The CDC urged parents to immediately stop using Nara Organics Whole Milk Organic Infant Formula after three babies were hospitalized with botulism in a multistate outbreak tied to the product. The children, who were 2 to 5 months old, were treated with BabyBIG after becoming ill in California, Pennsylvania and Washington.
The warning landed after Nara Organics recalled all lots and can sizes of the formula on Friday, widening the response to a product sold nationwide through Target stores, Target.com and Nara.com. For parents who had already bought it, the message was simple: do not use it now, and do not wait for the investigation to finish.
That urgency matters because the formula had reached households across the country before the recall, and the babies had already consumed it before they got sick. Infant botulism is the illness at the center of the outbreak, and the FDA and federal health officials are still investigating whether the formula was the source.
That leaves one part of the case unresolved even as the public warning is already in place. Testing of opened and unopened formula samples is underway, and the result of that testing will determine whether the recall was aimed at a suspected link or at a product that is still being ruled in. Nara has already told families to stop using all of its infant formula immediately, a broader step than the federal inquiry has yet been able to justify on its own.
For now, the facts are enough to justify the strongest caution: three infants were hospitalized, the product was pulled from sale in every lot and size, and the investigation is still trying to pin down whether the formula itself set off the outbreak.
