Wellsley Farms sensitivity premium formula from BJ's tested positive for lead

L

lightning

New member
My nephew recently had his 1 year old checkup and the doctor informed his parents that his lead levels were unacceptably high (4.4 mcg/dL) and that the health department would be called if it didn't go down by his next checkup in 3 months. I ordered a set of lead testing swabs to start testing everything he has contact with for it. Painted walls, toys, foods. The swab starts orange when you dip it in water and turns pink or red in the presence of lead, the only thing we tested that tested positive was the baby formula powder. I did 2 additional tests with new swabs and they both also turned pink.

Please test your formulas for lead, basically every generic store brand baby formula is made in the same facilities owned by Perrigo. We've only tested the one container of formula we still had but it seems unlikely for the contamination to be limited to a single container or brand.

We've already contacted the FDA and left a message regarding the matter, haven't heard back yet.
 
@fiftyseven I'm not a Reddit user, it's really as simple as that. I made an account purely because reddit stopped letting me see posts without one.

And I didn't leave that comment a month ago, I left it shortly before making this post when I found it while looking to see if anyone else had had this issue with the formula. I made the post because if it isn't just the container we have I don't want children getting lead poisoning, sorry for caring.

There's skepticism and there's paranoia, and you're venturing into the latter.
 
@lightning Where did they get the formula?

Why did the baby get tested for led in the first place?

Just curious, why is baby still consuming formula at 1? Usually that’s when people switch to milk.
 
@luca The formula was coming from BJ's, Wellsley Farms is BJ's store brand generic line. The same plants manufacture all the generic brand formulas though, so it's possible it could be in other brands as well.

He's been switched to whole milk since he turned 1, but he was drinking the formula for 10 months prior to that. As the other reply says, testing for lead at 1 year old is standard practice, which is how we found out his levels were high and why we started testing things.
 
@patrotter They're sodium rhodizonate swabs, like a 1 sided Qtip. You wet them with water, wait for them to turn orange, then dip them in/rub them on the thing you're testing. If they turn pink or red, that indicates the sample is positive for lead. I tested them on solid surfaces like plastics and painted wood, in liquid/runny things like milk, baby food, and yogurt, and in powders, including flour, sugar, powdered milk, and the formula. The only substances that triggered the color change were the formula powder and an old lead fishing weight from my workshop.
 
@lightning I live in a state that mandates lead testing, both my kids used generic formula, their blood tests have always been totally normal.

I don’t think these testing strips can be used for food products. It’s also possible something else gave a false negative.

You really should wait for someone certified to test your nephew’s home before saying it is the formula.
 
@fiftyseven I tested the swabs on over a dozen items, using a fresh swab each time. The only things that triggered the color change reaction were the formula and an old lead fishing weight I had in my shop (a space the nephew has never had any access to). I'm confident enough in the accuracy to say maybe don't take chances with something we're feeding to infants.
 
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