Steroid cream gives Chinese baby hairy cheeks and causes her weight to shoot up; angry dad demands answers from producer
- ‘We were applying poisons on her every day,’ says distraught grandmother of five-month-old who developed a protruding, hairy forehead and cheeks
- A science blogger who tested the cream found it contained high concentrations of a steroid. Official tests were ordered, as its maker tried to deflect blame
An antibacterial baby lotion sold in China has been pulled off the shelves and its producer’s facilities shut down after a five-month-old on whom it was used grew a protruding forehead and cheeks covered in hair and saw her weight balloon. Tests showed a high concentration of a potent steroid had been illegally added to the product.
The girl’s distraught parents said that after using the antibacterial cream, Yifuling, on their daughter they had watched her weight balloon to 11kg (24 pounds), while fine hairs covered her now protruding forehead and cheeks. They said she had also suffered developmental delays and stunted growth.
With their baby’s condition worsening, the worried parents took the infant – nicknamed Pomelo – back to hospital, where a nurse realised that other babies had been brought in with the same symptoms.
“I remember a nurse asked us if we have used any cream containing hormones,” the girl’s father, surnamed An, said on state-controlled channel China Central Television. “She said she had already seen four other babies in the same situation.” Steroids are a form of hormone.
