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.