Enlarge / Night view of company logos in Nestlé Avanca Dairy Products Plant on January 21, 2019, in Avanca, Portugal. This plant produces Cerelac, Nestum, Mokambo, Pensal, Chocapic and Estrelitas, among others. (credit: Getty | Horacio Villalobos )

In high-income countries, Nestlé brand baby foods have no added sugars them, in line with recommendations from major health organizations around the world and consumer pressure. But in low- and middle-income countries, Nestlé adds sugar to those same baby products, sometimes at high levels, which could lead children to prefer sugary diets and unhealthy eating habits, according to an investigation released recently by nonprofit groups .

The investigation, conducted by Public Eye and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), says the addition of added sugars to baby foods in poorer countries, against expert recommendations, creates an "unjustifiable double standard." The groups quote Rodrigo Vianna, an epidemiologist and professor at the Department of Nutrition of the Federal University of Paraíba in Brazil, who calls added sugars in baby foods "unnecessary and highly addictive."

"Children get used to the sweet taste and start looking for more sugary foods, starting a negative cycle that increases the risk of nutrition-based disorders in adult life," Vianna told the organizations for their investigation. "These include obesity and other chronic non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes or high blood-pressure."

Enlarge / A father cares for his eight-and-a-half-month-old son, who is in the intensive care unit of the pediatric clinic at St. Joseph Hospital in Berlin with a respiratory infection and is receiving non-invasive ventilation (CPAP ventilation). (credit: Getty | Christoph Soeder )

A committee of independent expert advisors for the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday voted largely in favor of the agency approving Pfizer's vaccine for protecting infants from the common respiratory virus RSV —respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus—which can be deadly to infants.

The vaccine, provisionally dubbed Abrysvo, is given to pregnant people between 24 and 36 weeks of pregnancy, allowing protective antibodies to develop and then cross the placenta to protect the fetus.

In a phase III trial involving nearly 7,400 pregnant people in 18 countries, the vaccine was nearly 82 percent effective at preventing severe RSV disease in the first 90 days of a baby's life. It was 69 percent effective at 180 days. In terms of protecting against non-severe respiratory disease from RSV, the trial results didn't meet the statistical criteria to find efficacy at 90 days, but data from 180 days suggested an efficacy of around 51 percent.

Enlarge / The Abbott manufacturing facility in Sturgis, Michigan, on May 13, 2022. (credit: Getty | Jeff Kowalsky )

The Department of Justice's consumer-protection branch has opened a criminal investigation into the conduct of Abbott Laboratories, one of the country's largest formula makers, at the center of a contamination scandal and ongoing nationwide shortage .

The existence of the investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Though the DOJ is not commenting on it, a spokesperson for Abbott said the department has informed them of the investigation and that the company is "cooperating fully."

Federal regulators last year found numerous violations and "egregiously unsanitary" conditions at Abbott's Sturgis, Michigan, plant, the largest formula factory in the country. The regulators previously received reports that at least four babies who drank formula made at that facility fell ill with dangerous infections of the bacterium Cronobacter sakazakii, which had also been detected in the plant. Two of the infants died.

Enlarge / Parents look after their son, age 5, who is being treated for croup and asthma in an emergency room at a California hospital March 24, 2010. (credit: Getty | Mark Boster )

The omicron coronavirus variant caused a spike in cases of a potentially severe breathing condition in babies and toddlers, according to a hospital study recently published in the journal Pediatrics .

The study is small, focusing only on COVID-19-associated cases at one large children's hospital in Massachusetts during the pandemic. But, it provides some of the initial data on the subject and backs up anecdotes from health care providers that the latest pandemic variant causes more cases of laryngotracheobronchitis—aka croup —in younger children than earlier variants.

Generally, croup is a common upper-respiratory tract condition in which significant inflammation and swelling develop in the larynx and trachea, imperiling breathing. Some viral infection usually triggers swelling, but allergies and other irritants can also be culprits. Croup can occur at any age but mostly strikes the tiny upper airways of infants and young children, ages 3 months to 5 years.