Where We Predestined to Have a Food Allergic Child?

I have been given a lot of information lately on risk factors for having a food allergic child. If these risk factors are to be believed, my husband and I hit nearly everyone.

Let me start by saying that no one can predict if your child will have a food allergy and what it might be. We are simply discussing what people have considered to be risks for the possibility of having a child with a food allergy.

Immediate Parent with Allergy

This is not limited to food allergies. Lets say both parents have seasonal allergies, this increases your risk. To have a parent with a food allergy increases your risk. To have a history of food allergies in the family further increases your risk.

My Husband and I both suffer for environmental allergies, his mother has a food allergy to fish, I have a food allergy and intolerance, my mother and grandmother both have food allergies.

Urban Areas

Higher concentrations of food allergic children are found in more urban areas, such as larger cities. If you choose to believe because of water and air quality, or it could simply be that there are more people.

My Husband and I were both born and raised just out side of Chicago, IL, we drank the water and breathed the air for the majority of our lives.

Medications

The overuse of antibiotics has been blamed for contributing to the increase of food allergies, as well as the use of other medications. It has been suggested that the manipulation of hormones for IVF or other infertility treatments can lead to in increase in the risk of food allergies.

Our daughter was conserved only after sever attempts of IVF. I required on going medications and antibiotics while I was pregnant.

Breastfeeding

Most doctors agree that breastfeeding is beneficial to infants, but they disagree on the length of time. Some say a year while others say that 4 months is just fine. Some recommend changing the mothers diet to not include common food allergens such as nuts and fish. Others say that changing the diet does not matter because food allergens crossing over is very rare.

I breastfeed for three months and she very obviously responded to allergens present in my breast milk.

So is the message here that food allergies can be inherited, due to environment, or just random chance? Doctors and scientist can not agree and they will tell you that some data shows these correlations are very clear while other say its all over the place.

Grandparents Day?

I joined the PTA in order to see how our local school operates. And having a child with a Peanut Allergy has made me worry about her attending that school, especially when I found out that they do not have an allergy policy.

 

At our latest meeting we began discussing plans for the upcoming Grandparents Day. Now being called VIP Day.

 

Standard practice has been to have cookies for the Grandparents. And because of the nature of Grandparents, they tend to give the cookies to the children.  This act has caused a lot of conflict in the past and the proposed solution was to provide more cookies so all of the children can have them as well.

Apparently last year lead to Grandparents running their children down the halls to get cookies to take back to their class rooms.

 

When I suggest trying to do something other than cookies, one of the other moms said well they already eat snacks in the class rooms. Why not give them all cookies and let them walk around with them. Apparently there is a tour of the school and class rooms for the grandparents.

 

I so wish I could have put a thought together at that moment to suggest something non food related. We could have the students make a card or something else.

 

When she asked the principal if there had been food allergy issues in the past. His response was, "Yes we have kids attending with food allergies. We tell the kids to know their food allergy and avoid it."

I was so dumbfounded, I wanted to leave right then and there.  Our moderator seeing my face turning colors, ended the discussion and moved the group along.

 

At the end of the meeting I packed myself up and walked out without a word.  I collected my daughter and  left. I called my Husband from the car. I need to talk with someone who got it.

 

I have never wanted to deprive my daughter the opportunity to have a normal childhood,  including going to school,  but that meeting made me really start to consider if I should just home school. I know it's drastic, and I will probably get over it, but I could have never predicted that I would have such an up hill climb.

 

The entire school and community is very food focused. Pancake breakfasts, dinners at the fire house, a cake auction at the local fair, and bake sales everywhere. 

 

In a small town (population 800), where most people know everyone,  and we are the outsiders.  Most people do not want to make a fuss,  because they don't want to make waves. I guess I need to become the thunderstorms.  Wash away all the old out of date ideas and make positive changes for the future.

 

I called the bakery they plan on using and I was Informed that, "Even if the cookies are peanut free, they are still made in a bakery that uses nuts. Therefor they are not safe."

 

Making Cookies

I love making holiday cookies.  I was so afraid that with a Peanut Allergy we would no longer have that same holiday experience. I am so happy to say that thought was dead wrong.
 

When I started making cookies years ago I would spend the better part of a week making cookies.  I made Greek cookies with almonds and powdered sugar, peanut butter blossoms,  sugar cookies,  spritz cookies, oatmeal with raisins, chocolate chip cookies, and monster cookies that have a little bit of everything in them.
 

I never gave a second thought to food allergies.  I gave them away as gifts, wrapped in beautiful boxes with big bows. People came to know them and expect to see them every year. 

I have skipped making cookies for the last couple years,  mostly because who has the time with a very small child in the house.
 

This year I was asked to make my sugar cookies for Christmas with my husband's family. I had just picked up a new snow flake cookie cutter and couldn't wait to make these special cookies with my daughter.
 

It has always been my hope to pass on my love of cooking and baking to my daughter,  and the best time to start is when they are young.
 

I had all of my ingredients and supplies laid out and ready to go. My little helper had her foot stool, special apron and she enjoyed getting flour all over the place. We had a lot of fun and made some beautiful cookies.
 

The point is to enjoy the experience with your child and have some quality time that you can both cherish. Don't worry about the mess on the counters or the floor, it will get cleaned up later.

 

The recipe for these amazing cookies will be posted on out recipe page.

 

To make tie-dye effect. Frost the edges with a ribbing of dark blue icing, puddle ice blue in the center of the cookie, fill white icing in the center. Spread with small spatula and allow to dry completely.

 

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.

 

How to Read Food Allergy Labels

 

I have had a number of people ask me recently to read labels for them to be sure that they were safe for "allergies" in our case a peanut allergy in particular. I'm happy to take the time to ready them, and show people what to look for. As a matter of fact I just happy people are considering her allergy at all.

 

I thought I would share today how we read food labels for allergies. I would like to start by introducing Gina Mennett Lee, M.Ed., a food allergy consultant, allergy mom, and blogger. 

She put out a poster that illustrates just how we read food labels in our home. It is a three step process that makes reading labels a little easier on us rushed parents.

Step 1:

Look for the "Contains:" statement, usually at the bottom of the ingredients list. If your allergen is listed here stop looking and put it back.

Step 2:

Look for "May Contain" or "Processed in a plant with". If your allergen is listed here stop and put it back. Remember in the US not all companies report for cross contamination, it is currently not required by law.

Step 3:

If you have not found your allergen in steps 1 or 2 you must read each individual ingredient in the ingredients list.

 

 

This simple 3 step process saves time and effort while you are in a busy grocery store trying to decided if something should come home with you or not. My Husband and I have been using these steps for the last 6 months with great success.

 

 

I would like to give a special thanks to Gina Mennett Lee for putting together such a great illustration of these 3 steps. (For more information on Gina Mennett Lee please click on the link.)