Formula milk and Meningitis

[Amyjade]

Did anyone see yesterdays Daily mail there was a story about a bacteria found in certain formula milks that caused meningitis and the death of a few young babies. The cases were in europe, Belgum i think but it's yet another story that scares the living hell out of me.

[hercules]

I would suggest not reading the dm as they love sensationalist stories like this.

[Amyjade]

Thats a shame as i'v just done a piece for the Daily Mail about the loss of my beautiful Dd1 to meningitis, i was hoping it would raise awerness of Pneumococcal disease and maybe save a life.
I thought the mail would be a good paper to use rather than the Mirror/sun etc.

So these stories understandably scare me to death !!

Anyone got any more info or is it just a sensationalist story?

[hercules]

SO sorry Amyjade. I didnt mean to cause upsept by my comments. I havent even read the article as I dislike the daily mail.

Sorry again for yout loss

[waterfalls]

Heard this about a year ago, but the version I heard was, a certain bacteria that can grow in formula milk left at room temp or above for over an hour causes meningitis.

[Gloworm]

daily mail article if anyone wants to read it

[mummytosteven]

yes, I think I remember a similar story last year.

Here is more information from the bbc website, Amyjade. So sorry to hear about your daughter

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3359427.stm

[misdee]

nothing wrong with doing a story for the sun, i am going to be in it soon to rasie organ donation awareness.

[Amyjade]

Far enough.
I have done a few stories for other papers/magazines and the only one who didn't edit most of Dd's story was The Mail.
They have a good health section on a Tueday i will leave a message on Pneumoccocal meningitis thread when it is being published.

Thanks for the links everyone i have had a read and it looks to me that all the cases where in premature babies due to their poor immunity still worries me though.

[mummytosteven]

of course it is worrying amyjade. it's no consolation to the poor parents affected by this to think - oh it's only a problem for those with prem babies. Having read the link, it seems like a reasonable enough article to me in the Mail.

[Amyjade]

There is so much information about dangers to our children on the news and in the papers everyday it just makes your head spin. I suppose we would all rather know about them so we can protect our children in every way we can. I never knew about pneumococcal meningitis when Dd was diagnosed i thought it can't be she doesn't have a rash how wrong was i, if only i'd seen an article things might have been different.

[misdee]

the mail does have a good health section, my MIL is always giving me clippings about LVADs, eczema treatments, autism etc from the mail.

good luck with your campiegn to rasie awareness. are you finding like me, that once you do one story you want the whole world to know? i have only appeared in the local paper, and the sun story is due out at some point (just been sorting out contracts etc), and once thats been run, i want to do more.

[Amyjade]

I will keep an eye out misdee for your story.
Since the week spent on the PICU with Dd it has really made me realise the importance of organ donations/giving blood etc. Dd was given around 7 pints of blood and platlets while she was ill and also suffered Kidney failure so if she had recovered she may of needed a transplant.
I hope to register as an organ donor and to start giving blood along with Dp Asap.

We never contacted any papers they were put i touch with us through the meningitis research foundation as we felt awareness was something positive we could do out of something so very tragic.
Goodluck with the campaign misdee.

[getbakainyourjimjams]

The DM story is sensationalist in that it mentions the organism is widespread- therefore it's not really going to be surprising to find it in factories where they make formula (it would be surprising if it wasn't there if it widespread in the environment). I suspect a high proportion of the workers in the factories carry strains of bacteria that can cause meningitis as well. The question that needs to be answered is what makes people susceptible when many many people carry the same bacteria without problems.

[mummytosteven]

Thanks for that jimjams. I will admit that I (like many newspaper readers, I imagine) just don't have the level of scientific knowledge to critically assess these type of news stories.

[getbakainyourjimjams]

I know nothing about this particular strain- just picked up on the fact the article says it is widespread, and as many strains that can cause meningitis are kind of extrapolated from there. The article also says that the milk is tested for it.

Would be good if every hospital had a milk bank for preemies though- so if this sort of article was used to press for that sort of thing I don't really think it matters if it is sensationalist- it might save a baby somewhere and that can only be good.

[suedonim]

I thought the latest advice was to give newborns ready-made formula, to avoid the contaminated powder situation? Maybe that's been superceded with newer advice.