Testing Chuck E. Cheese Restaurants For Bacteria Will Probably Give You Nightmares
After one of their friends claimed to have gotten ringworm from a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, mommy blog "momlogic" decided to swab several Chuck E. Cheese locations and have the samples tested for bacteria. The results are pretty gross, and make us thankful to have an immune system.
They found a variety of nasty germs that cause things like UTIs, pneumonia, and infant meningitis — proving once and for all that you should wash your hands before you eat.
Chuck E. Cheese's spokesperson says that the restaurant cleans and disinfects the tables and games every evening.
"We clean and sanitize our games every night with an antibacterial sanitizing solution called Sterbac Blue. We try to inspect and maintain during the day as well. We have a large amount of kids who come through here, and with them, a large amount of bacteria. We try to keep up with it."
Yep, kids are pretty gross. Be sure to wash yours thoroughly.
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Comments:
Is there also poop in the ball pit? Captain Obvious demands answers!
Most important take-home fact:
"As a mom, these bacteria sound alarming and scary. But as a doctor, I haven't ever seen a serious or life-threatening infection that can be clearly traced back to a kid-friendly restaurant."
Did I visit Chuck E. Cheese as a kid? Yes (technically it was Showbiz Pizza, but same difference). Did I try to eat the balls in the ball pit? Probably. Any meningitis? Nope.
For frick's sake, let your precious snowflake eat some dirt and drink from the hose! It's the only way that they will grow up healthy.
Eww. My kids have BEGGED to go there, and they never have set foot in our local CEC. It's dirty and on the bad side of town. Also, some kid died in the ballpit when it was Showbiz, and that did it for me. What is the appeal of that place anyways? Horrible food, lousy service, and some run down animatronics? Now if the had the Rock-a-Fire Explosion there, I'd go, but the mouse is just stupid.
I'm not surprised...I would expect some bacteria to be at any restaurant...nothing can be 100% germ free except maybe if they bleach EVERYTHING after each customer. And like the article says, we have an immune system to protect ourselves from this stuff. No need for fancy chemicals.
Yet another step in the direction of hyper-sensitive, allergic-to-everything kids.
People only have an immune system that works when they've been exposed to some stuff in their lifetimes.
@crazymatt1: But if they're eating dirt and drinking from the hose, that means they're outside... Which means I don't have to get a headache from the cacophony that is the inside of a Chuck E Cheese! (And they're probably getting more exercise in a healthier environment, too!)
Wait, sweaty, cheese-covered children cause bacteria? I think we're going to see an influx of child-bubbles this Christmas!
Joy!
@crazymatt1: "For frick's sake, let your precious snowflake eat some dirt and drink from the hose! It's the only way that they will grow up healthy."
i agree completely. when i was growing up, i drank from the hose, ate candy after i had dropped it on the floor (or on dirt) and so on.
people need to realize that no matter what they do, germs are going to be everywhere. and they *should* be. without them life as we know it wouldnt be possible.
and by going crazy with all those "antibacterial" cleaning products out there, we are, in the long run, only making things worse for ourselves..breeding supergerms and senseless worry.
ya, well just have your keyboard tested at work, will probably make chuck e cheese look like a hospital.
@crazymatt1: I fully support the idea of letting kids be kids...
For the immune system to function properly it must be exposed to all the nasty stuff in the environment. We do our kids harm when we protect them from exposure to the normal stuff...
Keeping this in mind, it is intelligent to observe our kids watching for unusual hazards (I dare you to eat that chunk of roadkill!) and to teach them appropriate sanitation and cleanliness habits.
@friendlynerd: Please refrain from saying the word peanut around children as all kids are now allergic to peanuts.
We're raising a bunch of pansy-ass kids, I'm tellin' ya.
@friendlynerd: Oh Christ, you wanna get me foaming at the mouth, start talking about these "allergic to life" type kids. If your kid is so goddamned allergic that a molecule is in the air, HOMESCHOOL HIM. My kids' school banned peanut butter for lunch because there is one child with an allergy (even though he actually eats in the nurse's office, on the other side of the school from the cafeteria) and when I substituted sunflower nut butter, I discovered that there's apparently a child allergic to ALL SEEDS. How is that even possible? Seeds are everywhere--this kid should have been dead long ago. Hey, my kids are kind of small for their age and should probably be eating a lot more peanut butter--I demand accomodations for THEM. /sarcasm
I just want to go up to the parents of these speshul snowflakes and tell 'em to eff off. What happens when they're grown and out of public school? You gonna demand that their college or workplace accomodate them, too? You know what happens to snowflakes in the real world?
