Chinese Health Ministry medical specialists arrived Wednesday at an east China kindergarten to investigate how 233 children might have developed abdominal problems.

The children all attended Tiyi Kindergarten, a private school in Cixi, a small seaside city in Zhejiang Province. They have been diagnosed as having swollen mesenteric lymph nodes, said a source from the provincial health department.

That means the kids, aged three to eight, could have an infection in their intestines. These kids included some who have graduated from the kindergarten.

Parents took their kids to hospital for health check-ups because they suspected the cooking oil used by the kindergarten to be unclean and doubted about the sanitation of the school kitchen. They had an occasional chance to enter the kindergarten kitchen on October 7 and saw the uncleanness there.

One parent of a sick child, surnamed Chen, said the children were diagnosed with swollen mesenteric lymph nodes. Local doctors said there is no need to treat the problem as it is common in young children.

Parents, however, disagreed with that advice and took their kids to large cities such as Shanghai and Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, for B-type ultrasonic scans.

The Chinese Health Ministry is trying to sort out the problem.

According to the provincial health department, no child complained of any symptoms, such as abdominal pain, prior to being taken to the hospital

After tests, provincial quality supervision authorities and medical professionals reported the cooking oil at the school to be safe, said a Cixi city government spokesman.

More than 400 children are enrolled at Tiyi Kindergarten. Administrators could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman with the Zhejiang Provincial Health Department said he hoped the Health Ministry could produce an unbiased conclusion and put parents at ease.

(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2008)