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."


I'm not shocked by the article. We face these criticisms every day. I fully question the author's grasp on the topic. It's obvious they have never felt the real fear of dropping their child off anywhere and having to have complete faith that they will make it home alive.

We decided as a society that it would be a good idea for us not to let students bring a gun to school. Why? It keeps everyone safe. But your kids pb&j with the crust cut off and cut into the shape of a heart; that expression of love for your child could kill mine.

The only way to counter the attitude against having restrictions around food from home is through education. Not the soviet style draconian law of absolutes. Use the soft stuff. Just say, "hey it's our situation, we hope you will help by taking some extra steps."

You'll have to explain that people might plan a little in advance, you may help them decide to spend a little more to get a healthy snack that fits everyone's needs or even offer to buy them yourself. After all, as parents of our little dietary abominations that can't jam 14 lbs of junk food down their throats in one sitting, it's important for us to be gracious, polite and never raise a fuss.

Then leave the newly educated with this, "by the way if you mess up, if don't read every label of every ingredient that goes into your homemade brownies every time you make them, you could kill my kid if you feed it to them."

The potential for a life ending reactions is there every time we leave our homes. People call us paranoid, over-protective, and a burden on "normal" activities.

They are 100% correct, we are. We have to be. One mistake, one mis-judgement, one time leaving our house without grabbing the epi pen is all it takes.

Then instead of celebrating your "normal" kid's birthday, I'm planning my kid's funeral. I hope the cake, cookies, and brownies were worth it.

Our daily stress as parents of kids with life threatening food allergies is far greater than anyone without the burden could ever understand. We didn't ask for it, but it is our reality. And we are dealing with it the best way we can. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes "normal," people. But my kid's life depends on it. As a parent do you honestly think you would do anything different than we do if it were your kid's life at stake?

SMH...