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Is Chuck E. Cheese's Really Chuck E. Diseases?

Friday, December 5, 2008
filed under: family

As parents, we've all taken our kids to child-friendly restaurants. After our co-worker claimed to have gotten ringworm from Chuck E. Cheese's, we all started to wonder ... is this happy place really as clean and safe as it seems? We decided to do our own investigation and find out. Get ready for ... GROSS!

With the help of world famous germ expert "Dr. Germ," aka Dr. Charles Gerba, momlogic decided to find out what kind of bacteria our kids are exposed to while playing and eating at everyone's favorite pizza party place.

We tested three California Chuck E. Cheese's locations: one in Pasadena, one in Sun Valley and one in Burbank. Under Dr. Gerba's supervision, momlogic swabbed numerous surfaces in the restaurant and arcade including games, play mats, trays, tables and high chairs. Those samples were then sealed and shipped to Dr. Gerba's lab for analysis. What we found surprised even Dr. Gerba ... and shocked the hell out of us!




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filed under: family

87 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

 
Umm.. do the SAME tests at any school, church, or any place kids congregate. It just is so amusing how incredulous people get about these things… I watch parents take their sick kids into grocery stores and let the cough all over the produce, the carts, and other shoppers. I see kids wiping their noses with their hands and then reach into bowls of candy at family gatherings, and at school it’s even worse. What do people expect in establishments full of children? Take responsibility for your own kid’s health and safety. Teach them to wash their hands, carry hand wipes, and stop taking them out in public when they’re sick!
- Diana Timmons
Posted 03/26/09 01:41 PM
 
I worked for McDonalds as a manager for 19 years and you wouldn’t believe the parents of the children when it came to playing on the playground and the cleanliness of the equipment. We had parent tell the kids to urinate in the ball pit rather than go inside to the bathroom. We had parents sit in the store and were oblivious to what their kids were doing on the playground. They took craps in the slides and never told anyone. I personally witnessed a mother putting her childs dirty diaper in the ball pit because she was to damm lazy to get up and take the kid to the bathroom in the store as she was talking with her friends. We had a service that came out once a month to completely clean the equipment and sanitize the slides,ballpit and all of the equipment and when it was being done we received nothing but complaints from parent from all walks of life and income level that their darlings couldn’t use the equipment as it was still wet.Parents need to remember that the playground both inside and outside as was ours is not a babysitter and you have to be responsible for their actions. I realize there are many places that don’t take care of their equipment or clean it and you as a parent stop going but you also have an obligation to moniter your childs actions on the playsurfaces and make sure your child as well as the next are safe. No child wants to go down a slide that some kid has taken a poop in or go in a ballpit where a child of 8 or 9 years of age has urinated in or a parent has put a childs poopy diaper in. All suffer then because the the playground has to be shut down and recleaned when the company can get there.It takes work from all of you parents store where playgrounds are and yes your children to keep them safe and clean.
- Lynn
Posted 03/26/09 01:43 PM
 
Hi Honey, Do not take my grandchildren to CHUCK E CHEESE,I am afraid to go to any fast food restr ever again
- Mary Cranford
Posted 03/26/09 01:52 PM
 
Don’t forget to wipe off the tables, seats, and highchairs before you use them if your so worried. Forgot to add that.
- TJ
Posted 03/26/09 01:59 PM
 
im a kid and i loveeeee chuckie cheeeezes i dont care bout the germs
- libbi
Posted 03/26/09 02:21 PM
 
FREAKING BABIES… GERMS, SICKNESS ARE ARE PART OF LIFE… GET OVER IT
- major
Posted 03/26/09 02:38 PM
 
At our last and final visit to CC my daughter jumped on a toilet covered in BLOOD!!!!! I have never been more horrified in my life. We had to do HIV and other blood born disease testing. The teenage manager had no idea what to do. We received a free pizza and tokens. The home office gave us such a run around. The only restitution that was offered was medical expenses and because she was fine we received nothing else. Even though a 5 year old girl had to go through a tramatic experience.
- LW
Posted 03/26/09 02:40 PM
 
relax, baby ladies… germs are a part of life, always have been… thats part of the reason we have vaccinations now……. when inquiring about CEC…ask yourself…. is every inch of YOUR body ready to be eaten ;)
- major
Posted 03/26/09 02:43 PM
 
