Adventures in anaphylaxis

 Why would anyone who had a dairy allergic child go visit an ice cream factory?  My Monk has a dairy allergy.  It is both through ingestion and contact, so why risk it?

Allergy Prison
Over the last few months I have continued to try to educate myself and find out everything that I can.  Part of that journey was joining online support groups to be able to hear from my fellow allergy moms.  To know how they live, how they thrive and mainly to just know that there are children out there who have grown up happy and healthy with some of the same allergies that Monk has.

Unfortunately, instead of feeling empowered by their stories, I became more anxious.  Was I a bad allergy mom because I hadn't thought to call each food manufacturer to find out their labeling policies for cross contamination or because I still feed the rest of my family beans, carrots or bananas?

While I have the utmost respect for each and every allergy mom out there and the decisions we each make daily in order to keep our children safe, I was beginning to move back towards my desire to wrap my Monk in a bubble and let him float there beside me forever.  I am a worrier, a panicker, and someone who jumps to worst case scenarios easily, so this new found source of knowledge was threatening to push me back into an allergy prison, where everything would be a constant reminder of the dangers and threat to my child's life.

I need to find a happy place in the middle that will keep me educated but sane, and keep my child safe but with some semblance of normalcy.  So, when my older two children begged to be taken to the Blue Bell Creamery during their last week of summer vacation, I said yes.

Being Cautious
I will admit that the thought of millions of gallons of milk being heated, mixed, flavored, poured, and eaten was enough to give me hives, so we decided before we even left that Monk and I would not go on the tour.  Across the street from the creamery was an Aquatic Center with a great family pool, so our plan was that Monk and I would enjoy the pool while they toured and that they would join us after.

Turned out that we were not the only ones who were pulled by the impending start of school to run towards the country and call of homemade vanilla.  A small change of plan and we headed for the pool first, but not before we headed to the ice cream parlor.

A note for the dairy allergic: One of the employees told me that the scoopers in the Ice Cream parlor would give us a fruit bar if we explained Monk's allergy.  I have begun to carry special treats for Monk with me such as Dum Dum suckers, gumdrops or fruit snacks, so when we stopped first at the Ice Cream parlor, he was happy enough to get his own treat and saved me the additional neurosis of worrying about cross contamination.  I opted to forgo the ice cream as well, which helped defend against any possible jealousy.  Honestly, the lack of ice cream on my part was not as much in solidarity with my child as it was in opposition to my thighs.

Again at the ice cream parlor, I had heart palpitations just thinking of the hands, tables, walls being covered in milk proteins.  I was like the Predator except instead of infrared heat vision it was dairy vision. So I quickly found a table that was separated from most of the others, wiped it down with Clorox wipes and prayed that no one would try to touch my sweet baby. The result...we survived, no hives, no reaction!

Chilling Out Max
We headed off to the aquatic center to cool off and swim away the time before our scheduled tour.  The pool was great for the kids with the entire thing being shallow enough for Punkin to stand up.  There was a "rope course" across floating ice cream sandwiches and popsicles, a slide for the big kids and a banana split slide for the little ones, plus several other water features to keep them entertained.

When it came time for the tour, the other three took off back across the street for more dairy-laden fun while Monk and I enjoyed a bit more time in the pool, which included a short nap of snuggly baby tucked into the crook of my neck (aka...Paradise).

Between the fabulous Texas heat, two rounds of ice cream and plenty of time in the pool, the trip back home was a quiet one, but did include a stop in Chappell Hill, TX, home of Monk's favorite sausage! They have a great shop/restaurant that sells the Chappell Hill sausage and other products as well as serving BBQ, pastries and some of the most wonderful Kolaches ever! We only took a half-dozen home. So much for my thighs.