New Cereal Upsets Parents
Posted by Patrick in Children, Food & Drink
There’s a new Cheerios coming to store shelves but some parents are worried about what it’ll mean to their children’s health.
Some are so worried, in fact, that they’re suggesting a vow to not purchase any Cheerios product.
So what’s the issue? Peanut butter.
Peanut Butter Cheerios is the new variety, and with many children these days suffering from peanut allergies to varying degrees, parents have two key concerns.
First, they’re afraid that the peanut content could somehow cross-contaminate other varieties, leading an allergy-prone child to come into contact with peanut in a non-peanut flavor. This is a reasonable concern, assuming that the different flavors are manufactured or stored in the same place.
General Mills, which produces, Cheerios, issued a statement, saying, “We can say with complete confidence that Multi Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios will not cross-contaminate other Cheerios varieties.”
The only way I can imagine a company being able to genuinely offer “complete confidence” in such a case is if the peanut variety is being manufactured in a different facility. This would make logical sense, but I don’t know if it necessarily makes logistical sense. Let’s hope that it does.
The other concern, however, is a bit more problematic. The founder of a national support group, Allergy Moms, says it has become “the norm” for toddlers to walk around with a bag of cereal to snack on. And since toddlers aren’t known for neat eating, it would be hard to differentiate between different varieties of Cheerios.
So one toddler could pick up peanut-contaminated crumbs from the next toddler, and then suffer a dangerous reaction.
I understand that concern, and I think it’s a valid one.
But there are two solutions to this, and I doubt either is going to be universally popular.
The first is to put some sort of food dye in the peanut butter variety. Dyes aren’t generally regarded as healthy; most parents wish there were less dyes and additives in their kids’ food these days.
The second is behavioral. Why, exactly, has the “norm” become toddlers constantly walking around with a snack bag full of cereal? Don’t get me wrong: it sounds like a wonderful idea, and I’d love to have a little Ziplock bag full of goodies with me at all times, too. But, really: have we heard of the obesity problem in this country?
I guess that bag of snack food always at arm’s reach keeps the little tots quiet. But even if there weren’t Multi-Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios, isn’t there some peanut-containing snack that could be in one toddler’s snack baggie that could leave crumbs for an allergy-prone toddler to pick up?
Does that mean that we outlaw peanut butter for everyone?
Good luck with that one. I think my dad might move to Canada; take away his peanut butter and Ritz crackers and he’s done.
Parents can’t be everywhere at once. And neither can daycare workers or sitters. But it seems to me that if we increase the opportunity for toddlers to come into contact with potentially-dangerous food by keeping food constantly in their hands, aren’t we reducing the odds that little ones will get encounter something that could make them sick? Isn’t it better to take away the snack baggies and only feed them when they can be monitored to make sure they’re not picking up what their friends dropped? Isn’t that the safer way to do things?
Aren’t we better off limiting the availability of snacks to begin with, no matter what is in them?
Welcome to Patrick’s Place, home of the Saturday Six and the Sunday Seven.
I can understand parents allowing their toddlers to "graze" as that age is notorious for not sitting still at meals long enough to eat much, however, I always had a rule about food being consumed in the kitchen and dining room only so food didn't end up all over the house! This would allow for a certain amount of supervision which would solve any problem with children ingesting food they shouldn't.
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