Rabbit Sweets

The press just announced the popular White Rabbit Creamy Candy imported from China is found to be contaminated with Melamine, a industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones, leading to kidney failure.

I jogged my memory and recalled Ying Ying ate about half of the candy some time last month. :( It was given by her school bus assistant auntie who is very fond of the children under her charge.

I had mixed feelings about her tokens of tibits. I was happy the auntie showed kindness and affection towards the children, paying for the tibits out of her own pocket. Or maybe she wanted to bribe the kids to sit still on the bus.

On the other hand, I didn't like Ying Ying to snack on such things which have little or no nutritional value. The sugar causes hyperactivity and tooth decay; and spoils her appetite for 'real' food.

For about 2-3 weeks, she alighted from the school bus with a different snack everyday. Lotsa 'forbidden' cheap food like lollipop, candies, marshmellow sweets and even a small packet of Twisties chickenator (she nearly finished the whole pack on the way back home) etc. I was not sure how other parents felt about that but I was quite disturbed by her unhealthy eating habits.

I didn't know how to tell the auntie without hurting her feelings so I casually mentioned to her teacher about my concern. Apparently, she had been already aware of the situation and had tried discouraging her from doing so (dunno how true was that). The day after my call, Ying Ying stopped alighting from the bus with a tibit in her hand. Guess the tibits party on the bus finally came to an end, much to my relief.

For the next few days, I felt rather guilty and wondered if the auntie harboured a dislike against me since old folks can be quite petty. So in one of the telephone conversations with the teacher, I took the opportunity to ask if the auntie knew the complaint or rather, feedback, to put it politely (keke) came from me, she laughed and said no. Phew! I didn't want the auntie to be biased against Ying Ying, lah.

Anyway, back to the case of the tainted White Rabbit sweets. They used to be one of my favourites during my childhood days. Cheap and nice. I had a sweet tooth (I still do) and could eat many at a go, especially during CNY. God knows how much melamine I have already in my system. Should I be scanning my kidneys?? Hmm...maybe they didn't think of adding melamine in those days.

Well, I just don't trust made-in-China product anymore. My mother once bought a packet of Monmilk breakfast malt beverage for Ying Ying but I refused to offer to her because I noticed it was manufactured in China. So my mum brought it back home. Now that I recall, I also saw YiLi brand UHT milk (from China too) in her fridge a few weeks ago. I can't believe she chose to drink that out of so many brands of milk. I always tell her, cheap stuff doesn't necessarily mean good stuff but being a very stubborn person, she would go like, "nevermind lah..." See, now what happened?

Anyway, I feel sorry for those kids who are affected by the food scare. The culprits who added in the melamine KNOWINGLY are despicable and deserve to be punished. How about forcing them to consume melamine? I hate unscrupulous and dishonest people. Husband said they were so smart to try tricking the authorities in that scientific manner. How can he crack a joke like that? Crazy or what?!

The recent milk scare only goes to show breastfeeding is the best. No question about it.