Darius has been drinking milk made from Similac Infant since birth, and thus we have grown to be very familiar with how the milk powder looks like etc.

That was why when we opened a new tin on 17th September 2008, we immediately knew something was different — the milk powder was no longer fine and powdery. Instead, the tin contained pieces of powder being lumped together.

Reminds us of wet sand on the beach...

At first thought, we were worried if the powder in tin was in contact with moisture in the manufacturing process, thus explaining why they looked denser. We checked the manufacturing date at the bottom of the tin and it stated 30th April 2008, with the expiry date set to be two years later. Seeing that, we shouldn’t be doubtful of the condition of the milk powder.

And so, we continued to use the milk powder from this tin to feed Darius. Due to the condition of the powder, we were facing some inconvenience when scooping up the powder and pouring them into the bottle. This was because with the denser powder, it is now more difficult to shake off the excess on the scoop so that the powder only fills to the brim. Also, when we invert the filled scoop to pour the powder into the bottle, it will often get stucked in the scoop for a while before it gets successfully poured in.

Talking about the scoop, we have by now used nearly half of the powder in the tin and there still isn’t any sign of a scoop in the tin! Fortunately, we have kept the used scoop from our previous tin, else we probably have to find a spoon ourselves to inaccurately measure the quantity! We can’t help but wonder if proper quality check has been done prior to shipping these tins to us.

No scoop!

Coincidentally, Darius started getting cranky after each feed over the past few days (since we started using powder from this new tin), so we were a little worried if this suspicious-looking tin of milk powder has anything to do with it.

It was until early this morning, after Darius kept groaning and vomited out a large amount of milk that got us really worried. Though it shouldn’t be related to the recent milk powder contamination case in China, we decided that we should at least go purchase another tin of the powder in case we had really gotten a sub-standard tin.

And so at 4am plus, I rubbed my sleepy eyes and cycled down to the nearest MRT Station to buy a new tin from one of the 24-hour supermarkets there. Though I tried to look for tins that were manufactured on a different dates, my attempts were futile as they were all manufactured on 30th April 2008 too. Regardless, I bought a tin and brought it home quickly.

Upon opening up, we were faced with another tin of dense-looking powder, similar to the one we already have.

This would probably mean that though we have not gotten a sub-standard tin in terms of the powder quality (though it still doesn’t explain why no scoop can be found inside the tin), there has been changes made to the formula of the Similac Infant milk, thus causing the appearance and condition of its milk powder to differ from its previous tins. This may even be related to the recent price rise of its products.

Anyway, since we have already bought the Similac Infant milk powder, we will continue using it and monitor Darius’ condition closely, before deciding if we are changing to another brand to ease his condition. We are concerned if Darius’s body might not be getting used to this possible newly formulated milk powder.

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