Food Allergies

My husband reminded me the other day about the time our son with severe milk allergies attended scout camp. We were so worried about the food situation, that we opted to provide all of his food for the week-long adventure. My husband was going with him, so that was some relief to know he could help him.

They started out the first day with our son eating his own cold cereal with apple juice on it instead of milk. The other boys thought this was so strange and couldn’t imagine doing such a thing. But the next day, when everyone was getting their breakfasts ready, one by one the other boys asked if they could try apple juice on their cereal. They all liked it, and continued having apple juice on their cereal through the rest of the week. My husband was relieved to see how the boys rallied around our son, and in the end they were all eating their cereal the same way. Just because we are accustomed to having milk on our cereal, doesn’t mean there isn’t another alternative that is really good.

I’ve found that sometimes we make assumptions or judge way too quickly. Just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s bad, but there is a fear to try something new. Once you can get past that fear and try it, usually you’ll find that it can be a good thing.

I’m so grateful for the support my son had with his friends, who although they were afraid to try something new, found that it was really good and they all ended up loving cereal with apple juice on it.

I’ve made a couple of pages with ideas on dealing with food allergies in different situations. With the starting of another school year coming before you know it, I have some ideas for that too.

*Food Allergies – Ideas for Social Situations, Parties and Holidays: Click here to read and download the PDF: Food Allergy – Ideas…

*Off to School with Food Allergies: Click here to read and download the PDF: Off to School with Allergies

I’m not a doctor or medical specialist to say for sure, but my own personal opinion is that some allergies are inherited. But having said that, I also tend to feel that some of the allergens are coming from how our food is being processed now with lots of additives, hormones, antibiotics and chemicals, and our bodies don’t know how to process them.

Both my husband and I have milk allergies now, but back when our little boy was severely allergic to milk, we were both doing okay with dairy products. Was it lying dormant in our bodies and not manifesting itself then, or did we just develop the allergy in recent years?

However, now our son has a cute little girl that when she was about 6 months old she broke out in hives when she had a milk based formula. So they kept her off all dairy just in case. She just turned 1 and the doctor said she could be allergy tested now. So last week she was tested, and even having the milk diluted for the allergy skin test, she had a severe reaction.

I’m so sad that she has to go through the same things her dad did, but I also feel that dairy isn’t really that great for any of us anyways. Sure it’s a pain to figure out alternatives, but once you have those figured out you can do it. I want to share a few ideas.

First: For severe allergies be sure and get an epi-pen (there are generic brands now by other names). Severe allergies can sometimes turn into anaphylatic shock, so you want to be prepared at all times. Have a few on hand to keep in different places. You’re childs diaper bag or back-pack, your purse, emergency kit, etc.

Second: Get a medical alert bracelet or necklace. On the back you can have them engrave what your childs allergies are. Wearing the bracelet or necklace also helps alert and remind everyone to help protect the child/person from their allergens. There are several options out there, but we used https://www.medicalert.org/.

Third: Study out all products and derivitives of the allergen. Because we’re talking about dairy today, I’m going to share other names and hidden dairy derivitives to watch for.

Click here to read and download the PDF file: Dairy Allergens

I hope this will be helpful. I’ll be posting more information on food allergies and other helpful ideas soon.