Where are all the babies with allergies? REVISITED

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about my frustrations with the lack of information on dealing with food allergies kids that were younger than school age (see it here: Where are all the babies with allergies?). This was at the time that I was facing two difficult realities and was desperate to find people in my same current situation.

Daycare: What can he eat, really?
The first was whether or not we could continue to keep W in a daycare situation. I love our daycare and they have an amazing chef that prepares fresh and healthy meals daily for the children.  Our older kids loved her food and would eat the most amazing things that we would never dream of getting them to eat at home. This menu, however, is not often allergy friendly for W.  They are a peanut free facility, but with his mounting list of allergens, I couldn't expect that they could or would ever be a dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free facility (not to mention the other 10+ foods.)

As infants, parents can bring in their own food for their children, but as soon as our babies start to walk, they move to toddler classrooms and go onto the school's meal plan.  Needless to say, the day W started walking I secretly felt torn by excitement and fear.  We are taking it a day at a time, and I am still not too sure about what the future holds for us and our daycare needs, but I wanted to find out how others dealt with similar situations. Were there laws that kept daycare facilities from allowing parents to bring in food past a certain age? How long and how hard did parents have to fight before some facilities went peanut- free?  How much in the way of accommodations should I expect?

Baby Talk
The second wake-up call happened when my allergist's nurse told me that W's refusal of certain foods, which typically coincided with an incident of hives or vomiting, was likely his way of communicating that the food "made him feel funny." She said that his mouth could be tingling or even burning from the first bite, and here I am trying to shovel it down his throat. Mom guilt, anyone? When your child is not of an age to say, "Hey mom, this food is making my mouth hurt and I don't want to eat it anymore," how do you know?

The need to connect this time came more as wanting to know that I wasn't the only one out there feeling like I was the cause of some reactions, wanting to share my feelings of guilt and worry of not being able to protect him at all times.  And yes, I wanted to have someone tell me that I was doing my best and to give myself a break every once in a while.

Making a connection
It took me a bit of time, but I finally found a place where I could connect with parents of babies and toddlers with food allergies.  The Kids with Food Allergies Foundation Community exists to educate families and provide them with the tools and resources needed to navigate through parenting a child with food allergies.  They host a huge online community and have a thread on their forum specifically dedicated to parents of food allergy babies, toddlers and preschoolers.  If you or someone you know is searching for this type of community and answers to questions, I urge you to join KFA and visit their Forum, here.

Registration on KFA is free and includes great resources such as recipes, webinars and more.