365 Days With A Food Allergy

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...

About three years ago I came to a crossroads in my thinking. The first few years of adapting to parenting a life threatening food allergy was absolutely overwhelming. I began to see everything in a different perspective.  All of the good and wholesome idea's I'd thought I'd known my whole life were nipped at and deconstructed until I felt clueless and alone in our circumstance. We literally had to rethink everything and be okay with the fact that it seemed no one understood our decision making. That in itself proved to be particularly challenging. We've struggled greatly to find a support system because, like with most anything, people's interest in our situation revolves around their own self interest and desires. People somehow don't understand that our lifestyle is not simply a choice, but a life preserver that keeps our little girl alive and breathing day to day. We've learned to initiate compassion and encourage change, but have realized that the only t...