Mother says she found bugs in son's Gerber formula

LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga. — A Lumpkin County mother is warning other parents about a popular baby formula.

Chanda Peck says she found bugs in her 5-month-old son’s Gerber formula just minutes after his morning feeding. She was starting to make the rest of the day’s bottles using the Gerber Good Starts Soothe Formula when she says she noticed things crawling in the can.

“There was one, maybe two in every bottle I made,” Chanda Peck said.

Peck showed Channel 2’s Jim Strickland the can, which still had live bugs crawling inside it.

“That thing's crawling around down there. It's disgusting. There's no other way to describe it,” she said.

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Her son got sick soon after drinking the formula. %

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“He started throwing up all over the place, and it wasn't spit up, it was projectile and more of it. He was also having diarrhea,” she said.

She says it’s been two weeks, and Gerber has yet to send the promised shipping material to return the product for testing. She hasn’t received the coupon to replace the can either.

Peck, who bought the formula at Walmart, says that despite what she found, she’s still a fan of the formula.

“I honestly love Gerber, I just don’t like the way it’s being handled,” she said.

Gerber emailed a statement that said a discovery like larvae would be highly unusual, and also said that they are “in the process of retrieving the product to investigate.”

Gerber did not respond to Strickland’s questions about any other similar complaints, and refused to divulge where the formula was made.

Strickland gave Peck the contact information for the Food and Drug Administration. Peck says they immediately told her they will test the can.

“I think parents need to be aware that this could be in their formula, and I just think Gerber could have handled it a lot better,’ she said.

The following is Gerber's entire statement:

"Gerber has nearly 90 years of childhood nutrition expertise, and the safety of our products is – and always will be – our top priority. Whenever a consumer has a question or concern, we encourage them to contact us immediately.  We treat every consumer call with the utmost care and attention and investigate product concerns thoroughly, including the recent information brought to us by Ms. Peck.

Gerber was notified of the presence of a foreign object in a canister of GERBER® Good Start® Infant Formula. We take great care with every product we make and it is highly unusual that something of this nature would be found in a finished product. As part of our usual procedure, we are in the process of retrieving the product in question to investigate this alleged incident. We have been in touch with Ms. Peck to resolve this issue.

We continue to encourage parents to contact us if they have questions about our products. Parents can contact the Parents Resource Center 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, toll-free at 1-800-4-GERBER."

Cox Media Group