Monday, August 25, 2008

Monday Musings

Now that H has two teeth, she needs a baby toothbrush. Unfortunately, I can never find one that isn't packaged with baby tooth and gum cleanser. I always throw the baby toothpaste away and use the brush by itself. Why? Look at the ingredients in Gerber Giggles and Grins Tooth and Gum Cleanser:
Glycerin , Xylitol, Sorbitol, Propylene Glycol, Pectin, Xanthan Gum, Colloidal Silicon Dioxide, Natural Apple Flavor, Natural Banana Flavor, Calcium Lactate, Lactoferrin - from Milk, Lysozyme - from Egg, Lactoperoxidase - from Milk

Egg? Milk? In a product labeled "for babies 3 months and older"? Nice, Gerber.

We watched Firewall last night. Three children = three years behind in movies. There's a really disturbing scene where the villain intentionally feeds the peanut-allergic son of the hero a cookie with peanuts in it. On the one hand, while it was hard to watch, I was glad to see a depiction of how serious an allergic reaction can be and to see the parents and sister frantically searching for one of the boy's EpiPens (the villain hid them). On the other hand, the son was supposed to be eight years old, but he let the villain (who was holding them hostage) read the package label to him, and he didn't refuse the cookie or ask to see the label himself. No dramatic scene if he did that, I guess.


11 comments:

  1. AH-HA! Thank you for the info on toothpaste. I always wondered why the baby toothpaste bothered my milk and egg allergic baby!!! We never used the stuff after 2 attempts and syptoms quickly followed. Of course, Gerger doesn't include that those ingredients are from egg and milk...thanks a lot Gerber!

    I enjoy reading your blog! Thanks for all the great info and recipes!

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  2. The Williams--The most recent package I saw does say that those ingredients are from milk and egg. But what are they doing in baby toothpaste???

    Glad this helped!

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  3. Yeah, we switched our toothpastes, too. Luckily Jeff picked it up one day and just happened to read the label. Since then, we've been letting the 2 year old use Baby Orajel Tooth & Gum Cleanser (just in case Witt gets hold of it). As far as I can tell, there's nothing from milk or eggs, but I've still been hesitant to let Witt use it. We do just the brush, too.

    http://www.orajel.com/products/baby/tooth_gums/cleanser_label.htm

    Inactive ingredients carboxymethylcellulose sodium, citric acid, flavor, glycerin, methylparaben, potassium sorbate, propylene glycol, propylparaben, purified water, sodium saccharin, sorbitol


    Oh, on a side note, I need to vent... I brought a bunch of dairy-free egg-free chocolate chip cookies to an event and then to save space, someone dumped a bunch of their choc chip cookies on top of mine. OOOHHHH..... I was mad. Luckily, I had a Golden Oreo in Witt's bag so he could have dessert, too. Maybe I should start labeling everything I bring...

    ok. rant over. thanks for listening. :)

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  4. Who knew about the toothpaste? We have to get better about brushing Jelly Bean's teeth, I am ashamed to say.

    Teeth are just not my forte.

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  5. We never could get Mimi to brush her teeth until we started using adult tooth paste (she loves it!). I never considered that she could be having allergies to the kids varieties.

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  6. Currently our kids are using Tom's of Maine Strawberry toothpaste because they both hate mint and all other bubble/fruit kid flavors.

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  7. Wow, in toothpaste too? That's ridiculous. Just like "Just Lemon" that you can add to your water. I was surprised to see that something fruity that you add to enhance water has milk in it. Whaaaa????

    You've definitely opened my eyes.

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  8. I can't help you with toothpaste, but our dollar store sells kids' toothbrushes in packages of 2.

    No toothpaste involved. ;)

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  9. We actually don't let our PA son use toothpaste still. Even at the ripe old age of 4 and 1/2, he's inclined to swallow it. But I appreciate the toothpaste info. It's amazing the odd things that they put in toothpaste.

    Your photo's nice! I have not uploaded a photo onto Wellsphere yet. Can't bring myself to do it! I wonder if I can use my little avatar...

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  10. That certainly doesn't surprise me. Gerber is the WORST with both ingredients and labeling.

    I've complained to them a couple times and all I got was, "oh, we'll send you some coupons." Huh? I can't use your stuff!!!

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  11. Oh wow...I had no idea about the toothpaste. I wish I had realized this when my son was a baby/toddler. I never put two and two together on this. Probably would have saved us from some of his milk allergy problems.

    Great blog - I found you by way of Becky from Boys Rule My Life. :)

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