Mom who let 4-year-old eat a PB&J in a shopping cart branded a monster by parenting forum

PHOTOS: 8 things you didn't know about peanut butter This stock image girl wisely eats her peanut butter and jelly sandwich at home instead of in a shopping cart at Target. PHOTOS: 8 things you didn't know about peanut butter This stock image girl wisely eats her peanut butter and jelly sandwich at home instead of in a shopping cart at Target. Photo: Natalie Faye/Getty Images/Image Source Photo: Natalie Faye/Getty Images/Image Source Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Mom who let 4-year-old eat a PB&J in a shopping cart branded a monster by parenting forum 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

Here's one for all the parents out there: Is it OK to let your child eat peanut butter at Target?

A mother on a New York parenting blog wrote Monday that while shopping at the store, she gave her four-year-old daughter a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and "a woman stopped me to lecture me about peanut allergies."

The child's mother then asked other moms on UrbanBaby if it was now unacceptable to eat peanut butter in public.

If your reaction is of course not, it's a free country, you are definitely siding with the minority.

The anti-peanut butter backlash was swift and brutal. Most responses attacked the mother for potentially endangering children with peanut allergies. Some criticized her for feeding her daughter in a shopping cart, which they considered disgusting.

"That's really inconsiderate," one person wrote. "So many kids have life threatening allergies to peanut butter. Eating it in a shopping cart GUARANTEES it will be smeared on the handle, etc. It's really awful you would do this. Sorry, but imagine if it were your child with the allergy."

Another chimed in:

"That's actually kind of lousy of you. you are aware that kids with peanut allergies exist in the world, so it's kind of a D move to let your kid smear peanut butter all over the child seat of a public cart."

The original poster (OP) explained, multiple times, that her daughter ate the sandwich neatly and didn't smear any peanut butter and her hands were wiped afterwards, but it didn't make any difference.

It only got worse. Here is a sample of the responses:

—"Your total disdain for the safety of other kids is awful. Feeding your kid a PB&J in a Target shopping cart is the epitome of low brow. For the love of God at least feed her in the car if you absolutely can't feed her at home! Everything about your post is vile."

—"You're the worst kind of person. Just understand that raising a child with an I don't care about others attitude means they will be obnoxious insufferable kids just like their mom. A grown up would tell their kids we can't eat that right now because it may cause another child to get sick. Period. Why do we need to explain this to you?"

—"It's not impossible to feed your child BEFORE or AFTER putting them in a shopping cart, especially peanut butter. You are awful."

—"So gross - you packed a pb&j for your kid to eat at Target? There's so much wrong with this it needs to be fake."

One person suggested that shopping cart snack could have lethal consequences:

"I hope no child dies because of any residual peanuts on the cart."

According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease about one in 90 people, or 1.1 percent, in the United States has a tree nut or peanut allergy. The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network estimates the total at 0.6 percent.

Four times as many people are allergic to seafood as are allergic to peanuts, according to the Peanut Institute.

In a 2003 study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 30 children with significant peanut allergy were exposed to peanut butter, which was either pressed on the skin for one minute, or the aroma was inhaled. None of the children suffered a severe reaction, although about a third experienced a reddening or flaring of the skin.

A 2015 Kings College, London, study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that eating peanuts in infancy prevents subsequent development of the allergy.