The Min­istry of Health to­day warned par­ents about an in­ter­na­tion­al alert for By­Heart Whole Nu­tri­tion ba­by for­mu­la, even though the prod­uct is not list­ed for sale in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Of­fi­cials said the ad­vi­so­ry was is­sued be­cause some peo­ple may have pur­chased it on­line.

The Chem­istry Food and Drugs Di­vi­sion said the CDC and FDA abroad linked the for­mu­la to sev­er­al cas­es of in­fant bot­u­lism. Re­port­ed symp­toms in­clude poor feed­ing, loss of head con­trol, dif­fi­cul­ty swal­low­ing and de­creased fa­cial ex­pres­sion.

Par­ents were urged to seek im­me­di­ate med­ical care if an in­fant con­sumed the for­mu­la and shows any of these symp­toms. The min­istry al­so said signs of in­fant bot­u­lism can take sev­er­al weeks to de­vel­op, so par­ents who use the prod­uct should re­main watch­ful.

The pub­lic was ad­vised to stop us­ing the prod­uct, con­sult a doc­tor if it was used, and re­turn it to the place of pur­chase where pos­si­ble. The Chem­istry Food and Drugs Di­vi­sion can be con­tact­ed at (868) 217-4664 Ext 13121 for more in­for­ma­tion.