BABY FORMULA

BABY FORMULA

Jun 2, 2022 | CHRONICLE, ECONOMY, WORLD

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) defines infant formula: “Baby Formula” as a food that purports to be or is represented for special dietary use exclusively as infant formula by reason of its simulation of human milk or its suitability as a complete food or partial substitute for human milk.

It may seem strange, but in the United States the various brands of Baby Formula on the market are produced almost exclusively by the same company: Abbott Nutrition. 

Leaving aside issues of monopoly, this caused a huge problem when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation (CORE) network, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local partners investigated consumer complaints and/or reports received by the FDA from September 2021 to February 2022 regarding illnesses among infants who allegedly consumed infant formula products from Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis, MI, facility, advising consumers not to consume milk powder from certain batches.

Abbott initiated a voluntary, proactive recall of powdered formulas, including Similac, Alimentum and EleCare, manufactured in Sturgis, Michigan, one of the company’s manufacturing facilities.

Consumer complaints were related to Cronobacter sakazakii or Salmonella Newport found in infants who had consumed powdered infant formula produced at this facility.

This resulted in a drastic difficulty in sourcing powdered milk precisely because of the fact that virtually most of the production is from the same facility.

This is a huge problem, since infants whose mothers are not fortunate enough to have breast milk cannot feed on anything else.

Real special flights have been set up to solve this emergency: Open Fly Formula. 

A protocol has been initiated to transport infant formula via an airlift procured by the DOD i.e., the Department of Defense.

The company that produces this infant formula reports that in order to move the infant formula from Zurich, Switzerland, to Plainfield, Indiana, in the United States, it takes about 21 days with a commercial plane to ship and clear customs so that it can enter distribution.

Instead, the cargo was transferred from Switzerland to Ramstein to be loaded onto two C-17s on Bravo alert in Germany and through USTRANSCOM i.e., U.S. Transportation Command, the transport was done under the auspices of this sort of motto:
Regardless of whether the needs are in Ukraine, India or even here at home, from deploying combat-credible forces, to providing vaccines, food, water and supplies during a pandemic or natural disaster, USTRANSCOM will provide.

Can you tell me exactly what “combat-credible” means?

Undoubtedly the milk emergency had to be solved, what puzzles me is the mixing of “aid” and “military.”

Meanwhile, a kind of chain of solidarity was created among parents to find advice through Facebook groups in which, however, scammers and profiteers took over.

How did we do it before milk powder existed? I wonder, too.
Were nannies the only alternative?

C’ERO ANCH’IO SU QUEL TRENO – THERE WAS ME ON THAT TRAIN TOO

C’ERO ANCH’IO SU QUEL TRENO – THERE WAS ME ON THAT TRAIN TOO

Oct 26, 2021 | BOOKS, ITALY

In thanking Giovanni Rinaldi once again, I am happy to tell you about his new book There was me on that train too  The true story of the children who united Italy published by Solferino.

There was me on that train too is published exactly twelve years after Happiness trains, years during which Giovanni Rinaldi never interrupted his historical research which, with his tireless human commitment, has turned into a real mission to bring together the protagonists of a chain of wonderful solidarity.

In the post-war years, thousands of children were hosted by generous families who pledged to offer them what they had been deprived of for various reasons, welcoming them and treating them as their own children.

Giovanni Rinaldi’s essay starts from the tragic consequences of a strike in San Severo in 1950 following which more than a hundred people were arrested: mothers, fathers, leaving many children in the middle of a street.

A song recorded by Giovanni begins like this

The venditré of March

Succèsse ‘na rruìna …

I know, I have already written it, but for me the dialect, as well as the oral tradition, are an absolute heritage that, if it were not for people like Giovanni, we would lose.

And instead with his persevering efforts, Giovanni continues in the collection of testimonies that extends to children forced to work in Naples, to children who survived the bombing of Cassino, and to many other cases in which conditions of extreme difficulty have made the help to parents providential, since they were unable to support them.

The organization, transfers, communications between families of origin and host families took place at the initiative of the Communist Party but in particular by the UDI: Unione Donne Italiane.

In this regard, with my love for Christmas, I read with particular emotion the part in which Ida tells of her commitment to collect from various shopkeepers, the necessary to make a Tree set up with candies, biscuits and gifts.

The magic, however, breaks to the point where Ida remembers how the secretary, annoyed at this initiative of hers, even scolded her with a slap …

Women.

Women and Mothers who weave their lives in function of the good for the children, managing to put themselves in each other’s shoes, understanding, working, sacrificing.

I particularly want to remember with affection Americo to which I am grateful for the great teaching on maternal love that he has given me.

The letter from Umberto’s mother is also enchanting:

… The hearts of us mothers of the tormented Frosinone greet all of you who come to meet us, and we greet this beautiful work organized by our Communist Party.

… I hope to receive more news, and if the Lord will provide me before Umberto returns I will come to see you.

Not that words to thank her for what you are doing for my son, but may the Lord give you back all the good you deserve …

She thanks the party and hopes in the Lord and yet I find no contradiction, on the contrary I admire the wonderful coexistence of thoughts that have the heart as a common denominator.

Heart that I found on every page.

Among the chapters of There was me on that train too, dedicated to each of the children he managed to track down, Giovanni Rinaldi tells us how he managed to trace the families who offered generous hospitality, starting from fragments of memories, names often lacking of references, photographs of a very distant time.

A meticulous work but above all a strong sensitivity combined with the noble intent to realize the desire for reunification of these people who life has inevitably led to distance themselves.

I don’t know if you were able to follow the interview on Rai Uno, otherwise you can retrieve it here at approximately 1 hour and 1 minute.

I advise you to see him to realize how Giovanni’s attitude towards the people he met is: while Severino and Diego tell their experience, he observes them with a smile that says more than any word.

And this is the feeling of extreme respect that runs throughout the book. Giovanni himself tells us that “these elderly gentlemen, when they speak, are the children of the time who tell … and it is also a therapy: going back to those moments means bringing out both the traumas and the joys.”

On tiptoe listening first.

And as much as Giovanni acts as a channel that allows memories and stories to flow that are faithfully reported, he also gives us descriptions of the context so precise as to make us feel transported to the same place, enveloped by the suggestion that the scope of enormous loads of emotions encloses.

I conclude by leaving you this beautiful metaphor about Benedict:

… opens the door: a beam of light illuminates the darkness. Outside and inside, as on a border, they all remain still, suspended ...

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