Poor Parenting Moment # 5872 (or so)

So for lunch today, AJ had a peanut butter and raspberry sandwich. We picked the raspberries ourselves last Friday and I didn't want them to go bad, but also didn't really want to go to the hassle of making jam from them, so I just stuck them on the sandwich like you'd do with bananas. It's remarkably good (I had one too). That's not the poor parenting moment.

We walked to a friend's house today (3 mi each way!) to let their birds out for a bit while they're out of town. It took a little longer than I expected, so we didn't get back until 2 (naptime) and hadn't had lunch yet. Hence the peanut butter and raspberry sandwich. That's not the poor parenting moment.

So I slapped together the sandwich and let AJ watch a short Thomas DVD that my mom had given him this weekend while he was eating (while telling him that when Thomas was over, it was naptime). Even though he'd already seen that particular Thomas DVD once already today, that wasn't the poor parenting moment either.

So AJ goes down for his nap and I start the laundry (which is a communal facility a floor up from our condo). Joanna had napped both ways on the walk, so she wasn't interested in napping when he did, so on one laundry trip I stuck her in her "intellitainer" (like an exersaucer). The next time it was in her walker. The next time, I just left her on the floor with some toys. Believe it or not, but leaving my almost-8-mo-old (who is very mobile) loose on the floor as I left our condo for 5-10 minutes to change the laundry was also not the poor parenting moment.

HERE's the poor parenting moment:
When I came back from the laundry, Joanna was sitting there (approximately where I'd left her) with a HUGE grin on her face. Coming out of her widely-grinning mouth was the leftovers of AJ's peanut butter and raspberry sandwich (which had been on a plate on the coffee table next to her).

Let's count the ways that my youngest could have died in those 5-10 minutes:
1) Gluten. Well, ok...gluten doesn't usually cause anaphylactic reactions in people, but since it's a possible ADD trigger, I'm a bit of a "no gluten until they're at least 1" nazi. Gives their digestive tract a little longer to develop.
2) Peanuts. Most research shows that peanut allergies are reduced if the child doesn't ingest peanuts of any sort until at least 1. We don't have any peanut allergies on either side of our family, but still. Some OBs will tell you not to eat peanuts while you're breastfeeding! (Glad I never officially heard that from any of mine!)
3) Berries. Like with peanuts, the longer you avoid berries, the better off the child is in terms of potential allergies. Some pediatricians even say to wait till they're 2!

All she needed to do to get all of the worst "not before they're 1" allergens at once was dip it in a glass of milk.