Don't suppress natural selection

I know I'd feel differently if my kid were to do something so dumb, but can you imagine someone actually mistaking the plastic capsule inside a kinder surprise egg for nourishment and consuming it?

...the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act outlawed the combining of
“non-nutritive” objects with confections.

Eh? Look at the picture from the link, the second one down where the large, green, plastic pill thing is almost as large as the egg itself. Who can get their kids to take vitamins let alone gnaw on one of these bad boys? I think this is simply the result of a larger law excluding even those things which are blatantly non-hazardous.

It's a good thing we can still make our own confections with "non-nutritive" objects. There are a number of cakes, traditional or otherwise, available for those who still love finding the prize.

Vassilopita is the Greek version, then there's the Mardi Gras King Cake, with a doll or coin baked into it. What kind of doll I sure couldn't say and that does sound less than appetizing even if it is inserted after baking. Can you imagine getting the piece of cake with Disco Barbie "hidden" inside? Or cutting her up... "Hey, Mike, what'd you get?" "It looks like a foot and a sequin-guilded clutch. The horrifying part? This handbag is so last year..." There's even this pagan version that's all spiritual and one-with-the-earth and stuff.

Other prize-finding ideas include what my husband grew up with: the bay leaf was the prize, and an extra prize for a busy mother of 8 who didn't have time to fish around for the darn thing before supper time.

Back to Kinder Surprise Eggs, I'm a bit miffed that they aren't available here because they're really cool. I got one as a young woman over a decade ago (ack!!) and there was a little puzzle inside. I can't imagine a more perfect way to stuff a stocking.

Does anyone know why that law was passed, about non-nutritive stuff not mixing with food? What were people putting into food that a whole law had to protect us from the unscrupulous? You know, if you wanted to take this law to the nth degree we could outlaw all pills with cellulose powder or silicone-based caps, or about 80% of available junk food, and certainly most American chocolate since I'm sure that paraffin isn't nourishing.

::grumble::

Anyway, OB appt this morning was uneventful. The ultrasound did show Freida as being about 3 weeks larger than her due date would indicate (her head was 4 weeks larger!!), and my belly is measuring about 5 weeks big, but induction is still full ahead go for the 27th of Dec. At the rate she's growing, I'm sure I'll have a plenty full-sized baby for the event. I'm in enough maternal discomfort but there was a poor lady at the park today doing laps to try to get her labor to do something besides tease. She isn't due for another week but after 3 months of bed rest, as many months of terbutaline, and 3 days of active but unproductive labor, she is so ready to be done with the whole bloody ordeal. Thank goodness I carry better than that!