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...

When people hear the phrase "special treatment" they get concerned that someone is getting something that they are not. Just as I believe that, in general, people are innately good, I also believe that people are innately selfish. It is our human nature to be that way, it is our faith and life teachings that show us how to grow beyond that and find a state of grace. The thought recently occurred to me that the majority of conflict I face in trying to rally people into safe behaviors around my severely milk allergic child, stems from them thinking I'm asking for special treatment. This then leads them to think my daughter/family is getting something more than theirs, and nobody wants to feel gipped by compromising their own wants. It's true that I have a laundry list of non-negotiables when being around my daughter, but the reasoning should be understandable. Sophia's LIFE is in a constant state of jeopardy because of the environments she is subject to. Part of...

Raising a child is an enormous endeavor and every parent adapts to this role in a different way. I guess that is what happens when people seem to change after they have children. Some people appear to lose themselves and not be what they once were perceived as to the people around them. That is probably what people would say about me. My views of the world and the people I know in it have taken on a new, different shape. I rest on people who are unconditional and validate my family's challenges. Living in a family with a life threatening food allergy is all-consuming, very real, and transcends into all areas of our lives.  Learning how to live fully through this challenge is where the hope, love, and peace are found (along with the relationships). Focusing on what brings us together is not about the menu, or how things have always been done. It's about the actions we take on to move forward keeping everyone together as a unit without discrimination. Every day I try to come up...

Sophia loves stories. She mostly loves the emotional journey a story takes you through that ends with everything being okay. She likes to see other people's struggles and how they work through them. She will stop what she's doing to hear about somebody who's sad or hurt. I've thought about this in the past as her being nosy or a bit of a drama queen. Now, I see it as her compassion for others and maybe her own coping mechanism for the emotional demands of her her condition To a 3 year old, a life threatening food allergy can be traumatic. There is, in it's own right, an emotional process coupled with uncomfortable physical reactions. It's scary and hard to understand. My lingo with Sophia is telling her that I will keep her safe. That's my way of communicating with her that she can relax and have fun, and Mommy will make sure that nothing scary happens to her. When she has  contact reactions she cries in fear and pain and runs to me telling me to "kee...

We try very hard to keep Sophia engaged in the world around her and protected from the milk proteins in it. She knows not to touch just anything but she is a toddler after all. She wants to play with children in her life and share their toys and play in their homes, but she cannot. I'm usually assumed to be an overbearing mother holding her back from having fun, but the truth is that each tiny exposure she gets (for the sake of a little fun) increases her immune resistance to milk proteins. Each time she increases she's that much closer to a fatal reaction. There is so much that she is exposed to that I have some level of control over. For instance taking her to an open-aired park and protecting her with long sleeves, pants and wet ones.  I just cannot put her into someone's else's environment that I can't control but have to be responsible for. This makes for difficult relationships.  People either understand and stick around or don't understand and leave. I...

Allergic reactions can manifest into a plethora of symptoms. Sophia's allergic reactions started with vomiting and lethargy at the very beginning. It later developed into vomiting AND hives. She was prescribed Bendryl for these reactions. The allergist told us that we must be avoiding all milk --when we thought had been! I did my own research and found 66 hidden ingredients that mean contain milk in some fashion. Even with the avoidance of all of these ingredients that contain milk, Sophia still has allergic reactions mostly every day. She has allergic reactions as a result from contact with or the touch of even the slightest measure of a milk protein. She is still treated with Bendryl and has an Epipen if it becomes life threatening. She hasn't ingested even a trace amount in over 2 years, but she has now become anaphylactic to the touch of milk proteins or the proteins in the air (I cannot even comprehend how she would react to actually ingesting milk). Upon touch, she deve...