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Several more children sickened by fruit pouches tainted with lead, FDA says

More children were apparently sickened by apple puree pouches recently recalled due to dangerous lead contamination, the Food and Drug Administration said.

The agency has received 52 reports of elevated lead levels among children who reportedly consumed the products, which is up from 34 cases reported last week. The reports span 22 states and involve children between the ages of 1 to 4, according to the FDA’s online update on the investigation.

The pouches were marketed to parents and children under three brands: WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit puree and Schnucks and Weis cinnamon applesauce pouches. They were sold by national grocery chains, including Dollar Tree, and online retailers such as Amazon.

The FDA said it is still working with Dollar Tree to get the recalled products off of shelves in several states.

Saltblue ,

Thats how you create the next generation of conservatives and libertarians, by design?

Snowpix ,
@Snowpix@lemmy.ca avatar

Lead poisoning doesn’t just make you stupid, it makes you angry stupid. Now, what does that remind me of…?

Son_of_dad ,

Seems it’s all the cinnamon flavored ones. Thankfully my kid hates cinnamon and we use a different brand of these

Norgur ,

It's scary but shit like this can happen. The question is how the producer reacted when they became aware of the issue (probably some broken machinery or something) and if they did their due diligence in terms of QC checks

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar
  1. this is fucked, I hope someone goes to jail (they probably won’t)
  2. just give your children raw fruit wtf
Norgur ,

Do you have children?

ares35 ,
@ares35@kbin.social avatar

parents have been raising kids since the dawn of humanity without needing the 'convenience' of processed fruit mush in multi-layer plastic squeeze pouches.

Norgur ,

So you don't have children, thus lack the slightest clue about parenthood. Just the sort of person parents love getting unasked advicenand being judged from.

Duamerthrax ,

Ok, feed you kids lead and microplastics then.

blanketswithsmallpox ,

People are doing that in most areas by giving them tap water. Even the lead in some areas.

Congrats.

Duamerthrax ,

Maybe you should do something about it if your water is being poisoned.

blanketswithsmallpox ,

You’re drinking that same water mate lol.

The leaded water? Those people are too damn poor to do anything about it and most of them don’t know.

Duamerthrax ,

Different cities and towns have different water processes systems managed by different people. Personally, I’m on well water that I’ve had tested.

ares35 ,
@ares35@kbin.social avatar

my kids ate apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, carrots and celery, and other fresh fruits and veggies. just like i did when i was a kid--and still do.

Norgur ,

The difference between your reply and the one I reacted to is that you didn't lecture anyone on how to do a job they did never do themselves. You told us how you raised your kids in a strictly anecdotal manner.

I don't have an issue with not using those fruit packets or something. I have an issue with random people lecturing parents about how they should just parent more because it's so easy...

vxx , (edited )

Are the kids stealing the drinks?

Son_of_dad ,

As you know then, kids are all about texture. And kids also go through picky phases. I give my kid fruit and he hates it, I give him this stuff and he loves it. If that’s the only way to get fruits and veggies at the moment so be it.

Vqhm ,

There is a point where some fruits are more dangerous than others to give a toddler, such as grapes.

I made a lot of purees with a hand mixer. On the weekend I would batch cook and bulk freeze a lot of different purees before they could have solid food.

You don’t have to use everything fresh, you can use frozen fruits/veggies and even do Passata - Strained Tomatoes no salt added. We had concerns about the level of salt in premade foods so we made our own on the weekend and froze it all in ice trays then put it in zip locks. Low sodium lentil soups are ok too.

It ended up being a lot cheaper just to spend an hour on the weekend batch cooking for the kid and batch cooking for lunches to take to work.

Finally I got a little plastic masher and used that, as soon as they were old enough do it themselves. They wouldn’t eat anything they mashed at first but they loved playing with it.

Now they just grab apples and other fruit straight from the fridge.

Our doctor said not to give them juice or fruit packs at all. The doctor did say chocolate milk mixed with regular milk is a good treat that’s safe and hydrating tho.

Kalothar ,

Ahhh, yes because no one can understand something without going through it directly.

You can spend years around children and parents, studying child psychology or whatever, but unless you watch your nut grow up and raise it you just can’t have any opinion on parents or their methods of parenting. It’s just too complex of a concept without direct experience.

Norgur ,

You tried to be sarcastic, but told the truth instead. The way you talk tells me that you are ignorant to the gigantic shift in one's day to day life and mindset having a child is.

It's something one cannot grasp as non-parent because it involves feelings and states.of mind that do not usually appear in a life without children.
So no, just as a psychologist will not dare to have opinions on how someone deals with grief, they can and will not have opinions about how parents do parenting.
Everyone who tries to push their agenda onto parents without being involved themselves is a hypocrite and nothing more.

Believe it or not, there are areas of life you aren't entitled to voice your opinions about without looking like a dork of the first order.

Kalothar ,

Yeah that’s correct, I’m just very ignorant and have no way of sympathizing, empathizing or drawing parallels from parts of my own human experience.

