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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Living with a family with Allergies

I was given the privilege and title of guest blogger today to have you take a peek into the crazy life of living with and catering to a family of 5 all with different food allergies....better me than you you're thinking right ? No worries I get that all the time. 

For most when you think of allergies you think seasonal, sneezing, watery eyes, runny nose etc and I know how annoying that can be as I too suffer through those, but for this family when we mention the word allergies we think of food, epi-pens, emergency rooms, hospital stays, asthma, anaphylactic shock, label reading, cross-contamination, air-borne and let's not forget eczema. Living with life threatening allergies is no walk in the park everyday is a challenge but I can say that it does get easier once you understand the severity of it and the triggers. 

First off my husband is allergic to shellfish and some nuts, I am allergic to fuzzy fruits and soy, my eldest Troy was allergic to wheat, eggs, dairy, beef, nuts, and my youngest son he has amazed us all he has 19 food allergies and counting not to mention also airborne allergies such as the smell of fish and pineapple, he had horrible eczema which we now have under control by using steroid creams, and both boys still have asthma, his twin sister however has nothing I can't believe how lucky she is, but hey someone deserves to eat everything right?

To ensure that we keep each family member safe we always use separate utensils during meal preparation  all drawers and snacks are labeled. We have a list of each family members allergies posted in a common area for Grand-parents and friends alike, always washing hands and for us no cooking of any fish or seafood ever in the house and no pineapples ever, even the smell of perfumes and colognes can make my youngest son develop hives etc. We are very careful of who touches or holds him and I typically suffer from mild heart attacks each time we go to the play-ground or play group and see kids with messy hands or mouths. I'm the hawk I can spot a kid with food anywhere then I typically swoop in and move Maddox away and of course always heavily armed with wipes and Purell.

In the past 14 years I am almost sure I have died over 2000 deaths as people are so willing to share what they are eating with a cute baby and I just want to scream as soon as I enter a room please do Not touch or Feed the Child for heaven's sake, but as the years roll by people are thankfully more aware of what's going on they are more choices in food and snacks and we have just learnt how to be more creative with our cooking and our baking to accommodate each family needs.

If you are suffering from food allergies here a few of the allergist that we have seen  
 
Dr Scott Sicherer http://www.mountsinai.org/profiles/scott-h-sicherer - The best 
http://sneezedoctors.com/ We saw Dr Arthur Frost at the time not a fan of Dr Weinstein
There is more that we have seen but these are the best in my opinion

Thanks for reading
Christine Allen
mopweezebakery@gmail.com
www.mopweezebakery.com 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Christine you are truly a supermama :) !

Unknown said...

Wow, Christine! That's a lot to handle. Good job!