Mom's Warning About Cleaning Lunch Boxes
This Mom Found Mold in Her Kids' Lunch Boxes, and Eeek, We Should Probably Check Ours
Grace Bollen, a mom of two from New Zealand, has an important PSA for all the parents who are gearing up for back-to-school season: make sure you can clean every inch of your kids' lunch boxes. In a now-viral Facebook post, Grace explained that she learned her children's lunch boxes were chock-full of mold on accident one day.
"So today, something in me prompted me to pry open the glue in the kids lunchboxes," she wrote. "I saw a little black spot in the corners while washing. This is what I found. I'm absolutely appalled. I feel awful that my children have been eating lunch out of these."
Grace also mentioned that her kids' lunch boxes weren't that old — the blue lunch box is nine months old and the yellow one has only been around for a year — before explaining that she cleans them religiously. "The children's lunch boxes have been hand washed each night and left open to dry."
Fortunately, Grace was proactive and brought the situation to the manufacturer's attention. She updated her original post with the respective companies' responses: "I have been in touch with both Stuck on You and Lunch Box Inc. and they are working to rectify the problem with the manufacturers and make them water tight," she said. "Please check with your supplier if there are any issues with yours."
Concerned about mold in your kiddo's lunch box? Grace recommends holding up light-coloured boxes to a lamp to see if you can spot any dark spots.
Her final bit of parting advice? Make sure you can easily clean all the parts of your children's lunch boxes — no exceptions. "Don't buy any lunchboxes that you can't clean ALL the parts," she warned. "Parents need to know!"
