Confessions of a Floor Eater

No allergic children were harmed during this shoot, as this photo is staged with a clean floor and safe food. :)

We all know how appetizing toddlers seem to find food that has fallen to the floor (and sometimes it's not even food!)  Throw into your dining experience two siblings whose food can't possibly make it from their plate to their mouth without some casualties and you have an allergy recipe for disaster.

Food Allergens in your house?
Yes, I allow food into my house that my Monk is allergic to.  I also allow Jag to have tiny little Legos that are a chocking hazard and I keep poisonous chemicals under my sink. The point here is that there are hundreds of things sitting in every house across America that could pose as a viable threat to our carpet dwelling ankle biters, and it is our job to always be vigilant while they scour our floors for anything seemingly edible. 

Do I allow foods in our home for which Monk has contact and/or inhaled allergies? No.  We don't eat eggs or peanut butter and my hubby now cooks his famous Sunday Morning Waffles on the back porch once in a blue moon. But with a list of 15+ food allergies, it is difficult to eliminate all from our family diet and household.

The Down Side
So the Con in this scenario of keeping allergens in the house is that one day, with a two foot view of the hardwoods, my Monk will find a piece of food that I didn't.

I can't really say that this exact situation happened, as the found treasure wasn't something on his list. We have been warned not to feed Monk black beans. Beans are legumes, and as such related to peanuts.  I am sure that you see where I am going with this.

My sweet four year-old tells me, in a oh-so-nonchalant way, "Mom, Monk just ate a black bean."

Roll out the allergy carpet! Vomiting, hives, coughing.

More New Rules
While there is a chance that this was a cross-dairy reaction (cheese on the bean nachos) and I can't be 100% sure that we have a bean allergy until we see our allergist, we will certainly be avoiding black beans on Monk's food tray for the foreseeable future.

Will we still eat them? Yep. But vigilance will be kicked up another notch, and to my other children's dismay, they now have a role in keeping their brother safe.  Punkin wipes down all food surfaces after meals and Jag comes behind her with the vacuum! The best part? Under the guise of safety and brotherly love, I've been able to add two more chores to the list with any back talk!

Quick Trip, my A@#!

It's Spring Break. We are taking a "quick trip" up to the hill country, and anyone with kids knows how fun it is to get ready for a family trip. Check off the list as you pile countless pairs of socks, underwear and pjs for one, two, three or more people.

I hate packing, especially for a quick trip. It just seems like a lot of trouble and stress for not much reward. We get there, I get everyone settled and then it's time for me to repack everything, go home and unpack it all again!

Throw into the mix having a child with food allergies and the check list and stress grows.

My Monk is just beginning his food journey, so much of his meal planning is easier now than I imagine it will be in the future, but there are a few parts about vacationing that I know now will have to become habitual.

1. Accommodations: a refrigerator and microwave will be imperative. With so many food allergies it is not realistic to believe that allergy friendly food will be readily available. Bringing food and storing it was our plan for this trip and will likely be the plan for all future "road trips". For this Spring Break we brought a cooler with Monk's favorite pulled pork, enough soy milk and yogurt for the week, boxes of allergy-friendly snacks, and plenty of fruit and veggie toddler pouches.

2. Grocery stores: researching the availability of local grocery stores will help to know if we can quickly and easily get staples such as non-dairy milk, etc.  This will be doubly important when flying as apposed to driving, where we can't bring along a cooler.

3. Restaurants: If you are as type A as me, you can plan out all restaurants visits before hand, calling to ask questions about allergy-friendly dishes and procedures to avoid cross contamination. Otherwise, at least know what types of cuisine are most allergy friendly for you family and plan for a few different options.  FYI...I did none of this on this trip mainly because we visited a town with about three restaurants, all of which we are fairly familiar with, and because Monk is still young enough that I bring his food to all restaurants. 

AllergyEats.com is a great source of allergy-friendly restaurants. It allows you to search restaurants by location, giving you a list of customer rated restaurants. Because the site relys on customer ratings, information can be dated and sometimes non-existent, so be sure to look ahead of time. 

4. Pharmacies: I practically packed a pharmacy for this trip, but knowing the location and hours of the closest pharmacy will be important. Additional tip: travel with a doctor (lucky us, both Boppa and Uncle W are doctors) or have your allergist write a spare prescription for all allergy medications just in case.

5. Medication bag: Get a bright carryall for allergy meds. With 5 suitcases, blankets, stuffed animals, pillows, and kids to keep track of, having something that stands out is perfect since you will need to take it everywhere. Here is what ours looks like (from AllerMates) We carry two Epi Pens, Benadryl, and our inhaler with chamber all inside this easy to see and easy to carry pouch.

