As a parent, you have a lot of decisions to make for your child. Whether it be from the brand of diapers, food, clothing, formula, soap, toys, swings, car seat, stroller, bouncer, etc. It can be an overwhelming daunting task! We have always used Gerber. No reason in particular. Just knew it was a well known company and had a large selection for their foods and snacks. We have been purchasing Gerber food products since Holdyn was born in November of 2006. When Hadley arrived in December of 2009, we just went with Gerber again, not even questioning it.
During our evening routine, I put Hadley in her high chair while I am cooking dinner for Holdyn. To keep her occupied until I have time to sit down and feed her, I always give her cheerios, puffs, cereal bars, or her frozen teethers. Monday night, I choose her cereal bars to give to her. They contain 6 bars in each box. She had previously had consumed 2 of the bars several days before so I grabbed another one out of the box. I ripped open the package and immediately felt something crawling up my arm. I freaked out and SCREAMED at the top of my lungs!! I threw the wrapper down and started chasing the ROACH knowing this was a huge deal that this thing was in my childs cereal bar wrapping. I can't stand roaches but I had to grab his leg to hold on to him and I was screaming for Holdyn to get me a cup. I put the cup over the roach to contain him to figure out what to do. I went back to the packing and in one of the corners was a pile of little black dots. I got a paper towel and dumped the little dots out which were... feces. Yes feces in my childs food!! I stopped right there, picked up the phone and called Gerber. After the man apologized (even though he did not seem too concerned at all) he asked did I have the roach and feces. I told him yes. I counted out the feces for him while we were on the phone. TWENTY ONE feces was the total. Yes, 21. The Gerber employee said he would mail me a label to put on a box and for me to send him the roach, feces, and any of the left over bars and original box they came in. Sure I will be happy to do that. Here is the kicker though. He said, "Oh and I will include a coupon so you can go buy another cereal bar box for free". ARE YOU KIDDING ME????!!!! You think I want to buy those again?! Um no thank you! I asked him did I need to contact the store where I purchased it from and he said no, that Gerber would call them. As of last night the product was still on the shelf and the store had not heard from Gerber yet. Um.. what are they waiting on?! Waiting 3 plus days knowing roaches and feces are in your product and you have not even notified the public yet? Like I said, the guy seemed like it was no big deal and was just excited to send me a coupon for me to go purchase a 'free' box of the same product. He must have been smoking crack, or maybe he doesn't have kids. Maybe he wants to eat a feces/roach infested cereal bar. Who knows but I am not purchasing the same product where feces were located in it.
Can we say NASTY!
You can't really see by the picture vut the experation date is May 2, 2011
The numbers under the experation date are 04858 0122S12SC
If you have this product in your home, PLEASE get rid of it immediately or call Gerber!
Both news stations in our town came and interviewed us today and they were headed to the store as soon as they left my house and they were calling Gerber today. One station said she wouldn't be surprised if this ended up on CNN or HLN. They are going to get the word out there to get this product off the shelf until it's checked out and make sure that it is safe. Sad that you have to go to those links to make sure your children are not consuming feces. Sadly knowing that Gerber obviously didn't take action after a concerned parent calling. Both news stations said they will keep me posted so we will see what happens.
Just wanted to let all of the mommys and daddys to be aware and if you have any of the Gerber cereal bars to please through them away ASAP!
Here is the link from both of the news stations:
EEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!! you have MY skin crawling!!!!!!! Oh my gosh!!!! Time for a switch for sure!
ReplyDeleteyuck! But I do wonder how the roach was still alive inside the wrapper? sorry this happened to you! Came over from Megan's twitter message.
ReplyDeleteUgh, So freaking gross. I am skeeved now. I hope it does make CNN! I am chucking all my gerber stuff now!!! Oh and P.S I LOVE the name Hadley. If I have another daughter I am naming her Hadley!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a case for the Health Dept to investigate...It reminds me of all the eggs that sickened people this summer from salmonella and when the health dept investigated found piles of feces, maggots, etc. Creepy! I hope to hear that something is being done and it is reported on the cable news like Fox, etc.
ReplyDelete