Photo Credit: michiev
Over the weekend, we celebrated two birthdays, and as you can imagine, we’re a little wiped! Birthdays, while enjoyable for my son, are challenging as far as food allergies are concerned. Fortunately, we’ve learned to be prepared. We always have a talk with our son, reminding him that if he can’t eat the birthday cake, we’ll enjoy a special treat that same day. We make sure he’s fed well before the party, in case the entree is completely unalterable (i.e. pizza). And while he’s typically very good about staying away from those foods that he is unable to tolerate, we still oversee and provide gentle reminders throughout the party. Birthday parties are just one example of situations that initially posed a challenge for us. Eating out and preschool are two other situations where we’ve had to make adjustments and in some cases, provide education.
You may remember that I recently co-hosted the Cooking Connections class entitled Navigating Food Allergies. The online discussion was The Motherhood’s most popular one to date and led by Lori Sandler, founder of Divvies Bakery which offers tasty, allergen-free foods. Women gathered to offer insight and support on an often misunderstood topic. I’d love to share with you everything we learned, but it would be a very long post. So, I’ll share those points that I feel are relevant and direct you to The Motherhood, where you can read the entire recap.
Photo Credit: superfloss
When my son was diagnosed, he had already developed a love for pizza, yogurt and other foods containing dairy and eggs. Telling a toddler he could no longer have his favorite foods was incredibly difficult. His new allergen-free diet also interrupted his schedule. For example, he was accustomed to going to sleep with a sippy cup of milk each night. It took months to get him to drink rice milk (he never took a liking to almond milk). One of the things I took to heart was the importance of educating my son about why he can’t have ice cream or cake. As he gets older, I’ll teach him to read labels so he’s empowered. I also find it beneficial to cook and bake with my son. Many times we’ll simply alter conventional recipes and I’ll tell him, why we’re substituting an ingredient for the eggs or milk.
Educating family, friends, and caregivers is an important part of managing food allergies. My son was attending his current preschool when he was diagnosed with food allergies. His teachers were not accustomed to altering his diet since he had drank milk and eaten cheese in the past. One day, my son came home very sick from school. I looked at his daily progress report to see what he had eaten…a substitute teacher had given him macaroni and cheese. My son’s allergy information had not been communicated to the entire staff. This was quickly remedied and everyone who could potentially care for him was briefed on his newly diagnosed allergies. This is just one example of the misunderstandings and misinformation we’ve experienced in the past 2 years. Rather than getting frustrated, I’ve learned that education goes a lot further towards helping my son and those around him understand his food allergies.
Photo Credit: Jascha400d
One of the things I’ve been contemplating is creating a safer home environment for my son. While I can no longer tolerate cow’s milk, my husband and I still consume cheese, yogurt, eggs, and other foods my son is allergic to. Lori suggested that children should have one safe place, free from those foods they’re allergic too. I’ve actually been feeling quite guilty about this and have been talking to my husband about how to remedy the situation, considering that my daughter has not been diagnosed with food allergies (yet!). Do we eliminate all of those foods completely? Or do we simply place those foods out of sight and out of reach? Right now, we ensure that the meals we eat are free from eggs and dairy and I avoid cooking or baking anything with those ingredients while he’s around.
If you or someone you know is struggling with food allergies, know that there are many resources to assist you. Three of the co-hosts in attendance author sites dedicated to food allergies. For more information and tips, visit The Motherhood.
This is part of a compensated campaign. The class is sponsored by ConAgra and hosted by TheMotherhood.
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I hear horror stories from moms all the time. It can be quite scary but you seem to have it down pact.
Hi Lisa! Yes, after months and months of trying to figure it all out, we’ve managed to somewhat get a grasp on it all. I will say though going out is still difficult.
Because both of our daughters are sensitive to dairy, we try to keep a dairy free home. My husband has not been able to give up his whole milk, but other than that not having dairy in the house is less tempting for the kids. I am not sure what I would do if one of my daughters was not allergic.