I am sure that long trips and vacations that include flying will require much more planning, but for those fabulous "quick trips", this will do for now.

Names confusing? I got tired of using my kids initials and changes their names. See this post to know who is who.

Read the Label, Then Read It Again

We are just under 1 year into our allergy journey and I have already had several instances of label reading failure. Whether from misunderstanding the multi-sylable words used in processed foods, or   just not knowing that casein is dairy or albumin is egg, label reading can be both frustrating and misleading at times.  Thankfully, the FDA stepped in help those who suffer from food allergies to better understand and know what ingredients are truly included in their food.

Allergen Labeling

THE FOOD ALLERGEN LABELING AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT OF 2004 - See more at: http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/resourcespre.php?id=50#sthash.E6SWcLv7.dpuf

The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 was created so that food manufacturers were required to label ingredients in their food according to their food source if that source is among one of the top 8 allergens (milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, fish, shellfish, and wheat).  Label listings for allergens now read as: casein (milk), albumin (egg), flour (wheat).

In some cases, manufacturers have chosen to also label allergen information at the bottom of an ingredient list with a highlighted "Contains" warning statement.

It is still important for those living with food allergies themselves or in their families to know what to look for in ingredient listings.   A great resource for this is the FARE (Food Allergy Research and Eduction) website, which has a listing of how all the top eight food allergens can be listed in product labels, found here.

Cross Contamination Statements
It is currently through voluntary action only that manufacturers can choose to list cross contamination statements on their food. Such statements usually read "Manufactured in a facility that processes..." or "Processed on shared equipment with...." Since not all manufacturers use these statements, a label devoid of any of the these statements does not mean that there have been no cross-contamination in the creation of that food product. 

Reading labels can be very tiresome and I frequently find my eyes crossing as all the words and letters get jumbled together.  Nevertheless, I understand its importance, and in the end it is just that many more "child-free" minutes spent at the grocery store.

Rediscovering Breakfast

When Monk was diagnosed with his egg allergy I was still nursing, so I too gave up eggs in all forms (imagine how badly I craved piece of cake topped in sweet buttery frosting).  Around that time I met a friend for breakfast at a restaurant. I looked through the menu once, twice, three and four times trying to find an entree that was egg free without having to go all "Harry Met Sally" on it.  Nothing.

I ended up having a lovely breakfast from the a la carte menu of sausage and fruit and was truly satisfied, but it opened my eyes to how difficult breakfast can be with an egg allergy.

Fast forward to now and we have a few more things to add to the allergy list, and even though I am no longer nursing, I am now in planning mode of trying to fill by database of things that will work for our whole family.

So here are a few of our morning favorites that we have found and that Monk loves.  (All of the following are free of eggs, dairy, wheat, tree nuts and peanuts, plus some.)

Silk Soy Yogurt

Monk knows the packaging for this yogurt and his grunts, wide eyes and outstretched hands are a sign of his happiness.  The Silk Soy Yogurt comes in strawberry, blueberry, peach mango, black cherry and vanilla.  It is super creamy and a wonderful source of protein and calcium. Ingredients for the blueberry version: Soymilk (Filtered Water, Whole Soybeans), Cane Sugar, Blueberries, Maltodextrin, Corn Starch, Natural Flavor, Tricalcium Phosphate, Pectin, Fruit & Vegetable Juice (Color), Sea Salt, Citric Acid, Locust Bean Gum, Vitamin D2, Live & Active Cultures.

Rice Chex

I was thrilled and half when I found an actual food product in a box that was allergy-friendly for Monk.  Not only does the Rice Chex work for breakfast, but it also make a good snack on the go. There are several other flavors of Chex that are free of his allergens, including Vanilla, Cinnamon, and even Chocolate Chex, which I was happy to discover contains "cocoa processed with alkali", which  is a dairy-free chocolate. Ingredients: Whole grain rice, Rice, Sugar, Salt, Molasses, Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols), and BHT added to preserve freshness. Vitamins and minerals: Calcium carbonate, Iron, and Zinc (mineral nutrients), Vitamin C (sodium ascorbate), A B vitamin (niacinamide), Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), Vitamin B2 (riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (thiamin mononitrate), Vitamin A (palmitate), A B vitamin (folic acid), Vitamin B12, Vitamin D3

