Just passed one of the tough holidays in our household. Valentine's Day. In terms of holidays, Thanksgiving is pretty easy. Christmas can be tough, but is fairly manageable. Halloween, by far, is the toughest.
Confused? Then you probably don't have a child with nut allergies. Any holiday with candy means my daughter and I have "the nut talk" one more time, an extra little reminder. It goes something like this:
Me: What do you say if someone gives you some candy?
Her: Maaaaa-maaaa (drawn out for emphasis), I'm playing kitties! (She goes back to attacking plastic dinos with stuffed cats.)
Me: C'mon, babe, let's practice. Here's a piece of candy.
Her: (big dramatic sigh) I say does this have nuts? I am allergic to nuts.
My daughter is 4. She's aware of her allergy. Unprompted, she asks waiters if things contain nuts. She's not afraid of it, but knows it is serious. I think that is the way it should be. I should know. I have them too. I'm a mom with nut allergies.
I know, you rarely meet an adult with nut allergies. Well, here I am. I know how it feels to have your throat start to close up, to have your tongue itch, lips swell. It's no barrel of monkeys, that's for sure.
It's been part of my life, and now it is part of our lives. I read all of the studies, the reports, the new data trying to figure out the whys and hows kids develop food allergies. Are they on the rise? Are they environmental or are moms making it up? We're 99 percent sure why my kid has them. She has them because I do. That is one thing that most reports do agree on -- allergies tend to be genetic and are often hereditary.
Yeah, believe me, it is already high on the list of things to feel mommy guilt about.
But when Tessa was diagnosed, it wasn't a shock to me. I've been dealing with it for so long, I know the rules of the road in Nut Allergy World. I see other moms, moms whose kids just got diagnosed, who haven't had to deal with food allergies, who all of a sudden are given an epi pen and think, "I have do to stab my child?" or who aren't used to constantly reading labels -- we are so lucky now, compared to when I was growing up.
Those moms have often asked me questions, come to me needing advice. The first thing I tell those moms? Don't think of it as something wrong with your child, that your child is sick. Sure, your child can get very, very sick due to the allergy, but she isn't a sick kid. She was, to quote Lady Gaga, born this way. Some kids might even grow out of food allergies. Some won't.
The sucky part is you don't know that, at least not right now. So what do you do? You talk about it with your child. And keep talking about it. Not in a "freak the child out" kind of way. Matter-of-factly. Whether your child is 8 months or 8 years old, supply the tools, teach the words, show your child how to take charge of the allergy. When you kid feels in control of the situation, it won't be scary.
What is scary? When Halloween rolls around and your daughter wants to be a princess ghost kitty. Anyone have ideas for that costume?
How do you deal with your child's food allergy?
Image via Jeeto!
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Comments 20
We (so far) have no food allergies.
Thank God my kids do not have any food allergies
Luckily, we don't have to deal with any.
I consider myself extremely lucky that neither I, nor my kids, have food allergies.
My son doesnt have one! Luckily...
None of mine have food allergies.
Thank you for posting this. I have a friend from childhood who had major food allergies, so it did not freak me out too badly when my son had a reaction to peanuts at a little under a year old. (freakout level is relative. My mother was about to lose it - somebody had to be the grown up!)
He's 3 now and hasn't had another reaction. With the exception of avoiding a cake at a party, and lots of candy... our lives haven't changed that much. He knows what peanuts look like, what peanut butter looks like and to say "Peanuts make me sick. i'm LaLergic." if people offer him food.
My 4 year old daughter was diagnosed with dairy and egg allergies at 2. That was after I threw a hissy fit because she developed colic after her st birthday and no one would listen to me. At 3 they retested because of new issues and discovered she was no longer allergic to eggs but now she was allergic to soy, wheat and anypylaxis to peanuts and tree nuts as well as environmental allergies and skin issues.
She can tell you what she is allergic to, knows to have her medic alert tag and epi pens on her person when we leave the house. She also remembers that she needs her medicine and nose spray every night. She actually had to remind her Dad one night that he put the wrong product on her salad and that it was contaminated. I have been very open and honest with her so she isn't scared of her allergies. She eats so healthy because of it. The newest isue is having to wear a mask to Walmart because she turns purple.