'I don't know. I really don't know,' said An Fengyun, a 34-year-old mother, when asked what she would feed her two-year-old daughter, who whined in her mother's arms for an overdue lunch.
'We are all very worried about this.'
An was one of dozens of parents or grandparents who brought babies for checkups at Beijing's Capital Pediatric Research Institute, a children's hospital.
The crowds gathered after state-run media announced Wednesday night that 21 more companies were found producing milk powder tainted with an industrial chemical. Previously only one company had been blamed.
China said the tainted powder had so far killed three babies and sickened at least 6,244, while checks were being done on all types of dairy products to see if they were similarly contaminated.
'We decided to bring her in immediately to be safe. We can't trust any of the milk powder anymore,' said a woman pensioner who gave only her surname, Ma, holding her 10-month-old granddaughter, Tang Ziqi.
Outside the hospital, several parents pored over a newspaper report listing the affected dairy brands and debated what to do.
When one woman suggested switching to only fresh milk, she was shouted down by others.
'How do we know the milk itself is not tainted? This is still being investigated. You can't be too sure!' said an elderly man tending to his toddler grandson.
The chemical blamed for the contamination was melamine, normally used in making plastics, glues and industrial resins.
China's state-run press has suggested it was put into watered down milk to give the appearance of higher protein content.
It has been blamed for causing kidney stones in babies, a condition rare for infants but which causes a range of serious health risks.
Ms An's daughter checked out fine, but to keep it that way, she was considering depriving the toddler of all dairy-based products until the danger had passed.
'It will be difficult because she likes milk. But it is the only way,' she said.
Ye Qian, 25, who is six months pregnant and keen to continue drinking milk herself to aid her baby's development, said she was considering the previously unthinkable: consuming only expensive imported milk.
'Hopefully this will be over by the time the baby is born,' she said, shopping in the dairy section of a local supermarket, its shelves thinned out by the recall that morning of three additional brands.
'I'll buy imported milk. It will be more expensive but safer.'
Still, she had her fears. The powdered milk she had been consuming through her pregnancy was among the 22 tainted brands.
'I'll never drink that again,' she said.
Back at the hospital, parents called for harsh punishment for those responsible.
But they brushed off suggestions the government had been slow to react to the scandal amid reports sick babies first emerged early this year.
'The government wouldn't hide this. They have been investigating. We are glad this news came out because now we know,' said one woman. -- AFP