Childrens Health :Hand Washing Your Dishes Better For Kids' Health ♦ Baby formula poses higher arsenic ♦ Breastfeeding, shape immune system early in life

Hand Washing Your Dishes Could Be Better For Kids' Health   Doing dishes the old-fashioned way -- by hand -- might help curb a modern-day problem: Rising rates of childhood allergies, a new study suggests.Researchers in Sweden found that children living in families that hand-washed their dishes were about 40 percent less likely to develop allergies compared with kids in homes that used a dishwasher Continue Reading

Baby formula poses higher arsenic risk to newborns than breast milk  In the first US study of urinary arsenic in babies, researchers found that formula-fed infants had higher arsenic levels than breast-fed infants, and that breast milk itself contained very low arsenic concentrations Continue Reading

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Teens from single-parent families leave school earlier   Individuals who live in single-parent families as teens received fewer years of schooling and are less likely to attain a bachelor's degree than those from two-parent families, a study concludes. Continue Reading

Breastfeeding, other factors help shape immune system early in life Researchers say that breastfeeding and other factors influence a baby's immune system development and susceptibility to allergies and asthma by what's in their gut.Continue Reading

New Zealand: Infant Formula recalled for Botulism

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) today announced the details of one product in New Zealand potentially containing contaminated whey protein from Fonterra’s Hautapu manufacturing facility.

“Since we were informed by Fonterra yesterday afternoon that three batches of concentrated whey protein contain Clostridium botulinum, MPI has been working intensively to identify what, if any, products on the New Zealand market may be contaminated,” Acting Director General Scott Gallacher said.

“The batches of whey product have been on sold and mixed with other ingredients to form 870 tonnes of consumer products sold in a variety of markets.

• Nutricia Karicare follow-on formula products for children from 6 months old.

“MPI has been advised that in the case of the Nutricia Karicare, five batches of follow-on formula were manufactured using the contaminated whey protein,” Mr Gallacher said.

“Nutricia has advised that three of those batches are in a warehouse in Auckland, one is on a ship, and the other is in storage in Australia. Nutricia has advised it has locked down those batches, and they will not be sold on the market.

“MPI is still in the process of verifying this information, and today sent a team to Nutricia's Auckland warehouses” Mr Gallacher said.

“Until this process is completed, I advise parents and caregivers with infants consuming Nutricia Karicare follow on formula products from 6 months, to use infant formula for children aged 0-6 months, ready-made formulas or alternative brands.”

Chinese Investigating Foreign Baby Formula Producers for Price Fixing

Chinese government is investigating foreign producers of baby milk. They have been accused of price fixing.

Demand for foreign brands has surged in China after tainted milk scandals.

Nestle's unit, Wyeth Nutrition, will slash prices by 20%.they have agreed to not raise prices for a year. Danone said it was co-operating with the probe and was preparing a price-cut proposal.

According to some estimates, foreign brands now account for about half of all infant milk sales in China.

Nestle, Danone, Mead Johnson Nutrition and Abbott Laboratories are among the firms that are being investigated.

China has faced a series of milk-related scandals.

In 2008, six infants died of severe kidney damage and an estimated 300,000 babies suffered from kidney stones after drinking tainted baby formula because it contained melamine. The formula, from several major Chinese dairy companies, was tested and found to contain melamine, an additive that falsely boosts the protein levels in milk.

In December 2011 and July 2012, two Chinese companies recalled baby formula containing high amounts of aflatoxin, a carcinogen produced by fungus in cows' feed.

Last year, another company issued a separate recall after "unusually high" levels of mercury were found in its main line of infant milk powder.

That has led to a global surge in demand for the products.

Milk is not the only food product that the Chinese are buying from overseas producers. The Chinese do not trust their own food producers. not only are they producing unsafe products they are producing fake food. Many Chinese spend a major portion of their income on foreign food.

Source BBC