A trip to the beach this weekend - the first really nice hot one this summer - had me looking for safe restaurants to eat at in Cobourg. Not a lot was to be found online. We packed a picnic lunch and decided ahead of time to come home for dinner and order pizza from Pizza Nova. We've ordered there before and feel it meets our safety standards for restaurant food. At the beach though, our friends suggest eating out after long day in the sun. We're tempted, but really, I feel daunted by the idea of driving around Cobourg trying to find somewhere safe to eat. After not being able to find something on-line, I feel skeptical I'll be able to find something on foot. Plus, I dread feeling responsible for deciding about where we can and can't eat as a group, but the reality is that since we didn't bring dinner for DJ with us, I would feel reluctant eating anywhere I wasn't 100% certain was safe. Our friends aren't fussed either way, so we decided to just go our separate ways and head home. We ended up ordering Chinese food after DJ went to bed, which we both felt was slightly risky and something we had agreed not to do before - order in foods where there is high risk of cross-contamination. But realistically, what is the risk in this situation? DJ was already in bed, and would not be eating the food. I still mentioned the peanut allergy to Hong Kong Gardens, our absolute favourite chinese take-out in Toronto. They assured me they cook with vegetable oil and that there were no nuts in any of the dishes we were ordering and said they would ensure no other nuts got into our food.
We feel like we took every precautions to not let peanuts or nuts enter our house, but still enjoy what we like, without any increased risk to DJ. I don't know where that falls on the continuum of how people with PA kids eat in their own homes. Is that too risky, or too anal? What do you think?
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For us, personally, what you did is acceptable-and something my husband and I do as well. Risky or anal. Neither. You have to do what you can to protect the PA child while still living your own life. It's a delicate balance for sure.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I do the same as well. We take every precaution to avoid nuts in our house. My husband and I are huge fans of Thai food. Since both kids are PA we no longer patronize such restaurants. We do however,very rarely, after the kids go to bed, order Thai food. We repeatedly confirm that there are no peanuts in the dish before we place our order. We will usually eat it after 11:30 pm to kinda guarantee my 20 month old son won't wake up amidst our secret dinner. Thereafter we discard all the paper plates, cups, utensils ( I will only use disposables for such dinners) in the outside trash bin. My husband will clean and sanitize the dinner table, counters, and anywhere the food has contact with (TALK ABOUT ANAL). Then both my husband and I will wash, wash, wash , wash our hands, face, brush our teeth, rinse... It's a long routine...which is why we don;t eat Thai very often.
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