Actually, dirt.
Make that fecal matter.
And not with it, IN it.
Your kids are rolling around in germ-infested, dung-covered areas of filth each and every time you allow them to frolic in fast-food playlands.
Or so says a take-charge mom of four slash doctor with a specialty in child development.
Erin Carr-Jordan did what most parents refuse to do: she broke out of her bubble of blissful ignorance and exposed the real dirt that lies within the often-sticky, always smelly, bastions of filth that are fast-food kiddie playlands.
After seeing clumps of hair, rotting food, ink and what looked like blood, caking the sides of a fast-food restaurant play tube that she allowed her toddler to crawl through, Carr-Jordan had a moment.
“It was like getting hit with a brick, it was so disgusting,” she told Good Morning America during a recent visit. “There was filth everywhere, there was black on the walls and it was sticky and there was grime inside the connecting tubes.”
Carr-Jordan says she took her concerns to restaurant managers, but they showed little interest. So, the determined mom started video taping the putrid conditions, and then posted her findings on YouTube.
Only she didn’t stop there. Carr-Jordan wanted proof that the filthy conditions could make children sick, so she spent several thousand dollars of her own money collecting and testing samples from nine fast-food restaurants in seven different states, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Chuck E. Cheese’s.
What the lab found would make any parent lose his lunch. In addition to dirt, dust and grime, fecal matter and urine were also discovered in eight out of the nine play areas Carr-Jordan swabbed. Lab reports found one restaurant play tube had more than 20 million fecal bacteria in a two-inch area.
According to health care experts, kids, who come into contact with human waste could get very sick, especially if they touch their mouth, nose or an open wound.
Executives at the fast-food restaurants that Carr-Jordan tested claim that they will take better care to sanitize the kiddie play areas, but do you really want to rely on others to keep your kids safe?
Health experts recommend parents have their kids thoroughly wash their hands with anti-bacterial soap after coming into contact with playland toys, balls or other features.
Do you feel safe letting your kids crawl around fast-food play areas?
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