This post is intended for first-time food allergy moms and for anyone who is not a mother to a food allergic child. Of my son’s food allergies – milk, eggs and peanuts – milk has been the hardest to manage because it hides in so many products on the grocery store shelves. I’ve had to become an expert at reading labels. It was really hard and overwhelming in the beginning. When he was first diagnosed, he was exclusively breastfed and it was my diet that had to change. I struggled with it. Sometimes I resented that I couldn’t just buy what I wanted to at the grocery store and that a normal shopping trip took twice as long. When I learned that his allergens could hide in medicines, lotions and other products, too, my frustration boiled over. Two years later, checking labels has become second nature. I have discovered a lot of alternatives to substitute in place of his allergens – and found a support group to deal with my frustrations. His food allergies are now just a part of our … [Read more...]
What I Learned at the FAAN Conference
Sunday marked the beginning of Food Allergy Awareness Week and I’ve seen a lot of great information out there: FAAN’s page dedicated to this week MSNBC Video featuring Nicole Smith and her son A Twitter party on Monday evening – search #FAAW to see what people are tweeting about this week. I’m planning a few more posts of my mine own this week but, today, I’d like to share what I learned at last month’s FAAN conference in Baltimore. It was my first FAAN conference and I found it to be very informative. It featured Dr. Robert Wood, Dr. Eyal Shemesh, Gina Clowes of Allergy Moms, chef Cybele Pascal and Eleanor Garrow and Chris Weiss, both from FAAN. Here are some of the tidbits I took away from their presentations: *A genetic predisposition to allergies can indicate a tendency towards developing an allergy but not necessarily point to a specific allergy. In other words, just because I was allergic to milk as a child doesn’t mean my child will also be allergic to milk (although in … [Read more...]
When A Child Begins to Understand Food Allergies
We were at my sister’s house for dinner. My nephew asked for a glass of chocolate milk. So my son, who is allergic to milk, asked for one as well. Before we could respond, my three year old nephew said this to my two-and-a-half year old son. “You can’t have milk. It will make you sick.” My sister and I looked at each other with proud parent eyes. After two years of us frantically making sure that the two boys – just eight months apart – didn’t switch sippy cups, her son understood that there were certain foods my son couldn’t have. And then the moment was gone. My nephew kept repeating himself to the point of toddler taunting. My son replied “don’t talk to me like that,” which is what he says when he’s told something he doesn’t want to hear, usually when he’s being reprimanded, only in this case it was appropriate and a little bit disheartening too. Up until this incident we haven’t really explained to our son that he has food allergies. We didn’t think he understood. We gave him a … [Read more...]
The Food Allergy Mama’s Baking Book
I made a cake the day my son was first diagnosed with food allergies. No, not to celebrate. I was taking a cake decorating class and had made it in preparation. Before his appointment, I suspected he was allergic to milk but it wasn’t until after that we learned about his egg allergy. And I had made the cake with eggs. I didn’t know any other way to bake a cake. Now I had this delicious yellow cake ready to eat and I couldn’t take a bite because I was breastfeeding and he was allergic to its ingredients. I was heartbroken. That seems silly now given that its just a cake but I love to bake and it looked like my new hobby was coming to a screeching halt. Since that day, though, I’ve discovered numerous recipes for baked goods – some good, some not so much – that are dairy, egg and nut-free. One source in particular is the Food Allergy Mama blog. I’ve been following Kelly Rudnicki’s blog for a while now. I think she hooked me with a confessed love for anything apple – or maybe it … [Read more...]
How to Make Pumpkin Soup
I love soup, especially in the winter, but I stopped buying it when my son was diagnosed with food allergies. I couldn’t find a soup that did not contain a milk product. It was probably for the best given the amount of sodium in most soups. I never thought about making soup myself until this fall when a plethora of butternut squash from the CSA begged to be pureed into a hearty soup. Making the soup was easier than I imagined and the end product was delicious. I was hooked! So when I checked out Kitchen Play’s progressive menu for December, sponsored by My Spice Sage, I knew right away I was going to give the Spicy Pumpkin Soup Shooters a try. I, of course, had to put my own twist on it. (Translation: adjust the recipe to accommodate the ingredients I did and did not have). I used less than a full can of pumpkin puree (hubby had used some for a cheesecake); I substituted soy milk for 2% because we don’t have cow’s milk in our house due to allergies; I added a little bit of sugar … [Read more...]
