Posts from ‘Food Allergies’
on mother’s day
Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 36. And someone important to me was getting married, so I spent it celebrating with the groom, his new wife and a handful of friends. Some people expressed surprise that I’d spend my birthday at a wedding. The way I see it, you get a lot of birthdays, you only get two or three weddings.
Just kidding. Kind of.
Today is Mother’s Day. The weather is gorgeous! I’m taking the kids to a baseball game. Not something I would typically choose to do on Mother’s Day, but the St. Paul Saints is having a special section for families with food allergies today and it will be much, much more safe for my child who has peanut allergies. I know my kiddos will love it, and so, despite the fact that baseball is the slowest, most boring sport I’ve ever seen, we will go and have fun.
Our food allergy friend Leslie traveled to visit our family, all because of food allergies
Thanks so much to all of you who offered support, suggestions and comfort over the past week about our food allergy scare. We still don’t know what caused it (cross contamination or possibly a new allergy to watermelon). We are in limbo until we meet with our allergist. Unfortunately, to my shock and dismay, we experienced a second scary food allergy reaction just a few days later. This time it was a food mix up in my home where she accidentally drank out of the wrong cup and ingested cow’s milk – an allergen we thought she had almost outgrown. I don’t know how many swallows of the milk she had, but I caught her within seconds of putting the cup to her mouth. Still, she had a reaction, involving severe swelling and redness of her face, rubbing of the eyes, some coughing and a touch of wheezing here and there. It was terrifying for me, as I knew we were getting closer and closer to needing to call 911. Whereas the reaction a few days earlier subsided quickly, this one took a long time – upwards of 20 minutes to calm down. The longer it took, the more terrified I became. (EDITED TO NOTE: Upon reviewing this reaction with the allergist, he pointed out that in the future this type of situation WOULD require administering the EpiPen and calling 911. I had misunderstood the term “repetitive coughing” and the severity of the situation. Fortunately she is okay, but I was very disappointed to learn I had not acted swiftly enough. I’ll save all the emotional baggage that comes with this for my therapist, but felt an obligation to share it with my readers). Continue Reading
I had no idea what I was in for when we first found out my daughter has life-threatening food allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and milk. And while food allergies definitely became a big part of our daily lives, after about a year we found a “new normal” and most of my energy was spent on the daily management of food allergies (the food, the safety, training other people).
Unfortunately, over the past week, we’ve had two food allergy scares that have really thrown me for a loop. One was a call I received from daycare worrying about a possible food mix-up. Everything turned out okay and Avery didn’t have any symptoms (which leads me to believe she didn’t get the wrong food after all), but the fear of our daycare provider and my need to stay calm and give information and instructions really took it’s toll on me. After I got off the phone, I broke down in tears. It was my first emergency food allergy phone call and I realized the gravity of how scary it is when my child’s life is at stake. I also flashed forward to her attending school someday and losing even more control of her environment and the realization that I’ll probably get more of these emergency calls. So tough.
A year ago, if you would have asked me how often my children ate at McDonald’s, I would have made a funny face and muttered something about “as little as possible.”
I had this whole routine down where my oldest would beg and beg to stop there on the way home from daycare every evening and I would say, “McDonald’s is not healthy food. We only eat there on special occasions. You can choose to eat there on your birthday!”
For most of my adult-life, McDonald’s has represented all that is wrong with our country’s eating habits, obesity as a nation and periods of my own unhealthy binging. It represented danger and overweight children and overweight adults (including me). I did not want my children to think that “Happy Meals” were everyday foods. I did not want them thinking McDonald’s was normal for us.
I am now a part of the club of people who have had an EpiPen injection.
Marketing Mama® features articles on parenting as a working mom, health, family activities, cool products, my two adorable children and sometimes I even talk about marketing.
