Breakfast cereal is known for its high sugar content, but one mother was horrified to find a weight loss pill in her son's cereal.
Karlee Tweedie watched her four-year-old son Alex eat through a bowl of Coco Pops, when the youngster noticed something strange at the bottom of the bowl. Upon closer inspection, the foreign object appeared to be a pink capsule, one said to help people to lose weight.
Tweedie, who is from New South Wales in Australia, decided to post to Facebook about the incident, saying that while her son did not swallow the pill and was unharmed, she wanted to warn other mothers out there about the potential dangers at the bottom of a bowl of cereal.
"Everyone with kids who eat coco pops please be careful Alex was eating cereal and at the end we found a capsule in it. Has been confirmed the tablet is in fact Duromine."
"I made my son a bowl of cereal, he finished it and at the bottom of the bowl after he was finished was the tablet," Tweedie said, adding that the incident took place on Saturday. "I was worried and thought, what the hell is this?"
Tweedie's post has been shared on Facebook more than 3,000 times, with several mothers outlining their concern for Alex. "That's horrible," said one. "Hope he didn’t chew, swallow any and is OK."
Duromine, the weight loss pill found in Alex's cereal, is designed to be used as an appetite suppressant in small uses, and while the four-year-old was unlikely to be seriously harmed, the drug does come with side effects such as dry mouth, itching, not to mention vomiting and diarrhoea.
In response to the incident, Kellogg's, who produce Coco Pops, say they are launching an internal investigation in order to determine how the pill made its way into Alex's cereal. Adding that they had been in touch with Tweedie, they expressed doubt that the pill came from their factories.
"Along with manufacturing based on strict quality standards, we also have policies in place that prohibit employees bringing medications into the plant," said a Kellogg's spokesperson in a statement. "We are doing a full investigation with our team and are staying in touch with the consumer. Based on the available information, our food on the shelf is safe to eat."
"Our investigation found that none of the team who made this food use Duromine. It is a highly controlled prescription-only medicine. Based on this information it is highly unlikely that this happened at our factory. We manufacture all our foods to strict quality standards and want to reassure people that Coco Pops is safe to eat."
"I’m freaking out for my son that he could have eaten it," added Ms Tweedie. "I hope there aren’t any other cases. I don’t think there would be more but you can’t be too careful."
