diff --git a/tendril/src/stream.rs b/tendril/src/stream.rs
index c0e53f4f..1ce72b79 100644
--- a/tendril/src/stream.rs
+++ b/tendril/src/stream.rs
@@ -77,20 +77,14 @@ where
     {
         const BUFFER_SIZE: u32 = 4 * 1024;
         loop {
-            let mut tendril = Tendril::<F, A>::new();
-            // FIXME: this exposes uninitialized bytes to a generic R type
-            // this is fine for R=File which never reads these bytes,
-            // but user-defined types might.
-            // The standard library pushes zeros to `Vec<u8>` for that reason.
-            unsafe {
-                tendril.push_uninitialized(BUFFER_SIZE);
-            }
+            let mut tendril = Tendril::<fmt::Bytes, A>::new();
+            tendril.extend_with_byte(BUFFER_SIZE, 0);
             loop {
                 match r.read(&mut tendril) {
                     Ok(0) => return Ok(self.finish()),
                     Ok(n) => {
                         tendril.pop_back(BUFFER_SIZE - n as u32);
-                        self.process(tendril);
+                        self.process(unsafe { tendril.reinterpret_without_validating() });
                         break;
                     },
                     Err(ref e) if e.kind() == io::ErrorKind::Interrupted => {},
diff --git a/tendril/src/tendril.rs b/tendril/src/tendril.rs
index 5e90aaec..efa18ce8 100644
--- a/tendril/src/tendril.rs
+++ b/tendril/src/tendril.rs
@@ -1393,13 +1393,7 @@ where
                 if new_write_size < DEFAULT_BUF_SIZE {
                     new_write_size *= 2;
                 }
-                // FIXME: this exposes uninitialized bytes to a generic R type
-                // this is fine for R=File which never reads these bytes,
-                // but user-defined types might.
-                // The standard library pushes zeros to `Vec<u8>` for that reason.
-                unsafe {
-                    buf.push_uninitialized(new_write_size);
-                }
+                buf.extend_with_byte(new_write_size, 0);
             }
 
             match self.read(&mut buf[len..]) {
@@ -1444,6 +1438,24 @@ where
     }
 }
 
+impl<A> Tendril<fmt::Bytes, A>
+where
+    A: Atomicity,
+{
+    /// Extend the tendril with `n` copies of a given byte.
+    ///
+    /// This grows the tendril and initializes the new area with `byte`.
+    #[inline]
+    pub fn extend_with_byte(&mut self, n: u32, byte: u8) {
+        unsafe {
+            let start = self.len32();
+            self.push_uninitialized(n);
+            let ptr = self[start as usize..].as_mut_ptr();
+            std::ptr::write_bytes(ptr, byte, n as usize);
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 impl<F, A> Tendril<F, A>
 where
     A: Atomicity,