Sunday, June 10, 2007

Lead-Free Bento Yum

Supergirl's last day of Kindergarten was a half-day, so just a light snack was needed before the eat-yourself-sick ice cream party and the debauchery of the afternoon school's-out-pool-party at a friend's house.

Brie cheese on whole wheat cut-out sandwiches, snack of nori-maki, almonds, and a few chocolate sunflower seeds, fresh watermelon and raspberries, and in the top layer is a flat blueberry-filled marshmallow (made in Japan, of course).


The Nez (aka and fka 'Bubbles') got to come along to work (for me, play for him) with me, thusly requiring his very own baby bento box, if only to make myself feel better for at least trying to get this child to eat something other than milk!!



Baby Bento with divider from Ichiban Kan. Normally I am against anything with a commercial logo, but because I am immature, I think 'rainbow pooh' is funny. Crackers, dried strawberries, Panda puffs cereal, Joe'sOhs, and a new favorite toddler snack: Fritos.


Now before you get all up in my white trash grill for feeding my toddling beauty such garbage as Fritos, let me share a little discovery with you: they melt fast, and for babies that have fewer than eight teeth this is a consideration, and the ingredients are as follows: whole corn, corn oil and salt. That's it.


So, more about these mini-bento boxes...

My lovey Jen wrote this post about my little obsession bento discovery, and one commenter shared her concern about the possibility of lead in the plastic. Thank you, Nicola!


Right away, I purchased a lead-test kit from an Ebay seller, something I had been 'meaning' to do for a long time. 'Free shipping' is always a good incentive for me!

I am happy to report that:

a)I have not completely failed my children by poisoning them with lead-coated organic baby carrots, and

b) all of the boxes I have featured here, the 'Clickety-click' ones and the polka-dot, and the other 'made in Japan' boxes all tested free of lead.


There was some initial concern about the orange bento box, as the swab turned a bit orangey, but it turned out to be spaghetti sauce, because our dishwasher just sucks.


4 comments:

dee-dee said...

You are THE BEST Mom! Not one, but TWO bento boxes were made for your children! I can't wait to visit and go on a picnic with "my" bento box filled with luscious treats, snacks and yummy fair!

Fritos? For those who have children suffering from Celiac disease and trying to find glutten free food for their children to eat, Fritos is the number 1 food found to be "glutten free" and that mothers (interviewed in this study that I read) were finally smiling about as there haven't been many foods (up until recently) that were glutten free and that kids would eat!
Dee-Dee

Anonymous said...

1. You need to start a bento blog
2. If I were to throw out everything in my kitchen made with high fructose corn syrup and preservatives, and start buying my kids things like dried mango and nori, do you think they would eat it eventually? Because I really don't know how else to get them to eat better.

Bento Pet said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bento Pet said...

I've read about lead in plastic containers coming from China too. Thanks for taking the trouble to do the test and put my fears to rest.

All the bento boxes I use is made from Japan and most under the Clickety-click line. Thanks!