Her infant had salmonella. Now, SC mom is pushing for more formula precautions.

Almost a year ago, Fort Mill mom Maggie Szeman welcomed her second child. A son born months into a nationwide infant formula shortage, and years into an international health pandemic.

Yet the health crisis he faced isn’t one Szeman saw coming.

“In the haze of those newborn days, we encountered a pretty significant challenge that was very unexpected for us,” she said.

Born in late July, Szeman’s son developed an infection at four weeks old. He had stomach problems that worsened in 24 hours. There were more diaper changes than usual, then a low grade fever.

Szeman monitored her son for dehydration. Because of his age and a fever spike, they took the child to an emergency room for testing.

“We didn’t realize what it was at the time,” Szeman said. “I never would’ve suspected what could’ve caused it.”

Her son tested positive for salmonella.

He needed antibiotics for 10 days in the hospital. Infection made it into his bloodstream. He endured a lumbar puncture to rule out meningitis. All that happened as the family wondered how he got there. No one else was sick.

Salmonella is food borne, but he was too young to eat almost anything.

“I strongly suspect,” Szeman says now. “I think that it’s a very real possibility that the source was the formula that he was consuming.”

Infant formula contamination

Mitzi Baum is CEO of Chicago-based nonprofit Stop Foodborne Illness. The group traces its history back to a 1993 E. coli outbreak in fast food on the west coast. Now the group advocates for families who face various food-related illnesses and for changes to improve product safety.

Baum said she believes powdered formula contamination happens more often than most people realize. Salmonella is a reported pathogen, but others like Cronobacter sakazakii often aren’t. So individual cases can be hard to quantify.

“We don’t hear about it very often because outbreaks like the one that was experienced in 2022 are considered rare,” Baum said. “However, that’s an outbreak.”

Last year a powdered infant formula plant in Michigan halted production after complaints of salmonella and Cronobacter sakazakii. The federal Food and Drug Administration warned customers not to use certain Similac, Alimentum and EleCare products as part of a voluntary company recall.

As one of only a handful of large producers in the country, the Michigan site was responsible for much of the nation’s production. Its temporary shuttering in part led to a national formula shortage.

As with toilet paper, eggs and many other products at various times during the COVID-19 pandemic, there also were shortages of powdered infant formula. Many parents worried whether they would find formula on store shelves, Baum said. They didn’t think much about what was in it, or how safely it had been produced.

“The risk there for those parents that see it on the shelf, they assume that it’s safe,” Baum said.

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What can parents do?

Szeman now works with Stop Foodborne Illness hoping to make it mandatory to report more forms of bacteria, increase safety standards in the production process and bring about other measures to protect children.

“Just because we see formula on the shelves, doesn’t necessarily mean that we have made progress in terms of safeguarding the quality of that product,” Szeman said.

Szeman and Baum also want to spread awareness among parents.

Szeman switched from powdered formula, which she used with both of her children, to liquid formula when she learned the liquid form is a sterile product and powder isn’t. It’s much more expensive and isn’t an option for everyone, Szeman said.

For parents who use powdered formula, Baum recommends reading labels carefully to know what the product is and where it was produced. Parents should keep up on any recalls that may be published.

Proper preparation also is key, Baum said, from how to sterilize bottles and nipples to making sure the powder scoop isn’t left somewhere it can be contaminated.

A parent herself, Baum said she knows knows it’s a big ask for new parents enduring middle-of-the-night feedings.

“Long nights,” Baum said. “Yes, it’s very difficult.”

Another recommendation, Baum said, is for parents to be strong advocates for their children.

“Parents instinctively know there is something wrong with their child,” Baum said. “And when they take them for medical care, many times they are dismissed and sent home.”

Families may hear the child just has a virus, or just a cold. When it seems like more, parents should be more firm.

“Those are critical hours, days and weeks,” Baum said. “Because that allows the infection to spread, with dire consequences.”

Day to day impact

As his first birthday approaches, Szeman’s son is an otherwise healthy child apart from the salmonella scare. Which is a pretty big qualifier.

“It has an impact on our day-to-day life,” Szeman said.

Because of his age, Szeman’s son continues to be a carrier and sheds the bacteria. Szeman has to take stringent precautions to keep her entire family safe. It’s a challenge given children her son’s age need constant care and can’t look after themselves. In cases like her son’s, Szeman said, people can test positive or remain carriers for up to a year.

“His first year of life will have this very strongly associated with it,” Szeman said. “And a lot of those first memories will kind of have this in the background.”

Despite the surprise diagnosis, Szeman said she is thankful. Medical protocol for children her son’s age got him the testing and care he needed quickly.

“Hours could have made a big difference to him,” Szeman said.

She wonders what could have been, had her son contracted salmonella at five months instead of almost five weeks. She also wonders how strict protocols are for formula production sites, and what might change if those regulations were more like the hospital ones.

“I sometimes wonder how our situation would have been different,” Szeman said.

Szeman said she looks forward to the day when her experience with salmonella is only a memory. But she doesn’t want it to become a memory for other families. In an age where consumer pressure on companies can lead to change, Szeman believes there’s still work to be done toward ensuring safe products.

“We can all do a better job of holding them accountable,” Szeman said.