They melt.
Bubble baby?
While I don't disagree with the results, I don't think it's very fair to single out Chuck E. Cheese when most restaurants would likely fail the swab test, too. Where's the "control" restaurant that was used for this study?
And, while you're at it, momlogic, please swab the waiting room of your child's pediatrician and let me know what you find.
Yeah, no shock here. I myself had a very brief stint working at a daycare center. All the hand-washing, anti-bacterial gel-using, gargling and vitamins in the world couldn't save me from pretty much catching a new cold on a weekly basis. I can only imagine how gross the ball pit at Chuck E Cheese must be - I loved that thing and even now at nearly 30 I want one in my dream house, but I can't imagine how they could reasonably clean that thing. There's probably toddler puke from 1984 at the bottom.
@JohnDeere: I have worked at both a hospital and a large chemical plant. There is approximately the same sanitation standards at both (read: POOR). Don't give credit (to hospitals) where it is not due.
/Rant off
@crazymatt1: Exactly. I would be more concerned about whatever that Sterbac Blue crap is thats "sanitizing" the tables. I'll take a little dirt over chemicals any day.
Oh, FFS. This is the sort of article that causes ocular damage from all the eye-rolling it incurs. I admit that I didn't have patience to make it through to the end of the "bump-up-the-page-views" gallery, but where the hell where the figures about how much of each organism was found? And where were the figures for momlogic's own kitchen?
This is scarelore from and for the scientifically naive.
@Cafezinha: Ugh, I would DIE if we start making workplace accomadations for those kids. I think what's really driving this is that doctors give allergy tests to infants, so if they have even a mild reaction to the test they are "allergic" and never given the chance to be exposed to anything.
I did see a report on the news that they have a new peanut therapy in trials. They'll gradualy put 1/millionth of a peanut in a powder and gradually move up. I can't believe that's rocket science...
Helloooooo.... ^ Children ARE sticky.
I think the reason why Chuck E. Cheese was the subject of the inquiry is because more kids go through a CEC throughout the year than arguably any other restaurant. Since the website is targeted to parents, CEC would be one of the places kids frequent the most versus a much better dining establishment.
In my search for more knowledge, I Wikipedia'd ringworm, and found that it was hilariously defaced. Quick, read it before they fix it. [en.wikipedia.org]
@HRHKingFridayXX: I kind of blame media sensationalism for some of this fury. Did you see the story about the 15-yr-old girl who died because her boyfriend had a trace of PB on his lips when they kissed? OH NOEZ DEADLY PEANUTS EVERYONE RUNNNNNNNNNNNNN!
Hell, I've even seen a lot of parents of allergic kids react negatively to nut-free schools because their kid will never get any kind of exposure, thereby never gaining any kind of immunity at all. Bubbles for everyone!
FYI, ringworm is a fungus, not a bacteria.
Heck, I had allergies when I was a kid so they drew a big grid on my back and poked me with stuff to see what I was allergic to. Then they proceeded to inject me full of the stuff I was allergic to a couple times a week to build up a resistance to it.
Back then, parents used to take their kids over to someone's house if they had chicken pox so that their kid would get it while they were young. Nowadays, that would probably be considered child abuse...
Or we could have titled this: Rats n' Pizza! A Natural Combination!
@xwildebeestx: Someone recently told me that many CECs no longer have ball pits because of all the odd detritus that winds up at the bottom.
This all might be just one more of those things that I just don't want to know. I sincerely doubt things were better in the past. Did the glimmering arcades of 1950s Brooklyn have germs likes these? Of course they did. So, either these germs are new and we're in for a world of hurt or are immune systems are better than we think. While it's good to know, it's hardly a reason to panic and may or may not be a testament to Chuck's cleaning prowess.
And then there's that whole thing about a bit rat cleaning things anyway .... ;-)
OK, clearly everyone here knows that kids are bacterial and viral breeding grounds. I worked at an arcade and we made it a point to keep the place clean and most everyone who started working there would get a cold during the first two weeks. Why?
All the kids.
@Courteous_Gentleman: I, for one, will certainly look forward to youth football games looking like Atlasphere on American Gladiators.
