Friday, February 11, 2011

What you don't know......

I've always liked the saying, "What you don't know, won't hurt you." I wish I would have went with that as my theme this morning.
I was out of bread this morning. Nothing I wasn't aware of last night, however. In my mind, yesterday, I was trying to decide if I needed to go get bread for the kids' lunches today or not. We had some bagels that we had gotten at Costco, so thought I would just use those to make the kids' sandwiches. I actually had one for my lunch yesterday and it was delicious! I put cream cheese on it and then also put some shaved turkey on it. It's a different kind of bagel than I've ever had before. It has sesame seeds and poppy seeds on it. I think maybe it has some onion flavor in the bread too? It's actually called, "Everything Bagel". This morning, when I got up, I was actually a little "excited" to make the kids' lunches. I guess because I had something "different" for them today. I informed them of what I was going to do, and they were both okay with it. As I was standing there making the bagel sandwiches, I thought, "Surely these don't have nuts in them?" Then I decided I should probably look at the ingredients, just to be sure. The ingredients started out: wheat flour, water, salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, onion, garlic, malted barley flour, yeast, wheat gluten............then all the things you can't pronounce or spell, which actually weren't very many. Then the next highlighted information says, "Contains: wheat, sesame seeds." So far, so good! Well, unless I haven't been informed that there is also a wheat allergy at school and we actually aren't supposed to be sending any sort of sandwiches. Then the label says, "May contain: milk, eggs, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, soya, sulphites." GOOD GOD! What other kinds of nuts even exist..........besides peanuts??? UGH! So, I have all of these thoughts going through my head: "Maybe the allergy aware program at school really means just peanuts? Surely these other nuts are okay? Maybe I can just not tell the kids and then no one will know? But what if the lunch monitors already have banned these bagels and they take them away from the kids? I don't want them to go hungry! Maybe I should just tell the kids and then tell them to be sure and wash their hands when they are done eating (which they should be doing anyway!). I could just go get the kids and bring them home for lunch. Damn, why did I even look?" I know...............I'm mental. As I am getting the other items ready for their lunch boxes, I decide I should tell the kids about it. I read them the ingredient list and Gage said the allergy aware program means all nuts. UGH! So now I'm trying to decide what I should do. I don't have any bread. The grocery stores don't open until 8:30, after I have taken the kids to school. Well, I guess we have cinnamon and raisin bread, but that didn't sound too good to have with ham or turkey. Emma had already mentioned to me this morning that she wished she could use the thermos I bought for hot foods and wanted to take "Kraft Dinner". I hadn't done that yet, and thought I could do that, but it's not the most nutritious meal. Then I thought I could heat up the chili that I made for supper last night and send that with them in their thermoses. Although, I really didn't want to do that because I wanted the chili for myself for lunch. HOW SELFISH! I love reheated chili! I usually make enough to last all week; however, not this time. :( So, I decided to just give one of the bagel sandwiches to Scott to have for his lunch and I kept the other one and sent the chili with the kids. Why do I have to have such a guilty conscience? Why did I look at the dumb label? Well, I know why...............because I am a rule follower. The school has sent home notes about reading labels, and re-reading labels because sometimes ingredients change. Just because it didn't have nuts one time, doesn't mean it won't the next time. PLUS........there was a recall on granola bars because the outside box label said it didn't contain nuts, but then on the inside, it contained an assortment of different granola bars and some of them, did indeed, contain nuts. That is always why I have liked the saying, "What you don't know won't hurt you!" However, I guess in this case, "What I chose not to know might have hurt someone else." :(

3 comments:

Shannon said...

Yea, because of Rob I have to read every label. It is amazing what you find in stuff. Most of those words you cant pronounce, I even have to know what they are! As they may also contain gluten!! And lots of labels may even say gluten free , then you read "made in a factory where there are nuts, wheat, milk, soy, and egg products." or something like that. SO, due to cross contamination I cant even buy the ones that say gluten free on them sometimes!

Michele said...

Hey - you did the right thing and handled the situation very well!

Heather Braun said...

Stacy - thank you for being so cognisant of food allergy issues. My son is allergic to peanuts and eggs and I'm so afraid for when he has to go to school. It's good to know some parents are thoughtful and conscientious!