Today we met friends at a tiny park. We chose this location because it is usually bare of vistors, and therefore, I would feel comfortable managing the contacts with WetOnes. The constant worry of any fresh, concentrated proteins from kids eating at the park and using the equipment can be overwhelming enough to not take her to parks at all--but how awful is that for a kid? I got there and surveyed the area only to find an empty muffin bag, chocolate wrapper, a Chick fila wrapping and a bag of buttered popcorn. This is pretty bad, but it's still worse when there are people eating it next to her. I'm thankful we had a fun outing with no real damage control today! I would love to see parks food free with a picnic area set apart from the play equipment. It wouldn't be a perfect solution but it would help...
All parent's of young children living with a life threatening food allergy live in a constant, round the clock state of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear that our children cannot communicate their immediate needs and symptoms, and fear of putting anyone else in charge of managing this extremely dangerous allergy. Releasing control and delegating responsibilities is definitely where I struggle the most because, for me, handing that over to another person can be the biggest mistake I make. I'm not at all worried that a caregiver would not follow our rules and feed my darling junk food or too much sugar, let her watch too much TV, not use her manners, or let her negotiate her way on everything--- like most parent's would be concerned with. I'm worried that they might misread an ingredient, and show up at my house with cow's milk proteins lingering on their body or garments. I'm worried that they are oblivious to the MANY different ways that milk proteins are presen...
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