A New Citrus Allergy

I did not see it coming. Who would have guessed that pineapple would become the enemy.

I had always loved pineapple.  It was sweet and tart all at the same time.  Over the years I had begun to notice some issues.  I would develop blisters or cancersoures if I consumed to much in a short amount of time.  But this lasted for years and I still loved the taste, so I would just limit how much I had.

However, on a recent trip to Florida I had fruit salad served to me. I had No Idea that there was pineapple in it since my bowl did not contain any pieces of the fruit. Just the contact of the juice was enough to cause me the most sever citrus allergy reaction I have ever experienced in my life.

Fruit which is normally cool and refreshing felt as if I had just put a spoon of hot coals into my mouth. The fruit and juice I had consumed had blistered the whole of the inside of my mouth. I was unable to eat normally for the next three days. The roof of my mouth, was blisterd. My tongue was pitted with burned out taste buds and swollen,  while the inside of my cheeks hurt to even touch my teeth. 

Thank goodness I was on vacation with my mother, who has her own citrus allergy to oranges, and we were able to recognize what the problem was.

The biggest kick of it all is to arrive at Christmas and not have family members believe that such a thing is possible.  My husband overhearing the disbelief at the other end of the table stepped in a said, "Yes. It's called a citrus allergy, it usually develops in adults, and her mother has the same thing. 

Holidays with the Family

I have been reading a lot of articles lately of people being afraid to offend family members because of food allergies.  And the question to stay or to go if the food is unsafe.

Let me start by saying, family or not, if the environment is unsafe for your food allergy,  you need to leave.  No guilty, no stress, just go.

Here are some tips that can help you get through the holiday.

1. Speak Up

You need to remember that you live with food allergies everyday, and the majority of people do not.  Remind who ever is hosting that you have a food allergy that needs to be taken into account,  if they would like you to be present.

More often than not, they understand,  appreciate that you reminded them, and are willing to make concessions for you to be part of the holiday.

2. Pack a Bag

We always plan for the worst. Pack extra clothes in case there's an accident, pack snacks and one or two meals for the car or in case my daughter refuse to eat anything else. And we always have our Epi-pens and Benadryl.

3. You Have the Right to...

If you walk in and there is a bowl of nuts on the table that everyone is eating. You have the right to ask that it be put away and that everyone wash up.
And if they choose to not respect this request,  you have the right to leave.

Your food allergy, your life, is more important then someone else's desire for a treat. When you accept that fact, you will never again ask if you have the right to... fill in the blank.

Most family members understand and don't want their Holiday celebration to end in a trip to the ER. And if they don't, do you really want to spend time with them? I wouldn't.

The Lunch Room

We never really know what is happening at our children's school unless we are physically there. This week I was given a look into the behavior of one of our local schools during lunch time. As a food allergy Mom I was scared.

 

I attended the Holiday Bazaar at one of the local grade schools, to sell Christmas crafts. I was not expecting to be placed in the cafeteria, but at launch time I really had my eyes opened.
 

I knew that the area has not been exposed to a large number of children with special food needs. I had been told that this school had food allergy policy's in place.  You would never know it from what I witnessed.
 

When I arrived in the morning the cafeteria was full of children having breakfast.  Mostly cereal from what I could tell.  When breakfast was over and the children had gone off to class, I got to see the clean up. One of the lunch aids swept around and under the tables with a dust mop, while one of the kitchen staff wiped down the tables with a bucket of detergent water and a rag. Everything remained till lunch.

 

For todays' lunch the menu listed Corn Dog, Baked Beans, cheese stick, grapes, and apple slices. Later upon checking the posted schedule on the wall this was the lunch every other Wednesday for the whole school year.

 

When the lunch bell rang and the students lined up to enter the cafeteria, a student aid sat in a chair in the door way and dispensed a pump of hand sanitizer onto each child's hand. The students were then expected to rub this in and were then allowed in line to receive their meal trays.

 

They took their seats like soldiers in a mess hall, filling the first chair then the next and so on. When they became to loud one the aids blew their whistle at them. When the children needed help they raised their hands, and many times the item they needed help with, and an aid walked over to open what ever it was from a cheese stick, milk, or grapes, with no gloves on at all.

Allow me to explain some thing about these aids. When I first saw them in the morning I thought that they were janitors, they wore jeans and tee shirts, and were preforming janitorial services in the cafeteria. At lunch time one of the men donned a whistle on a string and they both put on small white aprons. The one resembled a gym coach in a tiny white apron.

When lunch was done they blew the whistle twice to get everyone's attention. Then there was clapping that the children repeated and one long whistle blow that signaled for the children to rise and proceed to another line to pour out their milk and clean off their trays. They were helped in these tasks by more student aids. Between classes a student aid wiped down each table with a single wet rag and a pie pan to catch crumbs.

After the last class of the day is seated the cafeteria aids folded up the table and sweep under them. The tables were then pushed out of the way and a small cleaning machine was run over the floor before they were returned to their same spots.

If your a food allergy Mom and made it this far your probably freaking out like I was. If your not a food allergy Mom please allow me to spell it out for you. Hand sanitizer does not kill food proteins, it kills some germs and the good bacteria that lives on your body. Hand sanitizer is 70% alcohol and should not be ingested. Cafeteria aids walking around with no gloves touching everyone's food, enough said, I hope. Wiping down all of the tables in the cafeteria with the same rag, just spreads food proteins around, and that at the end of lunch no one re-sterilized the tables.

No where did I see an allergy free area, but this would have also meant that someone would have been eating alone.

I have a dear friend who's children are currently attend this school, and aside for the hand sanitizer her daughters chief complaint is the whistle, apparently this tool has made the children fell like dogs, but they like the clapping very much.

After seeing this display, I hope to visit my own school for a day to see just what is happening there for lunch, before my daughter starts school.