Need Advice from Moms of Kids with Severe Food Allergies!

Hi G.,

I feel for you. We are Asian and my 22-month-old son also has severe food allergies (mainly to cow's milk, soy, peanut, and eggs). His pediatrician and pediatric allergist have said he'll probably have the peanut allergy for life. We carry Benedryl and an Epipen with us all the time, and recently realized after a frightening trip to the ER that we should have used the Epipen instead of Benedryl after he had a severe reaction to some cow's milk that we didn't know was in a meatball.

We still go to restaurants often, but usually bring our own food for our son, or if we do order for him, we ask the server and sometimes even the cooks to be sure there is no food he's allergic to. We've still been able to go to Asian restaurants but his options are limited (e.g., cha shao bao at dim sum, Vietnamese pho noodles, pot stickers, spring rolls).

We avoid giving our son candy but on Christmas he enjoyed a candy cane. Other sweet treats he can have are applesauce, raisins, the Earth's Best Sesame Street vanilla cookies, and dried fruit leather/strips. Oh, and Arizmendi Bakery has a delicious vegan banana/walnut muffin.

Whole Foods has a good selection of foods w/o allergens, and we often find foods at Trader Joe's too. We mostly feed our son meals that consist of rice, poultry or pork, and veggies.

As for preschool, hopefully most schools are familiar with the growing number of children with food allergies and have policies/procedures in place. You'll want to be sure to give them an Epipen that they can use in case of anaphylaxis. If they provide meals, you may still need to pack your own for your son.

I hope this helps. I also continue to read up as much as I can about food allergies. It can definitely be stressful and frustrating, but hopefully with a lot of information and care, we can prevent the harmful reactions and still help our children enjoy a good quality of life when it comes to eating.

Take care,

J.

be sure to watch out for peanut oil in things as well.

A friend of mine has a son with severe food allergies. She lets him have sweet tarts, starburst taffy, and a few other things. I will see if I can get her to reply to this, as I really can't remember all she does.

Good luck!
K.

I do not have any children with allergies...but I myself am a severe peanut allergy sufferer...I actually cannot have any nuts whatsoever. I can tell you that my childhood diet was very limited. For school, to avoid any mishaps with the cafeteria food, I always brought my lunch. In preschool, my parents spoke to the teachers and made arrangements so that I could bring my own snacks. An AWESOME peanut butter replacement is sunflower seed butter. Go to Whole Foods and in their peanut butter section, bottom shelf, is SunButter. It specifically states on the label that it is processed in a peanut free environment. Be careful shopping at an organic store like Whole Foods though, you'll actually run into more foods that have nuts because of their healthy organic qualities. But you can get snacks and candy there that use substitutes such as soy beans, but just make sure that your child is not allergic to soy beans as well. It's going to be hard to find candy that is not manufactured in a factory that processes peanut and nut ingredients.

Also, when I attend a new restaurant, I always ALWAYS ask if they use peanut oil. They don't always let you know, especially thai restaurants. Almost any dish can be edited to not have nuts and to have a different type of sauce besides peanut sauce. I'm asian...so I eat at these types of places a lot :)

Garbielle,

A peanut allergy is a VERY real allergy. My cousins child has one of the worst peanut allergies in California. She has to be homeschooled and cannot go to parks, restaurants, library, Disneyland, etc. They are currently raising money to purchase a Peanut Dog. They are trained to sniff out your childs allergies and notify you if one is found. They do cost around $15,000 but the money is worth it if it saves your childs life.

Have your doctor do a scratch test to see what else your son is allergic to. It may be something like soy, sunflower oil, wheat, etc. You will want to know. When going to a restaurant you will have to ask to speak to a manager, then let them know that there is a severe peanut allergy and no one at the table can have nuts on their plate. They will then assign ONE cook to make all your dishes. Dinner takes longer to make but well worth it.

You will also have to make your house a 'safe house'. No peanut products or manufactored in the same factory as peanuts in your house at all. You cannot expect your child to read all the lables before he wants a snack. Also let grandparents/aunts/daycare workers know that they cannot feed certain foods. Provide peanut free snacks when going out or to a birthday party and ALWAYS keep your epie pen handy.

My cousins allergy is so severe when we come into her house we have to brush our teeth and scrub our hands if we've had any peanut products in the last 24 hrs. Just one kiss on her cheak can produce a horrible reaction.

Keep doing research and email me if you want anymore information.

Good luck and God Bless

OH WOW YOU SOUND JUST LIKE ME!! My kids are half filipino, and my son is off the charts with the peanut allergies. I too carry benadryl and Epi-Pen. How I noticed was we were transitioning him from baby food to reg. food. I gave him pot-thia (SP?) he broke out in hives. At the time I did not relize that there was peanut butter or peanut oil in the food!! This was the first and last time he ate peanut anything. He was about 15 months maybe 18 months. When he was 2 he had allergy testing done. He was 4+ in peanuts and dog, 2+ on eggs and dustmites. We went again a couple weeks and they did not test him for peanuts, because once you are allergic to them you will forever be! Dustimes went up to 3+ and dog stayed the same. The only advice I can give which I'm sure you already know is just watch what he eats and grabs at. My son does eat M&M's and we have not had a problem yet. I have asked our schools and they recommend that no peanut butter cookies or anything containing nuts be brought to school/class parties. Also the lunches are nut free. You will have to inform the teacher about his allergy. Also they have a medical braclet that he can wear which I will have my son wear too when he starts school. Just in case, you never know!! Better to be safe then sorry RIGHT! Let me know what you find out too!