NEC Baby Formula
Kansas City NEC Baby Formula Lawyers
Was Your Baby Diagnosed With NEC After Drinking Baby Formula?
Was your child diagnosed with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) after consuming baby formula, especially products known as Enfamil and Similac? There could be a direct connection between your child’s dangerous intestinal disease and the baby formula that they were fed while an infant.
Law Office of Tom Wagstaff Jr., LLC is currently hearing from parents in Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas who have children who were possibly hurt by unsafe baby formula linked to NEC. If this happened to you and your child, please reach out to our firm right away to see what legal options might be available.
See how we can help with your NEC baby formula case. Call 816-708-0524 or submit an online contact form whenever you can.
What Is NEC?
NEC is a gastrointestinal disease that mostly affects infants who were born prematurely (less than 37 weeks). Due to the infant’s underdeveloped gastrointestinal tract, bacteria can start to grow in the intestinal walls after the infant digests contaminated food. In severe cases, the bacterial infection can cause holes to form in the intestine, which may cause undigested food and digestive fluids to leak into the abdomen and bloodstream. Health complications caused by NEC can include:
- Liver failure
- Poor nutrition and growth
- Metabolic bone disease
- Short bowel syndrome
- Sepsis
- Brain damage or cognitive impairment
Furthermore, NEC can be fatal. Approximately 25% of NEC cases in newborn children are fatal. Even if the disease is treated correctly, the risk of long-term complications (see above) is roughly 50%, based on medical statistics.
How Is NEC Caused by Baby Formula?
Decades of research from prominent safety and medical groups, including Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, the Breastfeeding Medicine journal, The Lancet, and many others, has indicated that cow-based baby formula is a leading cause of NEC in premature infants. One prominent study that relied on health information from nearly 900 premature babies determined that the rate of NEC was 362% higher in infants fed cow-based baby formula when compared to infants fed human breastmilk or human breastmilk-based formula. In as early as 1990, another study estimated that risk to actually be around 800%.
Why Are Baby Formula Makers Liable for NEC?
The makers of Similac and Enfamil are being targeted by lawsuits filed by parents whose children drank their baby formula and then developed NEC. According to the legal complaints, the product makers knew or reasonably should have known that cow-milk baby formula has an inordinately high chance of causing NEC and bacterial intestinal damage. Despite this clear risk, certain companies have continued to make, advertise, and sell cow-milk baby formula without any product packaging warnings about the risk. Therefore, the companies – namely Abbot Laboratories and Mead Johnson & Company, LLC – have been accused of negligence that should make them liable for the harm suffered by infants and their families. Many different Similac and Enfamil infant formulas have been implicated by these lawsuits, including but not limited to Similac Special Care, Similac NeoSure, Similac Alimentum, Similac Human Milk Fortifier Powder, Enfamil Human Milk Fortifier Powder, Enfacare Powder, Enfamil NeuroPro Enfacare, and Enfamil Premature.
Find Out If You Can File an NEC Baby Formula Lawsuit Today
You may be legally able to file an NEC baby formula claim if your baby was:
- Born prematurely (less than 37 weeks).
- Fed Enfamil or Similac baby formula or similar products.
- Diagnosed with NEC after eating the baby formula.
- Suffered a serious side effect of NEC, including death.
Get all the information you need to know if you can pursue legal action by coming to the Law Office of Tom Wagstaff Jr., LLC in Kansas City. We are passionate about standing up for what’s right for the people of our communities, especially young children. Please talk to us today about your possible NEC baby formula lawsuit, so we can see how to pursue justice and compensation for your family. Contact our law firm today by calling 816-708-0524.