My 4 Year-old Ate a Big, Rare Burger! So Scared

I've been eating steak tartare (completely raw ground beef) since I was a child, with no ill effects. Please relax.

He's fine. I have been eating rare beef since I was a child... I am 60.

DON'T LET THE FEAR MONGERS GET TO YOU!!!!

Why don't you just call your pediatrician nurse line to talk you down from this? And tomorrow, call your own doctor to get a referral for a therapist for yourself to help you with your extreme anxiety. Rare beef is very commonly consumed, it's not even as remotely dangerous as under cooked poultry or pork. You are "freaking out" because of your own issues and you owe it to your kids to be more reasonable and level headed than this :-(

please stop freaking out. this is not a freak-out scenario. at most it's a watch with very mild concern thing.
yes, e.coli is a distant possibility, but people eat tartare all the time and live. (i think it's gross, but there it is.) rushing him to the ER, freaking out and being terrified are far more damaging to your child than the very distant possibility that he'll get sick, and the vanishingly remote possibility that he'll get sick enough for his kidneys to fail.
parents need to be calm and strong. this sort of hysteria helps no one.
khairete
S.

Do you know why kidneys fail? You took a very very big leap from eating a rare burger to kidney failure. Your son would have to be very sick and in an Intensive Care Unit befor kidney failure was an issue. Kidney failure doesn't just happen. It's a process.

I've never heard of a healthy person getting more than an upset stomach, vomiting, diarrhea and perhaps dehydrated from food poisoning. Yes, ill or old people whose immune system is compromised could end up with kidney failure. Even then, doctors recognize when the kidneys are compromised and are usually able to stop the process before the kidneys fail.

I suggest that you read a book about health issues so you'll know enough to not be scared. And, stay off the Internet.
Your son's health is not fragile.

Do you tend to get very worried about other health issues, or is there a particular reason why you are so anxious about this? Really, going on the internet for health related issues is very anxiety-producing: every mole could be cancerous, every bruise could be a sign of hemophilia, every kid in preschool could be a carrier of head lice, every case of stomach cramps could be inflammatory bowel disease, every cough could be Legionnaire's Disease, every mosquito bite could have EEE or West Nile, and so on. You will drive yourself crazy!

There are germs all over everything we eat - or there can be. If it's not E. coli, it's salmonella. And the processed food is no better - it's full of chemicals.

If your child gets diarrhea, you don't rush him to the hospital. You give him fluids and popsicles, you give him the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast), and you wait it out. He will not get kidney failure.

The best thing you can do for your child is build his immune system. That means to supplement properly (not just fill him with store vitamins with warning labels on them). But it means to let him (in fact, insist that he) play in the dirt, go outside, play with other kids, and eat a variety of foods without panicking over everything. He needs a wildly varied diet, he needs (really he does) GOOD bacteria in his system, and he needs to not have everything sterilized. The biggest risk to kids (and adults) is endlessly sanitizing things with antibacterial hand soaps (chemicals are far more dangerous than the germ), because killing off the weaker bacteria just lets the "super bugs" flourish. Use regular soap & water with a good lather - turn off the water and sing the ABC song twice while rubbing and making bubbles. Then, and only then, rinse. We are overusing Lysol and bleach and sanitizing wipes, and we are making life horrible for ourselves and our kids.

Go out, live life, let your kid jump in mud puddles and, yes, let him eat a burger.

I agree with B. Unless the burger came from an extremely questionable place, it was straight-up raw, or it had been sitting out for hours on end I wouldn't worry. I also prefer my burgers more rare, and my 5 year old has been "sharing" my burgers for ages with no ill effects.

People eat rare burgers every day. My sister used to love to eat raw hamburger meat when she was a kid. When my stepmom was making burgers she would always go steal little bites (weird I know). Kids and adults both order rare burgers all the time. Do you always worry this much over things?

Relax!
It's a pretty good bet he'll be fine.
I love my burgers rare - I've been eating them that way for decades - and I turn 54 in a few months.
Panicking doesn't do anything but scare your child.
Stop looking up stuff on the internet.
If you are that concerned then call your pediatricians nurse line and talk to her and see what she has to say.
These things happen - I saw a mother freak once after her baby grabbed and ate a caterpillar.
Poor kid was crying after her Mom scared her but the kid was FINE - never got sick at all.

I think you are sometimes concerned with your kid's health, which I get as a mom. However, this is a pretty big leap - to kidney failure. You are letting your imagination run wild I think. So r-e-l-a-x and just let nature run its course - if there is a problem, as Marda says, his body will rid itself - diarrhea, etc. And just let it (it would need to be rid of it) - so don't use anything that would stop diarrhea etc.

He may never even get that far. I have friends who regularly eat raw hamburger - it's not the end of the world. As Marie says below, if it was from a filthy place, I'd be more concerned.

