Teaching Your Children to Avoid Cross Contamination
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After writing the last piece on avoiding cross contamination, I realized that we are not always with our children to look out for them and their allergies. From the time we diagnose their allergy to college, to probably always, we will worry about them and their allergies. If we teach them the skills early on (as in all aspects of life) we can feel more confident that they will make the right choices and stay safe when they are on their own. Continue reading…
Avoiding Cross Contamination of Foods
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Once when bringing cupcakes to one of my daughter’s classes, a friend whose daughter had a peanut allergy inquired about them. She asked, of course, if they were peanut free, then she asked if we used a lot peanut products in our home. She asked this for fear of cross contamination, the same reason some of us avoid foods that have been processed on shared equipment or in plants that process certain high allergy foods. With packaged foods, it may be a little easier due to labeling standards, but when dining in restaurants or with friends, it may be a little more difficult to be worry free. Continue reading…
Kid Talk: How Kids Describe Food Allergy Symptoms
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We hear a lot about the symptoms of food allergies and the terms like anaphylaxis, hypersensitivities, and systemic reactions. Well, we might know what these mean (or maybe not), but do our children? We try to teach our children with food allergies about their allergy from a very young age in order to keep them safe. But in turn, we need to learn from them to keep them safe as well. They have a whole different language they may use in order to express their symptoms. Continue reading…
Milk Allergy Symptoms and Milk Substitutes
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With milk allergies, you can get all of the “traditional” food allergy symptoms, like hives, stomach distress and even anaphylaxis, but you can also suffer from a number of other symptoms. Along with pinpointing the symptoms and identifying the allergy, it’s important to learn good alternatives to milk as well so as not to suffer any nutritional deficits. Continue reading…
Trick or Treating Safely with Food Allergies
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Your child has a food allergy and all year long you carefully monitor what he eats. He’s careful about checking labels and asking questions about food if he’s not sure. Now it’s October and one of the biggest candy holidays is right around the corner, Halloween. How can you make sure that your child has fun and at the same time is staying safe with all of the candy around? Here are some valuable tips to aid you through the holiday.
• Review with your child all of the precautions you both normally take throughout the year. With all the excitement, it may be easy for your child to forget. Continue reading…
Have Food Allergy; Still Travel
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As I’ve hovered around food allergies all week, I’d like to stay on the topic and offer some tips on traveling with a food allergy. This can be challenging as well as frightening, especially if traveling outside of the country where you may encounter unknown foods or different languages. Hopefully these tips can help you feel more assured and you can enjoy the pleasures of travel without letting your food allergies interfere. Continue reading…
“Arthur” Episode Informative about Peanut Allergies
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Each morning as my children get ready for school, we turn the TV on to PBS to watch the kid shows. Our favorite is Arthur, a show about third graders (though all the character are animals, including Arthur the aardvark) that tackles real life problems in a very realistic manner, including ear infections, head lice, friendships and yes, peanut allergies.
This morning, the show about peanut allergies, “Binky Goes Nuts,” was aired and it reminded of the first time I saw it, about 2 years ago. Continue reading…
Nutrition’s Role in Allergies: Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables
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We often think about what to avoid when it comes to allergies, but are there certain things we can eat that can help us with our allergy symptoms? Nutrition actually plays a large part in our body’s coping with allergy symptoms. It doesn’t just have to be the antihistamines that we ingest to alleviate symptoms, but there are a number of foods and vitamins that experts say may help us through the season.
As we know, an allergic reaction is the body’s way of fighting something that it thinks is a threat but which really isn’t. Continue reading…
Hosting a Food Allergy and Worry Free Party
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Somehow this week has gotten a theme of parties, so in keeping with that, here are some tips on maintaining a food allergy free party. Whether it’s a kid’s birthday party, an engagement shower or a football tailgating party, you can do certain things to keep a safe party for both you and your guests. Allergies are always lurking, whether they be food or environmental. Since I touched on environmental in a previous piece, let’s focus on food. Continue reading…
Dilemmas about Peanut Free Tables at School
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These days when you walk into a school, it is inevitable that somewhere along the halls you will see at least one sign that says “Nut Free Classroom” or “Peanut Free Zone.” Often these areas flow into the lunchroom, and more and more our schools are setting aside peanut free tables in the lunchroom. These are tables where children with peanut allergies can have their lunch with no worries of peanut residue or oils contaminating their food or getting on their hands. Continue reading…
