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MN toddler impacted by applesauce lead poisonings
Mom Alyssa Magnuson said she was able to connect the dots after a routine blood test for Stevie came back high for lead.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — Alyssa Magnuson pays close attention to her 15-month-old daughter, Stevie Reid.
“She’s really picking up on a lot of words lately. And climbing… she’s a climber,” said Magnuson, who lives near Pine City.
So it came as a surprise when a routine blood test during Stevie’s 12-month checkup came back high for lead.
“It was a scary feeling knowing that she had that and I would have never known,” Magnuson said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses a blood level reference value of 2.5 micrograms per deciliter to identify children with concerning blood lead levels. Stevie’s was at 23.4.
After ruling out all the usual reasons, Magnuson was confused. Then a week later, she saw the news about cinnamon applesauce and puree pouches that had been recalled due to elevated lead levels.
“It just felt horrible because it was something that I had been feeding her and I thought it was something that was going to… be a healthier option for an easy, on-the-go snack,” Magnuson said.
The recalled brands include WanaBana, Schnucks and Weis. Information on lot codes and UPCs can be found here.
Magnuson said her daughter had been eating the WanaBana Apple Cinnamon Fruit Purée pouches. She had bought them from Dollar Tree.
After realizing why her daughter tested high for lead, she went to the local Dollar Trees to make sure the affected products were off the shelves.
“My doctor thinks that we found it early enough… it’s kind of too early to tell but she thinks that she’s probably going to be just fine, thank goodness, since she didn’t have it very long-term and it was a lower level,” Magnuson said.
A facility in Ecuador is linked with the recalled pouches for its cinnamon. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), samples of cinnamon from the plant contained 2,000 times more lead than what’s allowed by federal guidelines.
“No one has any idea how this got in with the cinnamon,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said.
Sen. Klobuchar met with Magnuson at Children’s Minnesota on Sunday to do interviews on the issue.
“I did a baby food bill a few years ago and now we’re in the course of revamping it to make it work better for this situation,” Sen. Klobuchar said. “We’re just working on making sure the bill fits these circumstances and that there’s more oversight.”
The proposed Baby Food Safety Act of 2024 would mandate “FDA set maximum levels for heavy metals in infant and toddler food, and allows FDA to establish binding allowable levels of heavy metals for any food.” It also would create more accountability for food facility owners, operators and manufacturers by setting requirements that baby food products be sampled and tested in final product form for toxic heavy metals and the results be reported to the FDA.
Currently, most baby food manufacturers do not test their finished products and instead test only individual ingredients, according to Sen. Klobuchar’s office. It would also “clarify FDA’s mandatory recall authority over products that don’t meet standards or are rendered adulterated.”
The bill has not been introduced yet but Sen. Klobuchar expects it will be in the coming months.
In December, Sen. Klobuchar joined other lawmakers in a letter to the FDA that urged the agency to swiftly finalize its “Closer to Zero” guidance for the industry. It aims to reduce dietary exposure to contaminants to as low as possible.
“The most important thing with lead treatment is actually getting rid of the exposure and preventing it, hopefully, in the first place. Because once it’s in the body, it’s just really hard to get out,” said Dr. Abby Montague, a pediatrician and medical toxicologist at Children’s Minnesota.
Dr. Montague agreed that there need to be changes made to prevent something like this from happening again.
“Lead is a metal that we pay a lot of attention to because we know it can directly impact kids’ brains and their development. So even at low levels of lead exposure, children who have it in their blood are more likely to have learning or behavior issues later in life than a child who’s never had that exposure,” Dr. Montague said.
Dr. Montague said parents should make sure their kids are up to date on their well-child visits. If a child has consumed one of the recalled products, Dr. Montague said parents should reach out to their healthcare provider about getting tested.
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Last week, prosecutors charged John Sawchak with attempted 2nd-degree murder and other felony charges after he allegedly shot his neighbor Davis Moturi.
MINNEAPOLIS — Following the shooting between two neighbors, the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to request that the city’s auditor conduct an independent investigation into the incidents and cases between Davis Moturi and John Sawchak.
Moturi was allegedly shot by his neighbor, Sawchak, on Wednesday, Oct. 23 but Minneapolis police did not arrest Sawchak until days later.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara defended not arresting Sawchak sooner, calling it a “high-risk” situation. O’Hara later said the victim, who had complained about harassment from Sawchak for months, was failed by police. Sawchak was arrested this past weekend after an hours-long standoff.
Moturi suffered a fractured spine, two broken ribs, and a concussion in the shooting. “Mr. Moturi’s life matters and I’m sorry that for nearly a year, MPD did not treat it like it did,” said Council Member Robin Wonsley in a news release, “Today’s vote affirms that the City Council is committed to taking meaningful actions towards accountability and restoration, starting with this independent review.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey released this statement:
“Mayor Frey fully supports an independent review of this incident. The mayor and City are committed to always doing better, and this means closely examining past actions and finding where there may be ways to improve and grow. The mayor extends his condolences to Davis Moturi, his wife, Caroline, and their family and friends. The safety of our residents is a top priority and any form of violence or hate speech is completely unacceptable and does not align with who we are as a community. Brian O’Hara will continue to be the Minneapolis Police Chief.”
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The episode also revealed three of the new cast members, one of whom, “Alex,” told Lachey Minneapolis is “not like a major city, but it’s also not a small town,” which he said is just one of the obstacles in his way of finding the one.
“I just never found the right person that clicked for me,” he said.
Meantime, you can bone up on Seasons 1-7 streaming now on Netflix.
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“The Stories From My Grandmother’s Hands” is a book that aims to show young Black children how their grandmas lived through beautiful illustrations and descriptions.
KARE 11 News at Noon shared more on Thursday about the impact that this book will have.
