Are Hot Dogs Too Dangerous for Small Children to Eat?

[Big Daddy's House]

Are hot dogs too dangerous for small children to eat? You be the judge.

One of America's favorite and most loved foods that we all grew up eating and have enjoyed at theme parks, carnivals, midways, fast food eateries and cookouts since we were kids, has now come under fire by a group of activists complaining to the FDA. Not what's in them, but rather, the SIZE and maybe the texture of them.

Reports have come out that hot dogs might be a chokiing hazard for small children in the toddler age group and up higher to maybe age six to eat!

The gov't is now looking into ways to make them safer for children of this age to eat. One way might be to make them ore softer, I think, so that they do not become lodged is a child's throat, which would cause the child to not be able to breathe, and would choke the child. :eek:

[Village Idiot]

It's called proper parenting. Learn it and don't f' with my hot dogs.

[Chowhound]

I read an article on this yesterday. I guess the problem lies in that a hot dog is the perfect size to become lodged in a small child's esophagus. I think it said 77 kids died last year choking on hot dogs. I hope they just go with the warning labels, but I'm sure Oscar Mayer or one of those will come out with a "specialty" hot dog just for kids. Maybe make it skinnier or something. And of course charge more for it, lol.

The days of seeing a baby in a high chair holding a hot dog are numbered my friends...

[Mrs.Whisky]

I rarely like to eat hot dogs just cause I know what they're made of, ugh ,but I still do enjoy one from time to time...however, I'm not sure I'd introduce them to my kids anyway well thats if I had any lol.
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[Semigourmet]

I fed them to my son, I would cut them in half lengthwise and then sliced so that they would not get stuck in his throat, as they are the same size of a childs esophogus. He never had a problem. And that kid was a stuffer. He would stuff everything in his mouth even as he was gaging he wouldn't stop. That drove me crazy.

[Mrs.Whisky]

SG...lol a stuffer, how cute. And see, hence what VI said...proper parenting! Some adults or kids tend to be a little careless about what they give a little one to eat sometimes.
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[Big Daddy's House]

I hope that you're teahing him to eat slower. He'll enjoy his food better that way.

But I would like to see what this new style looks like. Probably, the FDA might order the co's that make them to change the tickness and size.

I only have once broblem with them. Some of the brands are just too friggen salty, so I have to boil them to remove some of the salt.

[homecook]

Dear lord......they've been saying this for a hundred years already. If you watch while you're child is eating anything there won't be a problem. Hence, proper parenting!! Do we really want to be dumbed-down any more?? Common sense is the word here and not enough people have it........I ate hot dogs when I was a kid and so did my kids. It's the only thing my younger grandson will eat. lol

Don't worry Fred, I'll post a picture when my new grandson is sitting in his highchair eating a hot dog. :^)

[Chowhound]

I hope that you're teaching him to eat slower. He'll enjoy his food better that way.

Put an unopened can of soup in his food bowl, Mary. He'll have to eat around it and that will slow him down.
Oh wait, that's for dogs... :p

[Big Daddy's House]

Yeah, he's not a dog.

Well, guess they found another excuse to bad-mouth hot dogs.

But it's nothing new. They've been laying the bad mouth on hot dogs and smoked meats as well as BBQ'd meat cooked outdoors on the grill for years, claiming that they cause cancer.

[Mama]

This is so ridiculous. If people are so afraid of hot dogs and don't want to be around their kids when they are eating, why don't they just feed their kids a fried bolognie sandwich leave the rest of us alone who like our hot dogs just the way they are?

[Big Daddy's House]

This has gone on for years with the gov't.

One badmouthing after the other! Seems as though they are not satisfied until or unless they are trying to put down something that we eat.

Remember the one about butter and oleo? Even coffee, wine and alcohol were also the targeted subjects of a bad rap. They since retracted their bogus statements about those items, saying that once in a while is ok to have them.

Also the one about Sweet N' Low? They once said that the saccerine that is used to make it was determined to cause cancer in labratory animals. Later, they had retracted that statement and had the supposed warning removed from the packets because it was learned that their supposed warning had no basis in fact.