Also, you said do not usually appear in life without having children, so what are the scenarios where hey appear without having children?

Wouldn’t that imply events that a non-parent could draw parallels from?

Being a parent is not a job, it’s an event that happens. It is not the only route to key insights into the human mind and psyche. Don’t be so limiting on your fellow members of humanity just because you have this bias that parenting Is the only way to this special subset of knowledge.

Norgur ,

Also, you said do not usually appear in life without having children, so what are the scenarios where hey appear without having children? Wouldn’t that imply events that a non-parent could draw parallels from?

No, that would imply that not everyone who has those kinds of experiences is neccessarily a parent. There are many aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, whatever who raise kids in a parent-like fashion or help out significantly in the upbringing of those children that they'd have the same emotional experiences as parents. That does not go for childcare workers who have a different relationship to the kids. It's just something completely different if you are responsible for organizing and structuring and executing a daily life.

Being a parent is not a job, it’s an event that happens.

What?! Like... just... what?! Yeah, sure... my work as a father was done at birth, parenting being a one time event and all. I gave my son a stern talking to about the meaning of life while the pediatrician examined him right after birth and that should have been that... right? May I ask how old you are? Have you the slightest grasp what the daily life of a parent looks like?! What the hell?!

It is not the only route to key insights into the human mind and psyche.

Of course not. It is just (almost, see above) the only way to unlock the mindset of a parent. That's not the only perspective life holds by any means, just one that cannot (and should not) be assumed one can relate to whithout any personal experience. Just as one who has never had to fear for their life assume that they know what being in a warzone and being shot at feels like. You wouldn't give a soldier tips on how to handle their experiences without being asked, would you? Why is it okay to judge parents then?

Don’t be so limiting on your fellow members of humanity just because you have this bias that parenting Is the only way to this special subset of knowledge.

It is though. Just as fearing for your life is the only way to experience how that feels, or just as falling in love is the only way to experience how that is like.

Imagine someone who's never fallen in love or been in a relationship. No imagine that you have freshly fallen in love and had to go on a business trip with that person. While your hormones run amok and you experience physical pain from missing your new love just so much, imagine the other person lecturing you on how you should deal with the feeling and how you should go about the new relationship while judging you for the way you want to go about it because he is oh so sure he knows what's up. Wouldn't that kind of piss yo uoff?

TimLovesTech ,
@TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social avatar

Did you spend years studying child psychology?

Son_of_dad ,

Parents then didn’t have to work 3 jobs and find the time

PainInTheAES ,

Nah back in the day that kid had his own job in the mines and pulled their weight instead of being a leech on the family.

Kase ,

I hope this is sarcasm

PainInTheAES ,

ಠ⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ⁠ಠ yup

Although I don’t agree that people didn’t have to work in the past. While there were times where a single income could provide for a family it was really tough for other families. And child labor is definitely more common the further back you go.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

In hindsight, kids under a certain age can’t handle solids. I don’t think giving them a foil pouch is a good idea though!

And if they’re old enough to open a foil pouch and eat from it without eating the foil, they’re old enough to eat a banana.

I’m sure you’ll condescend to me about how I can’t possibly understand how hard you have it and bla bla bla

holycrapwtfatheism ,

A banana texture raw vs a raw apple are very different. Toddlers need most of their food softened/chopped to small bites depending on teeth. No condescension but also just not the same thing at all.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Okay, I meant “give them a banana instead of apples” but if they must have apples then just scoop apple sauce out of a bulk tub or can or jar! A single use foil pouch is both wasteful and dangerous - not just because of this lead story, but kids chewing on foil can cut their mouth up. Also, again, emphasis on wasteful.

You want your kids to have a world to live in when they grow up, right?

Kase ,

Not a parent, but the obvious difference to me is single use pouches are way more portable, and probably a bit less messy.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Have a few small portable jars that the bulk applesauce can be transferred to.

“Oh but that’s slightly more work”

Yeah okay, fair. Let’s collectivize child care and stop making parents do all of this shit by themselves.

Kase ,

You’ve got a good point. If a parent wants to switch to reusable containers for their kid but doesn’t have the time/energy, that’s a problem. People in general, but especially parents, are under a huge strain these days.

But yeah, glass jars is probably a good solution. Again I don’t have kids so idk lol, but I imagine it would be, especially bc they sell baby food in little glass jars shrug. Certainly safer than the pouches, it seems.

Norgur ,

The issue is less that it's impossible to make time for something like that, the issue is that
a) you aren't as firmly in control of your day, so planning that sort of thing is just one overflowing diaper away from not coming to fruition.
b) there are a lot of little things like this to be done throughout the day. From sterilizing pacifiers to preparing snacks to recharging the baby monitor, running the washing mashine again because someone has drooled carrot-puree all over their socks again and you don't even know how it got on nothing besides the darn socks, but in the end, you are officially out of fucking socks now and need to wash some, etc. Those add up rather quickly.

