children and is being blamed for at least four deaths in Asia.
The chemical has turned up in dairy products sold across Asia and, to a lesser extent, in Europe and in the United States.
U.S. health officials decreed in early October that no amount of melamine was safe in infant formula and later set a threshold of 1 part per million (ppm), provided that cyanuric acid, a chemical relative, was not also present. For all other foods, only amounts less than 2.5 ppm are considered risk-free.
Many U.S. consumers first became aware of melamine contamination in 2007, when tainted pet food from China killed more than 4,000 dogs and cats in the United States.
For the latest study, the parents of 589 children 36 months of age or younger who were being screened for melamine exposure and for urinary tract or kidney stones filled out questionnaires about their children's condition and symptoms. The researchers, from Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, also performed various lab tests.
They found that about 9.9 percent of Chinese children who had ingested the tainted products developed kidney stones. In Taiwan, close to 20 percent developed stones. In Hong Kong, only one child exposed to melamine was reported to have developed kidney stones.
Children who had been exposed to high-melamine-content formula (more than 500 ppm) were seven times more likely to develop kidney stones than were those exposed to non-contaminated formula, the study found.
Infants born prematurely were 4.5 times more likely to develop the stones than babies born at term.
"These children were asymptomatic and had no laboratory abnormalities that we normally would associate with kidney stone disease," said Dr. Prasad Devarajan, director of nephrology and hypertension at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "The big problem we think about in kidney stones is obstructions, and that was very rare. And even those who had obstruction were asymptomatic."
"We don't know what's going to happen down the line, but it's clear that the problem has been identified by the Chinese government, and they have taken the right steps to control it," Devarajan added. "I don't anticipate this to be an ongoing problem. Clinicians should be aware of the problem but should not panic."
And the message for Americans who have adopted Chinese children is, in essence, not to worry.
"In healthy, thriving kids in the U.S. who are of Chinese ancestry and may have lived in China in [the affected] provinces during 2007 and 2008, I would not do anything," Langman said. "This should not make people who've adopted Chinese infants panic."
-Amanda Gardner
More information
The American Society of Pediatric Nephrology has more information on melamine.
SOURCES: Michael Somers, M.D., pediatric nephrologist, Children's Hospital Boston, and spokesman, American Society of Pediatric Nephrology; Prasad Devarajan, M.D., director, division of nephrology and hypertension, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati; Craig B. Langman, M.D., Isaac A. Abt M.D. professor of kidney diseases, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, and head, kidney diseases, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago; March 12, 2009, New England Journal of Medicine
Last Updated: Feb. 04, 2009
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