Both you & I know that as kids, we've eaten hot dogs with no problem at all. Our children ate them, their kids ate them, and so on. Now after many decades of eating and enjoying hot dogs, we're told that they are not safe for small children!!

I just want to know one thing; Who comes up with this crap?! Yeah, small children have choked on food before, but hot dogs are soft and should slide down their esogaguses without a problem.

Honestly, I think that there is someone there in Washignton, DC - sitting behind a desk with nothing else better to do than to nit-pick at the foods that we've all enjoyed since childhhod and give them a bad rap!!

[Chowhound]

Do you have ring baloney down there, Mama? I've only seen Smith's ring bologna in the stores, and that's a local company. It just seems different than their regular size sliced stuff. It comes in garlic, too :)

[Big Daddy's House]

First time I've seen that.

[Chowhound]

I'll bet it's a local thing then. I've never seen Oscar Mayer ring bologna or any other brand other than Smith's.
Which BTW, makes the best hot dogs. ;^)

[Mama]

That's new to me too, Chow.

[Chowhound]

Oh man... you folks need a care package. Ring bologna is great, fried or otherwise. It's about the diameter of a golf ball and you can't quite tell by the package, but they bend it in a ring, which makes cutting it by the bent part kinda funky, lol.

[Big Daddy's House]

But if it is not reduced sodium, I can't eat it.

I can only have low or reduced-sodium cold cuts.

[Village Idiot]

I hate bologna. When I grew up and finally had a say in the matter, I vowed to never eat it again.

[Big Daddy's House]

If you eat hot dogs, then you might just as well be eating bologna, also. Pretty much the same ingredients are in both, with very little fanfare.

In both methods, raw beef, pork, chicken, or a combination of the three are ground up, pureed, spices added to the mixture, then the mixtures is cooled down with crushed ice to prevent premature cooking during the pureeing process.

It is then stuffed into skin casings, cooked for several hours, cooled down and then packaged for shipment out to the stores.

I saw this process on Unwrapped.

[Roberta]

I saw this story on some news channel lat night. I though OMG, the food police are out again.

Any parent who would give a youing child a whole hot dog is parent challenged to begin with. Most anyone knows you cut a hot dog into small pieces for a child.

[Big Daddy's House]

Yeah, that's them - the FOOD POLICE!

And you're right!

It WOULD stand to reason that when a parent gives a small child, such as a toddler, any finger food, that it should be cut into bite-size pieces enough for the child to handle and eat comfortably without him or her being in any danger of choking.

[HattoriHanzo]

The sad fact is that the people that feed toddlers hot dogs with out supervision and not cutting it up correctly are the same ones that put iced coffee or coke in their milk bottles.
Sadly you don't need a license to be a parent :(

[Dough Boy]

Dear lord......they've been saying this for a hundred years already. If you watch while you're child is eating anything there won't be a problem. Hence, proper parenting!! Do we really want to be dumbed-down any more?? Common sense is the word here and not enough people have it........I ate hot dogs when I was a kid and so did my kids. It's the only thing my younger grandson will eat. lol

Don't worry Fred, I'll post a picture when my new grandson is sitting in his highchair eating a hot dog. :^) Yes, there are "do-gooders" out there who are basically very clumsy and hapless creatures themselves, and feels the rest of the world is the same way. For every nosy busybody out there wanting everyone to be saved from themselves, there is a sheeny lawyer ready to sue someone and a politician ready to make a law that will "fix" the problem, but add 50% to the cost of something. Isn't this a great place we call home? How did I live for 59 years without a car seat, bicycle helmet, knee pads and cell phone (with my lawyer's cell number in the #1 position of the speed dial)? Oh, and let's not forget that Mr & Miss Clumsy are NEVER at fault for their own actions. Someone else is ALWAYS to blame. Sheesh...

[Big Daddy's House]

But leave it to the food police to complain yet again, as they've done millions of times, to lay the bad mouth on something that we've all enjoyed as small kids ourselves for decades.