chinese baby synutraThey've done it again folks! The geniuses behind such products as lead-tainted toys, fire-starting batteries, and poisonous toothpaste are proud to announce a new little surprise sure to please every mother and child: boob jobs for baby -- and surgery-free!

Yes, it's true, girls no longer have to wait until puberty to grow breasts. They can now get a head start on all the other girls and avoid the agony of waiting for things to finally develop. Now they can start growing breasts as infants!

How are these babies blossoming so early? Easy! The babies miraculously grow boobs using a secret formula. No, not that formula, the one that they drink. Several times a day. Every day. Boob-growing baby formula ... what will they think of next?

synutraInfants in China who have been drinking Synutra formula are growing breasts because they have as much estrogen in their bodies as adult women. They were also found to have abnormal levels of the hormones that stimulate lactation.

There are at least three known affected babies, all between 4 and 15 months old. One mother, Deng Xiaoyun, told the Chinese-owned Global Times newspaper, "At first, I thought it was a tumor. But hospital doctors preliminarily diagnosed it as symptom of sexual prematurity caused by hormones.”

Wang Gang’s doctor actually asked her if it was possible that her daughter had ingested birth control pills. 

Those aforementioned hormones would be the ones given to the dairy cows -- just as BGH is used here in the States -- to force milk production. And what goes into the milk goes into the milk powder, which then goes into the infants.

Synutra, of course, denies any wrongdoing or that their products may be unsafe, although China has no laws against or regulating the use of hormones in dairy production. China’s Dairy Association and office of food safety have been conducting tests on Synutra’s formulas, and on August 16, 2010, the state-run media announced that Synutra was in the clear.

Deng Xiaoyun isn’t convinced. She’s now feeding her daughter homemade rice soup because she refuses to buy the Synutra products and cannot afford the 10 percent price hike seen in other powdered formulas. (Interestingly enough, the entire dairy industry has seen a 14 percent increase in profits since the scandal broke. Hmmm ...)

These incidents lead to a bigger issue for me: If hormones in baby formula can cause girls to grow breasts in that short period of time, what are all the other hormones in our food supply doing, as we ingest them consistently over a long period of time?

What’s your take on the matter? Are hormones hurting our kids, or is this an isolated incident?

 

Images (top to bottom) via joshDubya/Flickr, Synutra