Whats your cracker of choice?

 The story behind the story...

We had gotten our family of four fed, dressed, bundled and buckled to go food shopping together. This can be quite an ordeal with a two small children. On our drive, our 2 1/2 year old (Alexa) was acting impatient (nothing out of the ordinary), saying she wants to get out of the car. Almost to the food store, she said she wanted daddy to stop. Coincidentally he wanted coffee so we made a pit stop at Dunkin Donuts but only he ran in. It was a short wait but Alexa seemed unhappy so I offered her a binky in exchange for improved behavior. The mature toddler that she is, she took the binky in compliance.

As we pull into Whole Foods parking lot (me, in sheer excitement having arrived at my favorite place to go food shopping), Alexa says "mommy.." and proceeds to vomit all over herself,  her carseat, and anything in her surroundings. The overprotective mother that I am, I practically jump in the back with her while my husband pulls into the closest parking spot. Tears in my eyes, I jump out of the car and run around to her side to comfort her. This was our first throw up encounter so it was a quite a mess of emotions. Heartbroken that my sweet little first born ever had to feel the wrath of a stomach bug, but also feeling sick myself from the smell. Frantic and unsure what I'm supposed to do first. Wanting to just hold her but not wanting to touch puke. I tell her its ok while grabbing the package of baby wipes ready to tackle what I never thought I could.

My husband (Dan) hands me some paper towels and a bag while I start wiping. Unbuckling, getting her coat and shoes off, taking her out of the car and getting off the slimy sweatpants. Finally cleaned up, I placed her in the drivers seat and my coat over her legs. She laughs that shes in daddy's seat and asks if she could drive. I think that lightened the mood a bit. Dan put a hoodieover the mess on the car seat just so we could get home. Our 9 month old (Marley) was aware but thankfully quiet as a mouse through the whole ordeal.We get home, wash up and get into jammies, had some soup and set Alexa upon the couch with the last few Ritz crackers we had.

After the car was clean, kids fed and in their pajamas, Dan decided it was probably best to run up to closest store for some pedialyte and more crackers The wonderful father that he is, brought home THREE different cracker brands to be sure his baby would be happy. Telling me not to read the ingredients because they were all pretty much the same and probably knowing how in depth I would get if I was unsure about something. Thus leading us to the purpose of my long story.


The crackers he bought were Whole Grain Wheat thins, Ritz and bite size Saltines


Wheat thins uses something called BHT in their packaging to preserve freshness. Of course I looked this up wondering why they use it but Saltines and Ritz doesnt.... this is what I found...
from my understanding, I can best explain it like this...

(direct quote from Wikipedia)...
"BHT is prepared by the reaction of p-cresol (4-methylphenol) with isobutylene (2-methylpropene) catalysed by sulfuric acid: ^[3]"

I dug deeper to try to understand this...

Methylphenol is used to make insect killer
Methylpropene is a highly flammable gas that when released could cause an oxygen-deficient atmosphere
Sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive strong mineral acid. some uses are making lead-acid batteries for cars, fertilizer production...

Definition of "Catalysed"  is to cause or accelerate a reaction

I am forever not understanding why companies would use such toxic chemicals in our FOOD!!!
I hope this information was helpful :)