Skip to main content

Day 20-21

As a parent of someone with a life threatening food allergy, I am completely selective about who we spend our time with and the environments we play in. It's not without reason that I am this way because the choices I make affect my child. There's also a lot of ambiguity that follows that decision making. It helps when people are conscientious enough to say they just came from eating pizza, or simply tell us that they washed down before coming to see us. That sort of scenario always plays in a FA Mom's head until the underlying questions are answered with open communication. I'm not very good at letting the elephant just stand in the room. I can turn any conversation into a FA mini-series at the drop of a hat, not fun conversation but definitely warranted at times. It comes with great relief and gratitude when people who aren't having to manage life with food allergies, make a conscious effort for those who are. They recognize that their actions when choosing to be around our family, could cause great detriment to the health of our daughter. These are the people with whom we can spend our time.

This is such a beautiful season of blessings and I know we have a lot of them to count. We have so many people in our lives that are helpful, compassionate, observant, and make grand efforts to be "safe" for our daughter's benefit. We've received non-dairy homemade fudge,  non-dairy Christmas cookies, a magazine subscription to Allergic Living Magazine, and a subscription to Conscious Box-Vegan Edition. Conscious Box is a monthly goody box that offers samples of snacks, beauty product, cleaners, and other household items. This is a great way for us to explore "safe" brands and products that we can use in our home worry-free. People don't realize how difficult it can be to buy sun block, or body lotion, toothpaste, conditioner,  and others miscellaneous non obvious items because all can contain milk proteins. We are thankful to the people who make our road less bumpy and remind us that there is hope to be found in people.  I have a plaque in my house that reads " Where there is great love, there are always miracles." That quote has more than two meanings to me now.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

29, 30, 31

I love rainy days when staying at home has a reason other than recuperating from an allergic reaction or preventing one. Our lifestyle and perspectives are developed with food allergy safety being our first criteria. This is something we have honed in on and it is the greatest difference we have with everyone we know. It's a constant level of decision making that goes beyond general parenting. It's similar decisions that need reevaluation over and over again. We've had family in town and have managed to pull together to have fun and create safe environments while doing it. When people come together to help focus on similarities and not dwell on the differences, life is always beautiful. We are so blessed to have a family dedicated to making the efforts and loving us all through the gray areas. The biggest things we require are patience, understanding that our hearts are in the right place, and effort. We aren't on this journey alone because we all share the same world....

Year 2 begins...

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...

Day 4

The holiday's can be challenging for families living with food allergies. Creating a safe environment, most of the time, means hosting all food events. For my house it also means asking everyone to wash their hands upon arrival and taking off their shoes. There's always that hidden worry that someone ate milk proteins before coming over and there's a morsel lingering on their clothes. But we do what we have to do to keep our family and friend relationships moving on the same path. It's so much easier to isolate your child and yourself  but at what cost? Altering family recipes with safe ingredients has to happen because really what's a family recipe when all of the family can't enjoy it? We are so truly blessed to have a family that tries their best and makes things possible for us to be so close. If we can't get through to the one's who love us then how can we expect the rest of the world to listen?