Van's Totally Natural Waffles

We are a frozen waffle household.  School mornings could be disastrous without this quick and easy breakfast food.  My older two eat that other well known brand, but with wheat, eggs and dairy in the ingredient list, they are not allergy-friendly for Monk.  I found these the other day at our local grocery store and just had to try them.  I will say that they are not bad.  Not as sweet as the other, and the taste is a bit more starchy, from the potato starch and rice flower. They also don't seem to stay together as well, but that is likely from the exclusion of eggs as a binder.  Side note: Our last allergy test for Canola Oil was negative (yippee) so as long as we get a clear on the potato from the doc then these should be allergy-friendly for Monk.  Ingredients: Water, Van's Gluten Free Mix (Brown Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Rice Flour, Soy Flour), Non-GMO Expeller Pressed Canola Oil, Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Rice Flour, Monocalcium Phosphate), Van's Natural Fruit Juice Blend (Pineapple, Peach and Pear Juice Concentrates), Sea Salt, Guar Gum, Soy Lecithin.

Applegate Breakfast Sausage

So my kid loves pork, and that is a good thing when he can't have chicken or turkey. My favorite thing about this sausage is that I can read and understand every single ingredient.   Applegate Naturals does come in other varieties such as Chicken and Apple and Chicken and Maple, but since Monk can't eat chicken we will be sticking to this variety for now.
Ingredients: Pork, Water. Contains Less Than 2% Of The Following: Evaporated Cane Syrup, Salt, Spices: Sage, Black Pepper, Ginger, White Pepper, Red Pepper.

Smoothies

Forgive my atrociously bad food photography!

My dear sweet hubby bought me a wonderful new blender for Christmas that makes a fabulous smoothie, and I make one on most mornings.  A few weeks ago, in the craziness of our morning routine, Monk got a hold of  my cup, and unbeknownst to me can now drink from a straw, and went after my smoothie. Thankfully I had opted against adding a banana (to which he's allergic).  Monk loved it and so it is now a good way for me to get lots of healthy, fresh food in his tummy.

Here is the recipe for a Green Berry Smoothie that I use most often. 

• 2 cups Kale
• 1 mandarin orange, peeled
• 1 cup frozen pineapple
• 1 cup frozen raspberries (or berry blend)
• 1 tbsp blue agave sweetener syrup
• 8 oz water (more for easier blending)
• Note: Add 1/2 frozen banana for added creaminess.

We would love to hear what some of your allergy-friendly morning favorites are.

Changing Names to Protect the Innocent

So I am getting a bit tired on just using initials for my children in blog posts.  Obviously I don't want to use their names since goodness knows who is looking for what on the internet these days.  So I have opted to use nicknames for each of them.

Big Brother J - He has several nicknames, but his favorite was coined by his Grams while I was still pregnant and it has stuck. 

Jag

Sister A - This is what her daddy calls her, and it was what my Paw Paw called me. 

Punkin'

My sweet baby W - All of my babies get called Monkey at some time or another, but for W it fits since he seems to want to climb up any and everything he can. Now that I am on my third kid, though, it typically gets shortened.

Monk

I apologize now if this causes great amounts of confusion and for the next few posts I will reference back to here just in case.  :)

What did you do to make that happen?

I have actually been asked this question...More than once.


The G Word
Whether or not your child has food allergies or just a crooked nose, we all feel it, we all suffer from it, and it is highly likely that most of us have projected it onto others.  Unfortunately, I didn't need anyone's help in drumming up my own little dose of parental guilt.

When W was first diagnosed with his first food allergy, eggs, I remember thinking back over my pregnancy and realizing that early on I ate eggs almost daily.  It was all I wanted, my one big craving.  At that point I did let the thought pass through my head that I had somehow caused this diagnosis.  And then came the cat allergy, banana, avocado, latex, peanuts, milk and so forth.   So was it me?  Did I eat to many bananas or pet the cat too much?

Having my third baby, I knew then and I know now that I didn't take care of myself as well as I did with the first two.  I missed a few prenatal vitamins here and there.  I pushed myself when I probably shouldn't (although I challenge anyone to try having two kids under 6 while taking it easy.) I didn't get enough sleep or water or sleep.

But that's just life, right?  That doesn't make a child come out with allergies! But of course that nagging little voice in the back of your head will always tell you otherwise.

More than Enough
So that guilt that I felt from rehashing my pregnancy was probably not justified, but it was only the start.  Add to that the fact that almost 90% of the time, the reaction that my child just had, the reason he just threw up and broke out into hives?  That was because I was forcing feeding him something that his body just didn't like.

GUILT.

