365 Days With A Food Allergy

Food allergies require people to read labels, learn what 6 syllable ingredients really are, and look into manufacturing and handling practices on foods to avoid cross contamination. Food allergies initiate the science of knowing what you are eating, where it is coming from, and who is handling the food before you touch it and it goes into your mouth. With all of this knowledge we are transformed out of the chronic stage of blissful food ignorance and into the enlightened stage of being terrified about what we are really eating and annoyed at the false advertising! With food allergies aside we are eating some pretty scary things! We are chemically wired (literally) to want  unhealthy high fat, high sugar, and over processed foods. The thought of having to remove these convenient comfort foods from ones diet stirs up some defensive responses in the general public. People struggle with this "sacrifice" so much that, even though the majority of these foods are unsafe around a chi...

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...