This is absolutely ridiculous. How lazy, uneducated, biased and ignorant do you have to be to be a part of Momlogic? From reading a couple of articles by Momlogic, I’ve come the sensible and reasonable conclusion that Momlogic is nothing more than an internet terrorist organization. Think of it this way: They abuse and distribute heavily biased information, they use scare tactics to get people to adhere to their opinions, they avoid posting any related content that would be a negative spin on their side of an issue. Humans have immune systems that actually work, if you can imagine that. Children are supposed to get sick occasionally; it increases their resistence to strains of bacteria, it increases their general immune system strength, and it prevents them from contracting the same/similar strain of bacteria when they’re adults, at which point it really could be life-threatening. In this Chuck E. Cheeses article, I did not see anything that represented a control group, or any attempt to show any information of any other area. Momlogic is essentially logically corrupted and biased, almost as bad as Fox News…
- Anonymous
Posted 03/26/09 02:45 PM
 
I think you will find that anywhere, a school playground a park a school bus any restaurant, you just need to be sure to wash hands, I think the bleach would be worse than the germs, I don’t let my kids eat of a table anywhere, the sanitizers are probably worse than the germs!! Always, always use plates, napkins and wash hands!!
- Cathy Brown
Posted 03/26/09 03:25 PM
 
these places are not the only places that maybe full of germs how about buses, schools, outdoor playgrounds, subways, buffets, resturants the list can go on and on and on. So we cant just complain about the indoor children play places. we may as well just stick our kids in bubbles if we complain about germs all the time.
- Joanie
Posted 03/26/09 03:26 PM
 
these places are not the only places that maybe full of germs how about buses, schools, outdoor playgrounds, subways, buffets, resturants the list can go on and on and on. So we cant just complain about the indoor children play places. we may as well just stick our kids in bubbles if we complain about germs all the time.
- Joanie
Posted 03/26/09 03:28 PM
 
Oh puh-lease. Such wimpy, baby parents breeding wimpy kids. *gag* You have germs all over your house, car, school, daycare. You don’t think kids wipe their snotty noses/shove their hand in their mouth/scratch their bottoms and then run around and touch other kids without thinking about it. Of course they do. I can’t even take this article serisouly because there was no control. Did they investiage the writer’s home? Car? A bar? A playground? A school desk? Nope. Of course not. It’s just fear mongering by moms who want to keep their precious little babies in some sort of wierd protective bubble. Why not do something productive and teach kids about good sanitary habits? Why is it always someone else’s fault now-a-days?
- K
Posted 03/26/09 03:59 PM
 
I work at CEC in the game room. When I first started working there I was sick ALL THE TIME. I’m not suprised with this. however every night, every game is cleaned with sanitizer, then cleaned again the cleaning surface spray of somesort. The sky tubes are also cleaned regularly, but with so many kids of all ages in there every single day, it is no suprise. I think even schools would have the same problem.
- Anonymous
Posted 03/26/09 04:13 PM
 
I like to go to CEC when i have influenza, its my way of helping those that can’t afford the flu shot. Consider that as my social service quota for the year, and by the way Sundays are the best time to to this since all the churchies go there when its over… haaaachewwww
- SEAuENtea
Posted 03/26/09 04:56 PM
 
kids that are not compleatly potty trained should be wearing diapers out in public even when they are three or four years old,so that way ther will be no pee on equipment at chuck e cheese.
- lisa
Posted 03/26/09 05:14 PM
 
i agree with lisa on kids wearing diapers at cec.They have diapers that fits kindergartens,like pampers size 7 which is better than pull-ups. it is safe for everybody.some kids don’t mind anyways.
- tammy
Posted 03/26/09 05:33 PM
 
Is this article sponsored by Lysol?! This is your usual example of scaremongering. I grew up around livestock as a kid and my mother never used hand sanitizers. Although I was required to wash my hands after the bathroom/before eating etc. I was left to get into all sorts. And you know what? No surprise; I was often ill (stomach bugs mainly) BUT once I got to about six I was never ill. Now as an adult I have a cast iron constitution, and whilst everyone around me is dropping like flies I am never sick. It sucks to have a sick kid but they will appreciate it in the future, I promise you.
- Country Boy
Posted 03/27/09 12:52 PM
 
I wonder how these specimens have been taken…..only lab techician are qualified and trained to take these specimens.. a mere “swab” taken by an untrained person could be easily contaminated from the surrounding atmosphere…..all these organisms listed seem out of logic….
- nano
Posted 03/27/09 04:06 PM
 
1. Hell is a bad word and I don’t care if this is the internet or not. 2. I get being OVER-germatic but still, if a place makes lots of people sick, uh you kinda need to clean it. I went to C.C like a year ago, and..I couldn’t stand it, it was so insanely GROSS, seemed like they never cleaned at all there, come on, would cleaning once a week or once a month hurt that bad?
- Anonymous
Posted 03/28/09 08:11 PM

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