At an allergy appointment when W was about 9 months old, the doctor commented that some kids have reported strange and uncommon taste from food indicating the presence of an allergen, such as sweet foods tasting spicy.  Several times W had taken one bite of a food just to turn his head and refuse more.  My other two didn't do that so I would try again and again to feed it to him and he would reluctantly oblige, just to have a reaction minutes later.  The doctor confirmed that these foods could be causing a burning or tingling sensation in W's mouth, and his only means of communicating this was to turn his head and refuse more.

GUILT.

And then there is the label reading.  Make sure to get through the whole list, and know all of the words for milk, eggs, wheat, etc.  Even when you do...Oops.  How did I miss that part of the label?

GUILT.


Laugh Through the Tears

So I am trying to learn to laugh.  Not when a reaction is happening, or when I am trying to explain to someone the seriousness of his allergies, but maybe a bit after the EpiPen experience in referring to the culprit as "The Death Cookie"or finding the humor in this creative video imagined by kids and acted by adults.

And if the laughing doesn't help the guilt enough.  There is always this statement from www.parents.com:

"Children are more likely to have allergies if their parents are allergic. A child with one parent who has any kind of allergy, including environmental or seasonal allergies, has a 30 percent chance of becoming allergic."

Why does this help?  Because the hubby is allergic to dogs, fire ants, and maybe now cinnamon.  Translation: It's his fault! (Love ya, hon!)

One step forward and two steps back in the battle to educate on food allergies

Logging onto Twitter the other day, I saw several posts mentioning an article written on The Huffington Post with the title, "Why Do Your Kid's Allergies Mean My Kid Can't Have A Birthday?"  I was appalled and irritated before I even began Ms. Carina Hoskisson's tirade of what she calls, "the allergy insanity." Being new to this journey of learning and educating myself and sharing our story I posted her article onto our Facebook page, asking for people's thoughts?

One of our friends, Trent, whose daughter has been diagnosed with a life-threatening peanut allergy, spoke up.  His response made me appreciate and better understand the long road that some parents have already started to pave for children like my W.  I asked Trent if he would be willing to be my first guest blogger, allowing me to post his thoughts on this article if for nothing more than to balance out a bit of the harm that Ms. Hoskisson has inflicted on the allergy community with her reckless and irresponsible need for her child to have a "lovely, homemade, buttery, gluten-stuffed cake."

Celebrations

Sometimes when I write I feel like so much of what I say is in desperation for answers or for sharing my new found knowledge, or just plain frustration.  My aunt came by the other day to babysit and she said she was nervous to watch him because she had been reading my blog.  I realized that the only times that I took to writing was to discuss an indecent, a reaction or a problem having to do with W's allergies.

I don't want people to be afraid or nervous to be around my baby, and there are days that pass with no issues and where I can say that W is just another normal baby.  Today really felt like one of those days. I decided that I need to share the happy with the sad and the joyous with the nerve wrecking.

Big Brother's Day
My oldest son celebrated his First Communion today.  It was a wonderful celebration and we were all so proud of him.  Looking handsome in his new duds, big brother J was as reverent as a 2nd grade boy could be. Congratulations to my sweet boy!

Mid-Mass seven adults found ourselves passing W like a football, person to person, as he squirmed and fussed, unable to sit still.  We had already started the Mass with him screaming during the procession of the children, which caused me to drop Chex in the pews (sorry) and struggle to get him under control so as not to spend the next hour in the cry room.  Basically, W acted like any 13 month old in church, refusing to sit nice and quiet while his brother had his big moment.

As Mass was reaching the end, I heard another baby scream out somewhere in church and for some reason I was struck with joy at the thought of other parents dealing with other babies who all want nothing more than to wiggle and shout out and practice their new found skill of walking up and down the isles.

Incident Free
We have several days that are incident free. No hives, no vomit, nothing, and again today was one of those days. W was a bottomless pit, eating and eating and yelling at us when his tray was empty.  He was even able to eat some of the food that we served our guests.

Tonight we ventured out to continue the celebrations at a restaurant (which has cause additional trepidation for us lately) and almost came out of it unscathed.  I say almost because I am a klutz and a klutz in 4" heals is dangerous. Yep, embarrassingly I took a small spill with baby in hand, but no real damage to either of us, thankfully.

Celebrate Happy!
We ended the day with an impromptu photo session (cause how often do we look this good?) After looking at all the photos I had a second moment of pure happiness.  We are a normal family, living a normal life.  There are times when things get touchy, but for the most part, my children are all happy and healthy and for that I am truly grateful. 

We even manage some silliness along the way.