Day 37-39 The necessary "sheltered" life

We try very hard to keep Sophia engaged in the world around her and protected from the milk proteins in it. She knows not to touch just anything but she is a toddler after all. She wants to play with children in her life and share their toys and play in their homes, but she cannot. I'm usually assumed to be an overbearing mother holding her back from having fun, but the truth is that each tiny exposure she gets (for the sake of a little fun) increases her immune resistance to milk proteins. Each time she increases she's that much closer to a fatal reaction. There is so much that she is exposed to that I have some level of control over. For instance taking her to an open-aired park and protecting her with long sleeves, pants and wet ones. I just cannot put her into someone's else's environment that I can't control but have to be responsible for. This makes for difficult relationships. People either understand and stick around or don't understand and leave. I've learned not to get wrapped up in any outside personal relationships because people usually reduce the severity of her condition after seeing how well-maintained it is. It's a balancing act that needs 100% participation.

Sophia has contact reactions almost every day. It's usually some unknown cause and, depending on the intensity of the reactions, lingers around for a couple of days coming and going on it's own accord. Parenting a child with a life threatening food allergy is a constant state of observing, protecting, and treating. That is why it is so graciously appreciated when the people in our lives are careful, mindful, and cooperative with our needs. Thankfully we have a few people to help buffer the fear between us and the dangers in the environments. Every child deserves to be kept safe ours just requires more effort.

Comments

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun! (Even ones with Life Threatening Food Allergies)

Three years ago, we walked into our local Claires Store. My ,then, 4 year old had accomplished the scholastic feat of learning all of her continents, oceans, and the entire milky way! I had been prodding her growth with promises of something from the store, as a sort of reward. Claires ( http://www.claires.com) is such a fun store for girls, and the girlie side of us women! My daughters made their way through the sparkle and frills and back to the Disney princess lip-glosses for kids. I bought one and thought "it worked! The knowledge and the bribe were complete!" But, as she ripped off the wrapping to her new lipgloss in the car and applied her new sparkly, "fun" lip gloss--our worlds changed! Her face began to swell with hives. I was driving and looking back on her telling me something was wrong and what I saw made me grow scared, really, really scared. I pulled over and jumped out of my vehicle and got to her. I wiped off the lipgloss and washed her face with

Can We Really Have It All?

We Can All "Have It All" So do you believe women can have it all? Can anyone? Isn't there an opportunity cost to everything? Do some people "have it all", or is it just the opportunity cost playing a lesser role in their priorities. I don't really think anybody "has it all". I think everything is a matter of perspective, and subject to your value system. We are raised within this capitalistic, media driven perception that we want to be rich, famous, beautiful, have "things, be "someone" etc. Aren't we already someone? In our own little world's, aren't we are all of those roles to someone? We are wealthier than someone, idealized by someone, have a "better" job than someone, everything is a perception we either value and hold onto tightly, or we don't and we develop an attitude of complaining that, I've seen, last a lifetime. What's real? Shouldn't we seek the blessings in our circumstances ins

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words?

The Story Behind the Picture I worry sometimes that this media sensationalized, ideal sense of "perfection" is vitally harming the younger generations. "Perfection" is a feeling, not an image. Feeling everything is going "perfectly" etc. But, we live in a materialistic, superficial world- where we are innately taught to perceive ourselves by our struggles or shortcomings, instead of searching for our gifts. We all have special gifts, and I hope our new growing generation learns to see beneath the surface enough to notice that in each other. It's not that everyone is the same and everyone deserves a trophy (and that whole plethora of an argument), it's more about appreciating differences and learning to seek the gift of individuality. There's a BIG difference. Our kids are being raised in a global, e-commerce, social media driven, multicultural world. We need to stay current with the changing world when raising kids today, in order to prote

365 Days With A Food Allergy

Search This Blog