@GreatWhiteNorth: I remember as kids one of my friends informed me on the nutritious value of dirt. So we promptly ate some. Ah, kids.
Isn't roadkill a good source of protein?
I bathe in Lysol.
hahaha just kidding, I can't stand the whole "99.99% sterile" movement...
"...what d'ya think you have an immune system for? It's for killing germs! But it needs practice, it needs germs to practice on. So if you kill all the germs around you, and live a completely sterile life, then when germs do come along, you're not gonna be prepared. And never mind ordinary germs, what are you gonna do when some super virus comes along that turns your vital organs into liquid sh*t?! I'll tell you what your gonna do ... you're gonna get sick. You're gonna die and your gonna deserve it because you're f'ing weak and you got a f'in' weak immune system!"
- George Carlin, RIP
@HRHKingFridayXX: Sterbac Blue is a fairly common sanitizer (quaternary ammonium) used for manual warewashing as well as surface sanitizing. Health departments tend to like quaternary solutions much better than chlorine or iodine based ones.
@MadameX: I had the same tests. In the end the Dr's told my parents all the allergy symptoms I had weren't allergies, but symptoms of colds I was getting from being in a public school. It was funny b/c after awhile, they went away b/c I built up an immunity to most of the bugs there.
@tcv: That is true, every CEC I have been into in my area has not had a ball pit for years. They also don't have those massive crawl through structures that they advertise on TV. Its mainly video games, ticket redemption games and food, with a small crawling area for the toddlers.
Sounds like its not any more germy than the average pizza place, mall food court or arcade which are also places where children frequent. How about swabbing your standard mall food court or pizza place to compare the results with instead of slamming on a place that offers relatively cheap children's entertainment. Their games are still 25 cents each at least in my area which is a rarity these days.
@tcv: My friends little sister got herpes for putting one of those balls from the ball pits in her mouth (she was 3). Very sad.
@PoliticalScapegoat: Joe bless you, Mr. Carlin. I love that clip, especially when I'm ready to pound my head on the wall at the insane precautions other parents take to sanitize their children's immune systems out of existence.
WE WERE TEMPERED IN RAW SEWAGE!
What always makes me laugh is they take a swab. Then then place this swab on a surface which is pretty much fertilizer and food for Bacteria. They then place these surfaces in an environment(optimum heat/humidity/etc..) which makes them breed like crazy with no predators/enemies to hold back their numbers. They then act surprised they found all of these bacteria.
I am no scientist, but if I placed 1-2 bacteria in a petri dish and incubated it, wouldn't they grow like Mad and become a colony very quickly? Meanwhile, in the "real world" would the natural defenses in our body kill those 2 bacteria, thus negating any problems?
Sterbac Blue is made out of people! PEOPLE!
I can see a problem with the ball pits, but as I mentioned in another post I have not seen a CEC with a ball pit in my area in years. I have been in them recently too. Come to think of it I have not seen a ball pit anywhere in many years, in any establishment, there is probably a good reason for that too!
The ones here have video games, ticket games, kiddie rides and maybe a small crawling area reserved for toddlers. They do not even have those massive crawling structures that they advertise on TV, those are gone too.
I think some other places need to be tested as well instead of outright slamming on one place, how about swabbing in the mall food court, the local McDonalds, or your children's video game console controller. I bet the results would yield the same, similar or yield even more germs.
I go bowling in this one fun center here (they have those old bowling machines and I think they are cool) and I have never gotten a cold or anything from it, and its constantly filled with children.
Also, there's melamine in US-made food products and lead in your unleaded gasoline. Pesticides and salmonella in your bio-engineered food. Everything electronic is emitting cancer-causing EM waves. Oil and fresh water levels may be dropping, along with the ozone layer. Cars are deadly; so are bikes. Did you know that terrorists are eagerly awaiting a chance to kill you. Yes you!
Seriously though, swabbing surfaces and analyzing the results does sound like an interesting hobby. Also, playing the violin.
@I_Elohel: Exactly...nobody should be surprised by this. And yes children are gross. Teach them to always wash their hands early on.
@Ms. Pants: My child is allergic to pansies and broke out in hives after the word appeared on my screen. I hope you have a good lawyer.
@crazymatt1: Yummm ammonium. Sure, I understand that there's a health code, etc etc. But at some point don't you just say use some soap and call it a day?
Who's surprised?
Not this guy.