Cross-posted at MotherTalkers.

Before moms of formula-fed babies freak out, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is saying the traces of the toxic chemical melamine found in baby formula are actually safe and parents should not change their baby's diet because of it, according to the Associated Press:

"Previously undisclosed tests, obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the FDA has detected melamine in a sample of one popular formula and the presence of cyanuric acid, a chemical relative of melamine, in the formula of a second manufacturer.

Separately, a third major formula maker told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula.

The three firms — Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson — manufacture more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States.

The FDA and other experts said the melamine contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing process, rather than intentionally.

The U.S. government quietly began testing domestically produced infant formula in September, soon after problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China.

(Dr. Stephen) Sundlof said there have been no reports of human illness in the United States from melamine, which can bind with other chemicals in urine, potentially causing damaging stones in the kidney or bladder and, in extreme cases, kidney failure.

Melamine is used in some U.S. plastic food packaging and can rub off onto what we eat; it's also contained in a cleaning solution used on some food processing equipment and can leach into the products being prepared.

Sundlof told the AP the positive test results 'so far are in the trace range, and from a public health or infant health perspective, we consider those to be perfectly fine.'"

Still, as AP writers Martha Mendoza and Justin Pritchard correctly pointed out, that seems to be a departure from the agency's stance in October after three infants in China died and another 50,000 were sickened due to melamine-spiked formula. On October 3, the FDA said, "FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns."

Hmm.