The first thing to know is that the baby is all right now. She’s coming up on her second birthday, playful and curious. She chases the family dog around the house, trying to give him kisses, and mimics her dad by wiggling her hips as he shows her how to hula hoop.
But her home holds a few clues to her past. An oddly huggable orange stuffed animal shaped like Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism. And enshrined in plexiglass, a bottle of BabyBIG, the antitoxin treatment that saved her life when she was 7 months old.
Katie Connolly’s daughter, M., was among the dozens of babies who became sick with infant botulism after drinking contaminated infant formula from ByHeart last year. (The children in this story are identified by their first initials in order to keep their health records private.) Last weekend, another formula brand, Nara Organics, was linked to three new cases of infant botulism by the Food and Drug Administration.
“You buy a product that you think is going to be safe for them, and it ends up putting them in the hospital,” said Connolly. She initially chose ByHeart because she was drawn to its “organic, natural direction.” But one morning, her daughter woke up unable to lift her head or move her arms and legs — a sign of the encroaching paralysis caused by botulism, which can leave infants unable to breathe as it progresses. M. spent nearly a week in the hospital.
