Charlotte mom warns of formula recall after son is poisoned with botulism

CHARLOTTE, NC —  A healthy newborn baby here in charlotte, now has to use a feeding tube after his mother says contaminated formula gave him botulism.

Kimberley Morales’ son, Aurelio, was a healthy two week old baby but she says after a few days on ByHeart formula he became ill.

“I never thought it was something like this,” Morales said of learning her son has botulism.

When she took her son to the doctor’s after Aurelio was having trouble eating, she learned he had been poisoned with botulism. He spent several days in the hospital and now needs a feeding tube for most of his meals.

“It was very, very terrifying because this is something where he was just being fed and it should be a safe matter, but unfortunately it wasn’t for us,” explained Morales.

Aurelio is one of at least 23 babies poisoned. According to the FDA, two cases are here in North Carolina. The nationwide recall of ‘ByHeart’ brand ‘whole nutrition infant formula was early last week. The recall was expanded to include all unexpired cans and single serve packets.

In ByHeart’s most recent statement posted to its website on November 13, the company writes in part:

“We started this company to give parents confidence in what they feed their babies.
So knowing that the past few days have caused confusion and fear for many of you has been heartbreaking, and we are so sorry.”

Morales has a message for other parents whose children were using ByHeart products.

“If there is any family out there that is using by heart, I hope that they completely stop and that if their baby is showing any kind of symptom just to automatically go,” said Morales.