For some grandparents, shopping for the grandkids is no piece of cake. Besides dealing with the usual grandchild pickiness, some grandparents must protect their allergic grandchildren from foods that could be fatal.
Judy of GrandparentsPlus2 is one of those. Her 7-year-old grandson has peanut/nut allergies, which means that Judy spends a lot of time reading labels and saying no.
Recently Judy found baked goods at her local Walmart that were labeled as having been baked in a nut-free facility. She was ecstatic. The label said "The Bakery," and Judy wondered if that meant that her local store had a nut-free bakery. No such luck.
A spokesperson for Walmart told me that hundreds of Walmarts carry nut-free products but that store bakeries are not nut-free. She emphasized that careful label-reading is still the ticket to safe eating. Peanut allergies and tree nut allergies are serious business because they are more likely than other allergies to cause anaphylaxis.
I'm quite sure that Judy couldn't give up the label-reading habit if she tried. At least she can find nut-free items at her local Walmart, even if they are not baked in-house.
"My grandson had never eaten a cupcake that wasn't made at home, and now he can choose which flavor he likes," Judy wrote. "I don't know if the average grandparent who doesn't deal with food allergies can appreciate this moment, but it is huge."
I’m so glad that we don’t have to worry about allergies — just the average picky eater! I’m thrilled for Judy that she has found some help from Walmart!
Thank you, Susan, for covering a topic that is so critical to our family.