Spokesman for the Ministry of Health Deng Haihua told a news conference Sunday that the ministry had found no evidence of contamination in Synutra Milk powder after an investigation into reports that it had caused baby girls to show signs of premature sexual development.

An early report, entitled “Who Should We Blame for Baby Girls’ Sexual Precocity,” in the Healthy Times said three baby girls in Wuhan, a Chinese city in Wuhan Province were found sexual precocity, and their breast began to grow. Similar cases were reported in Jiangxi and Shandong provinces afterwards.

It is reported that a safety control and regulation team in Hubei Province was instructed by the Ministry of Health to conduct investigations into the milk powder after the report came out and the latter, two days later, got directly involved in the probe. 42 samples of Synutra milk powders were taken to the Beijing Center for Diseases Control and Prevention and the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine for detection.

At the same time, further clinical examination on the three infants including the tests of hormone levels and skeletal age found no evidence of a notable acceleration in infants development, leading to the final result that there is no link between the baby girls’ premature development and Synutra’s infant formula.

The Ministry of Health also collected 31 samples with 20 brands from 14 other producers for analysis, showing “there is no abnormal hormone content in the Synutra milk powder or other products tested in the market,” Deng Haihua told the news conference.

Knowing the result of the investigation, a parent from Hubei Province, who didn’t give his name, angrily and helplessly, told Caijing reporters that there were still many doubts and questions unclarified with the cases, to which the government sidestepped giving direct answers.

Problems relating to this seemingly “false alarm” have risen during the disputes between government and the parents of premature babies, such as the accurate diagnose of true precocious puberty and pseudo-precocious puberty, the lack of hormone tests institutions and the high costs of identification.

Queries From the Parents

The three baby girls in HuBei Province suffered from alleged premature development of breasts were fourth-month old, nine-months old and 15-months old respectively. Their parents claimed it was caused by the milk powder as their babies have been eating Synutra’s products since born.

One of the parents told our reporters after the news conference he was “disappointed, helpless and angry” towards the result of the probe, saying there were still many reasonable doubts left.

Why are the cases all related to Synutra’s products? Whether or not is the milk powder safe? Who should afford the costs of the three-month regular test before eight years old? Who should be responsible for the true precocious puberty once appeared due to exogenous hormone absorption?

No answers were given regarding to these questions at the news conference. Earlier reports even claimed that local medical workers believe the two between premature development and milk powder were connected.

According to another parent, when stopping eating the milk powder, the slumps in his baby’s left breast began to disappear, and he didn’t get a satisfying answer from the ministry.

The early appearance of breasts was a common clinical condition and there had been no been no notable rise across the country in premature development of breasts in children, Deng said.

Local medical institutions said they cannot distinguish the true precocious puberty from pseudo-precocious puberty until the babies grow to eight. During this period, the babies should be reviewed to the hospital every three months.