We got sick every Monday for 9 weeks straight - I had no idea we were poisoned

A TikTok mum reveals her husband's simple weekend act that poisoned their family for nine weeks straight.

Nine weeks ago, the intense fevers, stomach cramps and diarrhoea hit Kelsey’s family for the first time.

It happened to be a Monday, which she didn’t think anything of - until the exact same sickness struck again seven days later… and every Monday after that.

“We started getting what we called ‘the Monday sickies’ – we could not figure out why we were sick and why only on Mondays,” the American mum-of-two reveals on TikTok.

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Kelsey didn't know what to think when her family started falling ill every single Monday. Source: TikTok

"We rotated who was sick each week for the past nine weeks"

Kelsey was the first one to fall ill from the mysterious ‘Monday’ virus – with her husband and oldest son following her in the following weeks... thankfully, their baby never fell ill.

The strange illness always hit on the first day of the week, starting with a 12-hour fever before the stomach cramps and diarrhoea kicked in.

“We rotated who was sick each week for the past nine weeks,” Kelsey recalled, adding that they went to the doctor several times to see if there was something seriously wrong," she explains.

“The doctor said we probably had a virus – we thought we were probably passing it back and forth.”

So Kelsey and her family frantically cleaned the entire house and avoided seeing family and friends - hoping to stop the spread.

“We didn’t invite anyone over for two months. We didn’t see anyone for two months as we thought we’d get them sick… my son missed so much preschool."

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"The doctor said he'd never heard of a weekly illness"

But regardless of what they did, at least one member of the family still got sick every Monday like clockwork.

The “ongoing medical mystery” was only solved last week when Kelsey had to take her baby to emergency for unrelated breathing issues.

Thankfully, the bub ended up being fine… but before they left, Kelsey quickly asked the attending doctor if he had “any idea” what the sickness that had plagued the rest of the family could be.

“He said I have never heard of that… then his eyes lit up and he goes, ‘the peanut butter’,” Kelsey retold.

“I go, ‘No that can’t be possible, I checked our peanut butter. I saw the recall and checked, we were fine’.”

In early June, a salmonella outbreak prompted several Jif peanut butter products to be recalled across the US – but Kelsey didn’t think that she had any of those items at home.

However, then she checked with her husband… who immediately said: “what about the little peanut butter cups?”

It turned out that the family were being poisoned by salmonella after accidentally eating recalled peanut butter. Source: TikTok

"This peanut butter ruled our lives for nine weeks"

Kelsey had no idea what on earth he was talking about and asked him to explain.

It was then her husband revealed a packet of Jif peanut butter snack cups, which had been hidden at the back of the pantry.

“I had no idea they were there… but sure enough they were contaminated with salmonella,” she revealed.

Kelsey went on to explain that her husband had been using the peanut butter cups for weekend breakfasts with their son – while Kelsey slept in.

“He had been feeding my son the cups and I had no idea because I’m always asleep when they are eating them,” Kelsey continued.

“My son would eat it and my husband would finish his peanut butter pancakes.

“The reason none of us ever caught it is because we were using the snack size, so it was never enough to send us to the hospital - but it was just enough to make us sick.”

“This peanut butter ruled our lives for nine weeks…. it made us miss work and preschool.”

This article was published in June 2022 and updated in March 2023

Originally published as We got sick every Monday for 9 weeks straight - I had no idea we were poisoned