While each of them can be seen as "not a big deal", one needs to consider that the parent doing all of those little things has a child that will demand attention in uncontrollable intervals for uncontrollable reasons, so things can take way longer than they should (It took me well over an hour to type this because my son has trouble staying asleep today).

So, since only so many todo-list-items can get done in a day and parents have the same 24 hour day as the rest of earth, parents usually find themselves in a situation where they can't do all the things they want to do for their child. So having those products instead of homemade stuff is usually just a result of parents not being able to prepare enough homemade things by the time they are needed. So they do something else for their child and buy those packages instead. This is ignoring that children can have pretty peculiar tastes and might just not eat fresh fruit for no reason at all or eat only the bought stuff, no matter how similar the homemade tastes.

Sorry for the long and rambly answer, I'm too tired for a shorter one. I hope I could somewhat convey why many parents see it as ignorant when non-parents just tell them "yeah, you just need to do this additional thing, you are not an ideal parent otherwise and worthy of judgement. This one thing is really not a large thing, so just do it, alright?" while blissfully ignorant as to why doing just "one little thing more" might actually not be in the parent's or even the child's interest. I'd rather have a child eat those packs and have a parent with just that little more time to actually be with the child than the other way around.

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA ,
@HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world avatar

Not for dinner, no

Norgur ,

But for lunch, yes?

PainInTheAES ,

More of an amuse bouche

Norgur ,

ooh! Watch out! We got a fancy person over here! Eating their kids as an "amuse bouche" instead of spread on toast with butter like us normal folks!

PainInTheAES ,

Yeah, the toast is too many calories I’m on a kiddo keto diet.

Norgur ,

I)'m on a Reverse Kiddo Keto diet. I can eat everything, except kids. My wife said they are too much of a hassle to produce, so...

PainInTheAES ,

Could always become a Mormon!

TimewornTraveler ,

What the fuck???

Frozengyro ,

I remember several years ago they found many of these were filled with mold as well…

LinkOpensChest_wav ,
@LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one avatar

I shop at Dollar Tree a lot, and I’ve seen some of these products. This is scary stuff.

LaunchesKayaks ,
@LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world avatar

Yo same. I had WanaBana puree like 2 months ago. It tasted terrible so I didn’t finish ot

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

The FDA said Wednesday it is investigating the source of the contamination in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency previously said cinnamon imported from a manufacturer in Ecuador was the “likely source” of the lead contamination.

How does lead get into cinnamon? If it’s intentional, it seems like a pretty risky way to cut costs.

WashedOver ,
@WashedOver@lemmy.ca avatar

I’m reminded of the melamine that was added to dog food to boost protein numbers. It killed and harmed many pets in the US. Who in the world would expect melamine in dog food but here we are.

Aviandelight ,
@Aviandelight@mander.xyz avatar

The melamine was put into the pet food to falsely boost the protein content if I recall correctly. My guess with the cinnamon is that it’s a containment from processing.

RecallMadness ,

They added it to baby formula too in 2008.

Melamine, what won’t kill?

leds ,

That would need to be a lot of lead in the cinnamon with the little bit of cinnamon that is in the fruit juices

RidgeDweller ,

Heavy metals like lead accumulate in the body, so exposure over time is a concern too.

In the US, childhood lead poisoning cases are opened by public health investigators when the kid’s blood lead level is reported over 3.5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. That’s not much - and if the kid’s eating contaminated food everyday for multiple sittings, I can see how it can accumulate over that threshold quickly.

For example, lead contaminated soil is considered a hazard if measured to have over 400 ppm lead. For things actually meant to be eaten, a fraction of that ppm is all it takes.

leds ,

Thanks, makes sense

flooppoolf ,

Pollution local to the cinnamon farm.

Chozo ,

This was my first thought, as well. Pretty much nobody is dumb enough to use lead for any machinery used in food processing, so it's likely contaminated soil where the cinnamon trees are grown.

Which is extra concerning, because these juices aren't likely the only products affected by this. The farm this cinnamon was grown from likely supplies dozens, if not hundreds, of food producers across the planet with their product. Hopefully this can be contained.

Angry_Maple ,
@Angry_Maple@sh.itjust.works avatar

I’m almost certain that this is what it is, too.

I haven’t eaten any dark chocolate since I found out about how bad the levels of lead and cadmium are. Some dark chocolates are ok, but I don’t love it enough to remember which brands they are. I think most of the other types of chocolate were ok (by today’s standards) though.

If you’re curious: consumerreports.org/…/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-ch…

consumerreports.org/…/a-third-of-chocolate-produc…

The second link is as recent as October, this year.

PainInTheAES ,

I got into a discussion on Lemmy a while back about cadmium and lead in chocolate and someone linked a study stating that some of the lead contamination can come from leaded gasoline fumes during transportation. May be a contributing factor in this case as well.

Eufalconimorph ,

Probably red lead used to disguise low-quality cinnamon.

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