There is not really anything you can do at this point so just keep an eye on him, but let it go. Or try to. You might benefit from letting your own doctor know that you are freaking out and terrified as you put it. Concern is one thing, but being a mom, you have to keep your wits about you! I know - we all panic from time to time as moms, but there's help should you need it. And it's no big deal. Good luck :)

Stop driving yourself crazy. The actual chances of him getting sick are slim. My kid has eaten rare beef from the time she started eating table food.

Doesn't help to worry about things you have zero control over. You know what to watch for so just go about your normal days and keep it in the back of your mind if he gets sick. Really many many people eat rare or even raw meat with no problems. Although it would have been best for him to avoid the situation he'll most likely be just fine,

I worked in PR for the meat industry during the first big Jack in the Box e. coli outbreak. You are right to be concerned about consuming a burger with any pink in it. USDA recommends cooking it until there is no pink for good reason. It's not just e. coli, but others that happen in natural products. Cooking it all the way through will keep you safe (assuming you don't then leave the burger sitting out a long time before eating it).

However, I can tell you the meat industry has made huge progress in preventing e. coli problems since that time. They took it very seriously when e. coli became known (jam-packed sessions on how to prevent it) and the regulating agency, USDA, which is onsite at every meat plant, also takes it seriously. The odds of e. coli are a lot smaller than they were years ago.

I'd say the odds are slim your child will have a problem. However, since you're aware of the symptoms, be sure to take your child in right away if you spot any of them. For what it's worth, there's currently an e. coli outbreak associated with unpasteurized apple juice in CA and no one has died. In fact, I think only one person ended up hospitalized.

I do get your concern here. Young kids are particularly susceptible to the effects of E. coli. But what's done is done, and look at it this way: You know he ate it (so if he came down with something, you know the cause); you know what day he ate it, where he was, and (I hope) who prepared it and who else ate beef from that same source. You also know to be looking for symptoms. So you are far ahead of parents whose kids have eaten or drunk things that were contaminated but the parents had no idea, and mistook E. coli symptoms for something harmless, and delayed treatment.

Monitor him, and if he gets sick, you know that he needs immediate treatment, and you know to insist on his being tested for E. coli; don't let a doctor fob you off with "Just wait and if it doesn't get better, then we'll test."

Knowledge empowers you here, so though I too would be worried about a young child and very rare beef, I also would try hard to tamp down the worry so I could focus on keeping a calm eye on my kid.

One other thing: If he does get sick, be ready to tell the hospital when and where he ate the meat; if it was at a restaurant or someone's home, etc. You will be able to help others who might be sickened too. If this burger was made at some relative's or friend's house, you would need to let that person know as well as letting doctors know to tell the health department so they can track the meat.

It's not very likely your son will get sick here, truly. But it's also not at all silly of you to know what E. coli is and that undercooked beef is a source of it. Just try to focus on the fact you are on top of things and ready to move if -- that's a big IF -- he gets sick.

If this was on someone else's watch, and it sounds like it was, I hope you'll have a kind but firm talk with that person about how some foods are just not for young children even if they believe, "Well, my kids ate it all their lives and never once got sick so there's nothing wrong." A parent has a right to say no to things even if another caregiver adult thinks those things are just fine; it's your call, and in the case of rare beef and young kids, I think it's the right call. Is the chance of illness pretty low? Yes. Do you still have every right to say no to that food? Yes.

Raw beef is a specialty in many place. We had it on the menu on the cruise we just got back from. So unless he dug it out of the trash, it's likely he will be ok. If not, look for the signs and if there are any, take him to the doctor. Good luck.

Here's what's in your favor. You know it's possible. YOU know what to look for. You are on top of this. He has a good chance of being okay because at the first sign of it you're going to have him to the doc and you will know exactly what to tell them to look for and treat.

Once isnt going to do anything if yes take him to a dr appointment or emergency room

What good is it going to do you to go crazy? Watch for the signs, take him to the ER if you see them, and move on. Seriously...anything can happen at any time, I don't understand spending your time stressing about it when you can't prevent it. You know?

Yes, an e.coli infection is a possibility, but once the meat is ingested, there is nothing you can do, short of making your child vomit. Only time will tell so just keep an eye out of the symptoms. Plus, there's no "cure" for e.coli infection.

If you want to be prepared, then the only thing you could do is to stock up on Pedialyte since diarrhea can cause dehydration. If you want him tested for e.coli then you should take him to the doctor the first day he has diarrhea because you might be asked to collect several days worth of stool samples and the results will also take several days (so might end up taking up to a week for the actual results). Sorry if this part was TMI.

I wish I knew if he ate raw beef. There's a difference in a raw burger and a rare burger.

If he had eaten raw beef that hasn't been cooked, I'd be worried about more than E. coli.

If he ate a cooked burger that is categorized as rare, then I think you're going pretty far overboard to be jumping to E. coli when there hasn't been an outbreak in your area. Try not to stress so much. Make sure he gets plenty of sleep in the next 10 days, normal sleep I mean, enough water, and keep him on a regular and decently healthy diet. Keep his diet consistent. When 2 weeks are over, then you know everything's okay.

And tell whoever it was that fed him that if they do it again, he can't come over again.