Going Nuts at McDonalds

For the last three years, my best friend and I have been taking our boys to McDonalds to play at least once a week. When we first started out, we'd meet there 2-3 times a week.

In Texas, it is to hot, wet, or cold to play outside about 70% of the year. This is especially true if your child has bad exema; which both our sons do. So we struggle to find indoor playscapes that are cool and controlled to take them to.

One of the reasons the playscape has to be controlled is that my friend's son, Charlie, is DEATHLY alergic to peanuts. On a scale of 1-10, people at 5 have died when making contact with peanuts (or shells/oil) and not receiving the correct treatment. Charlie's alergy to peanuts is 7. When he started school two years ago, his mother spent days fighting with administration, the cafeteria, the distric, and the nurses to set up a safe environment for her son and implement actions in case he went into shock.

He is forced to eat at a designated table on a stage, away from all other children, to limit his exposure to the CHANCE someone may have brought something prepared in peanut oil or snuck in a peanut butter sandwhich -- this has been prohibited. Regardless of her efforts, last school year, Charlie went into shock and was rushed to a hospital. The santa that visited the room had peanut dust on his outfit.

So . . . one of the few safe places for us to go is McDonalds. They are a completely peanut-free environment. Usually.

We stopped by our preferred Mc Donalds a few weeks ago and the boys were playing and having a blast. A day care center came in with sixteen children under the age of four. My friend and I both were irritated by their arrival. The teachers organized their kids in the middle of the room; blocking an entrace to the playscape, the bottom of the slide, and the piano. They occupied ALL the free space in the playscape while they sit town in a circle and sing several loud songs. The noise was so loud every person in the area, which was closed in, was wincing. Several families immediately left.

We hung in there. Sure, we griped to each other. Who wouldn't. But it was when the teachers started pulling out the kids lunches that our eyes popped. First, they didn't buy a SINGLE thing. What kind of balls does that take? To show up with three teachers, and sixteen kids, and so take over the entire playscape -- where people who PAID for their food are at -- that everyone leaves? Big ones.

But even that wasn't the eye popper. It was the fact they were pulling out PEANUT butter and jelly sandwhiches for everyone. SIXTEEN children under the age of four were about to eat food that could easily kill Charlie.

My friend almost had a heart attack. She went over and tried to explain to the teachers and was told the kids hands would be wiped before they went back out to play. Which just freaked my friend out more . . . they were going to let them go BACK OUT AND PLAY after eating peanut butter?

We left immiedately. And we haven't been back. Realistically, what are the odds that sixteen children under the age of four didn't get a single DROP or SMEAR of peanut butter somewhere on the playscape? Not good. Worse, is the fact that most indoor play scapes are only professionally cleaned quarterly; if that.

In the US alone, there are over 600,000 children with peanut allergies. That is .8% of all children. Not all of their allergies are severe enough to kill. And fortunately, most school systems have policies andprocedures in place to prevent catamination and speed assistance to these children if needed. And many children outgrow the allergy as they age. But not all.

Per year, 100 people in the US die from complications assocated with peanut allergies.

Yeah, yeah, I'm getting off the soap box. I kept waiting for Charleane to post about our encounter. I NEEDED her to vent about it, but she never did, and I couldn't keep it in any longer.

As much as I love peanut butter, I've been having trouble looking it in the eye lately.