Parents vent anger, frustration over poisoning of children
Holding her 10-month son in her arms at a Beijing children's hospital, Zhao Shuping cries as she tells how angry and shocked she is to learn the milk powder her son has been drinking could kill him.
'I couldn't fall asleep last night,' Mrs Zhao said. 'I feel so bad for having fed my baby toxic milk since the day he was born. Living on the mainland, we sort of know that our food is always contaminated, but doing this to a vulnerable baby? The greedy businessmen are shameless.'
Mrs Zhao was just one of the parents who flooded hospitals yesterday to have their children checked after revelations a far greater number of the mainland's dairy product manufacturers than first thought were putting the chemical melamine into some of their goods.
At the Capital Institute of Paediatrics, one of Beijing's two children's hospitals, parents arrived as early as 3am. Queues formed quickly, and by late afternoon the soonest a parent could have their child given an ultrasound was a week away.
Crowded around at the hospital, mothers poured out their anger and frustration. Some talked about how they could feed their children and decided that only foreign brands were safe.
