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Texas Mother Says She Found Pill in Her Child's Gerber Puffs

Parents of young kids often pour some puff cereal out of a container onto a high chair tray and let their child slowly pick them up and feed themselves.

One mom who did that said she turned her back, and when she looked again, she claims to have spotted a pill mixed in with her child's Gerber Puffs Cereal.

"I went down to reach to grab one to put it up to his mouth, and there was a white chunk sitting there," Meghan Davis said.

It looked like a pill of some sort.

"Oh, I was terrified. Bless his heart, I yanked him out of the highchair and almost scrubbed the skin off of his hands because the puffs had shared the same container," Davis said.

She went back to the jar of Puffs.

"Dumped the remainder out and found another chunk of white," Davis said.

She called Gerber, who sent someone to her home to collect the pill. Gerber tells NBC 5 Responds their tests confirm it was Tylenol Three with Codeine.

Gerber says the Puffs are made on a dedicated baby food line with no pills. Its staff wears shirts with no pockets so nothing can fall in, and Gerber says the bottles are scanned and checked for any foreign objects before they leave.

Gerber says it's unlikely the scanning wouldn't detect a pill. Still, Davis isn't the only person claiming to find pills in bottles of Puffs.

Gerber confirms a case in Canada where a pill was found in Puffs, and NBC 5 Responds obtained a police report from Illinois where a dad says he pulled a pill out of his son's mouth. That dad says it was mixed in with Puffs.

Gerber says it "fully cooperated with local law enforcement and provided them all of the information they requested. Gerber applies the strictest standards for safety at all our facilities."

These facilities produce millions of bottles of Puffs each year.

People make claims like this, and people do it all the time. When we asked Davis about her response to the fact that some people might think she did the same, she says she's never had a problem with Gerber in the past.

"We have used Gerber for 12 years. Their products have been great for our children. I mean, they promised a safe product for children, and that's what we believed," she said.

Gerber invited the Davis family to fly to Michigan to their company headquarters to take a tour of the plant where the Puffs are made.

It turns out Gerber wasn't about to get them inside the plant where Puffs are made due to a scheduling conflict, but they showed the family another plant, which the Davises said was extremely clean and safe.

They still want to see the actual plant where Puffs are made, worried that there may be a hole in the system there. Gerber is still trying to make the trip happen to give the Davises comfort.

All of this remains under investigation by Gerber. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is also looking into the complaint.

In the meantime here's what you should know:

Pouring snacks before a child and walking away is never a good idea. Many of us do it, but take the extra step to look at what you've given your child to eat. Check all packaging to make sure they're sealed.

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