For a family where one of your children has food and/or environmental allergies, it is never that easy.
- What kind of food will they be serving?
- Do they have pets?
- How well do we know them and can we ask them to make accommodations?
Our family's annual Domino Derby was in November. I nervously emailed a cousin asking if she would spread the word about not allowing eggs or peanuts or to be served (those are his only two airborne/contact allergies as of now.) Thankfully, everyone was understanding and left the peanut butter cookies and such at home.
When Christmas rolled around, however, we had a new concern. At that same family function in November, W had been around dogs. We knew he was allergic to dogs, but (per our allergist instructions) had given him extra medicine and thought it would take care of that problem. It didn't, and that evening W had breathing problems and had to be given an asthma treatment.
Thanksgiving came and I had to send another email to family asking not only for the food to be allergy friendly, but also that the family dogs be put away.
And so on, and so on.
There have been times when asking for our necessary accommodations was not an option because I can't expect everyone else to bend to my one child, especially when they are not close friends and family. We have missed events, and my husband and I have made decisions to split up (one of us staying with W) so that our older two can still enjoy these experiences.
We had even decided to attend an upcoming event as a whole family without asking for accommodations (taking precautions of course). I was a bit nervous by this prospect, as I would be very happy just wrapping my sweet W in a bubble for at least a little while longer, but thankfully for us, this dear friend reads my blog posts and contacted us!
First key to dealing with food allergies: A good circle of friends!
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