Should kids eat snow? Jackson parents weigh in
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NORTH JACKSON — Many of us choose to enjoy our snow days by being out in it, but if your child picks up a snowball and takes a bite, is it safe? Some scientists say it is not OK to eat snow, and some parents say it is all in good fun. “When you go down you get snow in your face,” sledder Skyler Hanson said. “It’s fun. You get to slide around and do stuff you don’t normally get to do,” parent Allen Holland said. With grabbing, throwing and rolling in the snow, it’s easy to see why a child might pick up a snowball and take a bite. “Find snow that hasn’t been walked on yet, grab a big ball of it, make sure no grass is in it, then I eat it,” Jacob Keyl said. Keyl said he likes to eat snow but that he likes his mom’s strawberry snow smoothies better. He said his mom carefully chooses snow from the yard. “I don’t think she really cares as long as it’s clean snow,” he said. Some parents, though, don’t let their kids eat snow in any form. “I preach to them to not put it in your mouth,” Kassie Ward said. “Just like rain — don’t open your mouth when it’s raining.” According to National Public Radio, snow is mainly water but also can have mercury, sulfates or formaldehyde in it. Some Jackson residents have their own theories on how to avoid the pollutants. “I was told as a child growing up you really wasn’t supposed to eat the first snow of the season, that it had too many impurities in it,” Larry Ross said. “If you dig down a little bit, usually it’s pretty good, and just go where nobody’s walked before,” Holland said. Officials at Regional Hospital of Jackson said there is not a huge threat to eating snow. They said do not eat or drink anything from standing water or snow that has been plowed. To make snow cream, add milk and sugar to snow. Some say they like to add vanilla too.
