Abbott Labs Sued Over PediaSure Height Claims

A woman has filed a case against Abbott Laboratories in New York City accusing the company of misleading height claims. The woman says that the healthcare company has labelled its nutritional drink PediaSure as “clinically proven” to increase height.

The woman who was identified as Joanne Noriega claimed she bought PediaSure Grow & Gain strawberry and vanilla drinks for her grandson who is 8-year-old. The child was “short for his age” and the woman believed that the supplement would make him become taller.

Later, after a year of two PediaSure drinks in a day, the child was still the same. However, he became “so overweight” that she had to stop buying PediaSure.

Noriega said that PediaSure is “just a flavored sugar and milk-based drink that contains vitamins, which is not a cure for shortness.” She also said that Abbott “knows from its own studies that its Clinically Proven Claim is false and misleading.”

The company said, “PediaSure is a scientifically designed complete and balanced nutritionsolution for children to help support growth and development.”

Abbott says that PediaSure is designed for children between the ages 2-13 year old and is proven to help children “grow out of at-risk weight-for-height percentiles (5th-25th percentiles).”