365 Days With A Food Allergy

I always enjoy this time of year when we celebrate America. It makes me see hope when I look at the American Flag hanging from door to door. Our family plays American trivia games throughout the whole month of July, as we remember and reflect on the collaborations of faith, and the hope that people had and still have in this land. We teach our children the grand efforts, most noted accounts of the characters in our history that made such an impact, and leading to the world we live in today. Learning that the world hasn't always been the world we know now. We had to fight for the freedom to call this our America. Despite how we celebrate America's independence, our history is full of people unwilling to accept change and differences. Race and gender are a big part of that. After America's independence, it took almost another century of fighting for changes before Lincoln abolished slavery. It took until 1919, for women to be allowed the right to vote, after an 80 fight throu...

I started this blog as a journal documenting the day to day obstacles that affect my family, as we learned how to live with a life threatening food allergy. I wanted to have a more accurate account of allergic reactions to relay to physicians, and to review with my husband, as we cultivated a lifestyle that works for us based avoidance and educated guesses. I can see now, looking back, how all of those accounted-for days became our story of evolution as food allergy parents. Along my year-long journey were efforts to connect with other moms and I met another "food allergy mom" (virtually). She introduced me to HelloMama's  which has become a great resource for myself, and so many mom's of all kinds to meet other mom's with similar interests and lifestyles. Let's face it, it's hard to make mom friends. It's especially difficult to make food allergy-safe mom friends, I can attest to that! So, thank-you  Hello Mamas for asking me to contribute a monthly ...

Good day food allergy families and family members! It's Food Allergy Awareness week, so I wanted to share some intriguing and magnificent news that I've learned in hopes to educate and support others.  *ALLERGIES INSPIRE HEALTH As a "food allergy mom" to a child with a milk allergy (among other new ones), I've learned more about food than I ever thought I'd have an interest to. Removing your child and family from the billion dollar milk BIG BUSINESS industry has changed our lives. As most people look at us with pity and bewilderment about how a human can survive without milk, we find ourselves soaring into unchartered territory and thriving! We've learned so much about the food industry that has completely changed our lives ...for the better. It's a one way road to the effect that once you learn something, you can never "unlearn" it. In fact, the challenges that food allergy families face come more from lack of compassion toward safety, unwil...

About a year ago, I was elected by some avid followers of this bog to respond to a search for speakers at a new Food Allergy Conference in Las Vegas. I was a honored that some people thought that others would benefit from what I had to say, so I began the application. The conference officials wanted a brief, but clear write up of our suggested topics of interest. Mine was clear to me: Food Allergies reactive to ingestion, physical contact ( touch), and/or airborne. I proposed discussing these as distinctive and the socially misunderstood perceptions between them.  I've been a "food allergy mom" for over 5 years. I've watched the progression of my daughters milk allergy start as an ingestion only allergy, become responsive to physical contact, then eventually become highly reactive to airborne milk proteins. I've witnessed the differences, threats, and social understanding ,and lack thereof, so I wanted to share what I've witnessed and learned. In so many ways,...

Living Organic -  the answer for living safely with Food Allergies! We live in a world where everyone's in a hurry, focused on themselves, and food conveniences are valued more than food knowledge and quality. That is just not the case for food allergy families, so in many ways, it's ideologically isolating. For us, peace comes with thinking things through, taking our time, thinking of others (especially how they can affect our wellbeing through food), and learning to "accept the things we cannot change" AND changing the things we can! My daughter's severe allergy has, for me, highlighted the fractures in our food supply from farming, growing and agriculture to transparency in manufacturing, forthright labeling; the platforms used in marketing to the masses, then finally distribution.The whole entire process opens food brands up to a nightmare of red flags, cross contamination, and lack of knowledge throughout these processes regarding food allergy safety. The peo...

Every year we travel a 16 hour road trip to visit my family for Thanksgiving. It's a big deal for us to leave the safety of our milk free "bubble", and enter another's home. My parents have learned to adapt to our milk free lifestyle, and they themselves adapt into it before we come. Assuring their home is clean of milk proteins and safe for their granddaughter. An obvious effort that is so poorly executed and considered for so many food allergic kids. For 3 weeks we stay in a safe new wonderland. We all get a complete change of scenery from our oceanside lifestyle, to a mountainous, snowy landscape full of intentionally made safety and fun. It's a dream really. Going to grandma and grandpa's, with aunts and uncles and a great holiday  without a problem in sight. Night after night, day after day, we eat safely without question, play cards, hike, and spend quality, unplugged, time together. We never need to mention the life threatening allergy that isolates...

When I originally began this blog, it was my intention to document one year in the food allergy lifestyle. I wanted to expose and shed light on the truths, obstacles and how they're overcome with positive intention. I wanted food allergy outsiders to see what it's all about. I wanted to articulate the difference between feeling sorry for us and feeling apart of it. I always say how I think it's absurd to feel sorry for us. We have a beautiful, brilliant, healthy daughter we are so blessed. If people want to place a feeling they should feel motivated to do what they can to make shared environments safe. The continuous and deliberate efforts, and the acts of compassion that shape and define the growing group of people called food allergy parents, and their children who persevere while creating the new "normal" example of a happy childhood. I have since realized I have more to say because, although we have been at this for 5 years, it is, after all, just the beginnin...