Living with Food Allergies, 2013 and on

[hezzier]

Two different grocery store chains in Tahoe City, CA did not carry Pepperidge Farms bread...thankfully, Safeway carried Kings Hawaiian bread!  I almost packed a package of Kings Hawaiian Hamburger Rolls just in case, I think I will next time.

[GoingNuts]

That moment when you are cleaning up in another room, and you hear the following Jeopardy question:
"To treat anaphylaxis, you inject an Epipen in this part of the body."
"What is a thigh, Alex". 

[CMdeux]

That is AWESOME, GN.  Wow.

[Macabre]

[poppie]

Nice thread....although I have health issues, it is only really this last year that things have become really difficult with regard to allergies. I am Gluten, Dairy and recently Sulfite intolerant, and I am currently experiencing lots of new food allergies popping up.  I have hives on my forehead, they come and go and at this point it is hard to know what the cause is, its tricky, I am keeping a food diary, and doing the best I can, I write everything down.  What I have noticed is that anything that I eat a lot of at some point my body decides it does not like, a good example is chickpeas, yogurt and recently coconut water, from a fresh coconut!!! I plod on hoping to see light at the end of the tunnel.  The skin on my face always feels dry..But, the very worse thing for me is that if I eat anything that has sulfites in I  fall into a deep sleep, almost immediately, it is frightening...I actually fell asleep recently with a sweet still in my mouth, that is how quick it happens, this frightens me a lot.

[hezzier]

Good news: 5th grade did not do a Halloween party!  No food!  They did work on a special project...3D Haunted Houses. 

One can hope the next party will be similar.

Bad News:  DS's teacher has taken an indefinite leave of absence and there is now a long term sub so need to go have a meeting with her.

[spacecanada]

I hope everyone is having a safe Hallowe'en this year.  Despite our very low number of trick-or-treaters, I've had multiple comments on our Teal Pumpkin, Teal Pumpkin Project poster (including some parents who wanted to know the website to get one for next year), and several very happy kids to hear we had Play-Doh (contains wheat), glow sticks, and tattoos for them.  I had some extra special wheat-free treats for kids with wheat allergy but so far nobody has mentioned it. 

It's been a pretty good Hallowe'en at our house.  Only 12 kids so far, but all of them were happy and smiling.  One even did a happy dance when she got her Play-Doh. Oh, and both our neighbourhood and town Facebook pages posted about the Teal Pumpkin Project and only had positive and supportive comments.  (I know... zero negative comments... I better not curse it.)

All kids enjoy non-food treats. 

[Macabre]

I had this thought when reading further about a food allergy death where the person who died had communicated her allergy to the person taking her food order. I took this out of that thread where I was about to post this.

Horribly tragic.

I compare telling someone that you have a food allergy "loudly" to visiting another country where your language, say English, is not spoken. You try to communicate, but no matter how loudly you speak and they can't really understand you well. They've picked up a few English words here and there, but there is no fluency. So there's no way to fully understand


I don't know how full of an analogy this is, because you do have to use your language to specifically  ask questions about potential cross contact. But the idea of saying something loudly in a foreign language doesn't mean it will get interpreted correctly.

[GoingNuts]

Sadly, I think it's a perfect analogy.  Things are definitely improving here, but when I think of all the blank stares we received when DS was younger, and all the places we walked out of, it's mind boggling.

We were reminded of it this summer in Poland.  We had our chef cards printed in Polish, and my coworker reviewed them for accuracy of translation, so I know they were correct.  But everywhere we went, that blank stare.  They had no idea what we were talking about.

[rebekahc]

I just can't reconcile someone being "meticulous" about her allergies yet ordering a smoothie.  Telling others about your allergy is not enough - you still have the responsibility to make safe choices.  That's like saying someone always wears their seatbelt so that makes it okay to ignore the RR crossing and pull in front of a train.

[spacecanada]

Rebekah, that is exactly it. WE have to do the research. Alas, we cannot rely on others to decide what is safe or not. Or where that level of acceptable risk is.

And since Disney is always touted (even by me) as allergy Mecca, you still have to be on the ball there. Just not as much. But you always have to be thinking of risk whenever you put anything in your mouth. It sucks. But that is reality.

[spacecanada]

Sorry, I must be in rant mode this morning. My latest post in the peanut allergy thread has me riled up. I think people developing aids for people with food allergies need to do more research into food allergies before going public with their ideas. Or maybe that information isn't so easy to find? (FARE, Food Allergy Canada, Google) Or is the stigma/myth of food allergy as a 'sensitivity' or 'choice' still wide-spread?

Sorry, my brain gets going on these topics and consume way too much brain power some days.

[rebekahc]

I was giving some slack to that poster since he's young (presumably, as an undergrad) and in SE Asia - was just kind of happy FA (and specifically PA) seems to be gaining attention there.

[spacecanada]

I don't see his/her location mentioned anywhere. But I agree that any awareness in that region is a good thing, but misinformation anywhere isn't. Didn't Mac or hk have some good info on allergy R&D in that region?

[rebekahc]

I don't see his/her location mentioned anywhere. But I agree that any awareness in that region is a good thing, but misinformation anywhere isn't. Didn't Mac or hk have some good info on allergy R&D in that region?

It wasn't, but his location had triggered our spam filter and I had to approve his registration - I was just explaining part of my reasoning for not jumping on it like I normally would.