A mother “strongly believes” a tin of contaminated Aptamil caused her baby to become violently sick for nearly a week during last year’s festive period.
Retailers in Jersey were previously contacted by Environmental Health Officers after 36 infants in the UK suffered suspected food poisoning linked to recalled batches of baby formula containing a toxin called cereulide.
Danone – parent company of Aptamil – and Nestlé were forced to recall big-name products including SMA, Cow & Gate and Aptamil.
The UK Health Security Agency confirmed food poisoning cases in babies across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and one in a Crown Dependency, but there have been no “confirmed cases” in Jersey.
One Islander, however, said that her nearly six-month-old child exhibited symptoms that align perfectly with cereulide poisoning after becoming “horrendously ill” at the end of 2025.
The mother, who does not want to be named, said: “The reason we strongly believe our son’s illness could have been caused by cereulide poisoning is because it came out of nowhere.
“We weren’t in contact with anyone else who presented any similar symptoms, and the symptoms our son presented with are in line with that of cereulide poisoning.”
Symptoms exhibited by her child included “projectile vomiting” and “diarrhea”, she said, before adding: “He was also sick for about five-to-six days, which is about how long a tin of Aptamil will last.”
She continued: “Aptamil (Danone) have also said the products are unlikely to be on shelves in shops still, but could be in people’s cupboards, so it is possible we had one of the affected batches at home as we do tend to buy in bulk.”
The ensuing recall issued by manufacturers led to higher costs for baby formula “in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis”, she stated.
During a recent search for their preferred baby formula – Aptamil 2 follow on milk – she found only a single tin available.
“We tried Coop pharmacies, but it’s no surprise that they have also taken the entire product lines off the shelves, as with the main Coop stores.
“The one tin we did find was in a locally owned pharmacy, but it cost us £2.70 more than if we were to have bought it from Boots as usual.”
“We just can’t justify paying £2.70 more per tin”, she added. “Times are tough enough as it is without having this added expense.”
She explained it also cost her £77 to take her son to an out-of-hours GP appointment at the height of his illness on 26 December.
“They said it was likely a virus so to continue monitoring him, but they also said if we felt we needed to go to see our GP when they reopened, they’d be more than happy to see him.
“It cost us £77 for the out-of-hours appointment as free GP appointments for minors unfortunately do not extent to out-of-hours appointments, which is another issue in itself entirely.”
A return to the GP the next day led to the same diagnosis – a probable virus.
“Obviously they weren’t to know about the cereulide poisoning at the time, but if our son’s symptoms were due to this, we would have unknowingly made it worse,” she said.
A spokesperson from Environmental Health confirmed again yesterday that there were “no clinically confirmed cases” of food poisoning resulting from contaminated baby formula in Jersey.
But the mother pointed out that her family “haven’t attempted to report the incident to the government at all, as, to be honest, I didn’t know that was the protocol.”
Government advice states: “Customers who have purchased any of the listed products should not feed them to babies. The products should be returned to the retailer where they were bought for a full refund, with or without a receipt.”
More information can be found in a recall notice published online on gov.je.
