Nanci Kuykendall

>>Suppose your child ate a certain food and was cranky
>>and miserable. .....Would you>ban the food from
>>your >house?

>Only if it were a life-threatening allergy, and then
>only until the child was old enough to really *get*
>how important it was. My granddaughter was
>supposed to be allergic to many foods, causing
>behavior problems.
>Tia Leschke

This had been an ongoing balancing act for us, between
good nutrition, the kids' freedom of choice with their
diet, and restricting dangerous allergens. We HAVE
had to ban foods because of life threatening
allergies. We have not banned them from the house,
but only from that child's diet. How can we tell our
non-allergic child that he is not allowed to eat
anything with eggs, milk, cheese, or nuts in it?

Thankfully, we have been introducing small amounts of
foods with a little dairy or egg in them, and Thomas
has been tolerating them alright, so perhaps these
allergies will ease up even more for him as he grows.
But his reaction to eggs and dairy products has been
very violent in the past: projectile vomiting, mucus
clogging eyes, ears, nose and throat dangerously,
swelling, rashes, hospital intervention, etc. He has
had that reaction to pancakes two years ago, but just
recently we tried them again (with less egg) and he
was able to eat them fine, if sparingly.

Nuts are non-negotiable, as we were VERY lucky to
discover it the way we did without losing him. We
don't try them on him. We don't even let him eat
things that say "May contain traces of nuts." When he
is a little older, I would like to have a doctor test
him, in a controlled setting, to verify the type and
degree of his nut allergies and perhaps free up some
of his diet that way.

It has been our experience that he refuses foods that
do not "taste right" to him. He can detect even trace
amounts of his allergens and knows which ones he
cannot tolerate. Even if that allergen is disguised
in a cookie or other treat, he will take a small bite
and either spit it out, or refuse more. I am the same
way with foods that contain my allergens, mushrooms,
avacados, and bananas. We read labels on everything
or refuse homemade items we are not sure of,
particularly when it comes to nuts. He brings us
foods and asks if they are alright for him to eat now,
but when he was younger I had to follow him around and
watch what he put in his mouth. I am helping him to
learn to recognize the words nuts, eggs, milk, etc. on
labels. We are stressing to him the importance, (when
eating food that does not come in a labeled package
and we did not cook ourselves,) of always asking, AND
GETTING ANSWERS, about what is in foods from the COOK,
NOT the server, whether we are in a resturaunt or
someone's home, or at a picnic, or a store.

We take antihistamines with us when we go out, and an
epi-pen (epinephrine punch type hypo) for emergencies.
We watch our son closely with any food that has
amounts of his allergens in it, he knows to tell us
the moment he feels any sort of reaction beginning.
We avoid restaurant food with a lot of mysterious
ingredients, or asian food (where they often cook with
sesame and peanut and other oils).

But then we run into a grey area. There are foods
that tax his immune system, making him unable to
handle others that he normally can. There are those
that cause him excess mucus production and aggravate
his asthma. There are those that make him hyper or
over sensative, prone to meltdowns. Our pattern has
been set by the foods that we HAD to limit for safety
sake, but now, as he gets older, we have to break that
pattern to allow him to learn his own balance in his
diet, while still helping him to recognize and
understand how his body reacts to certain substances.


We have to say no sometimes. We try not to do it
excessively. We ask him what he thinks about it, or
to try a small taste of something (as long as it is no
nuts) and see how it feels to him. It's hard to have
to give him more freedom every day on this issue, as
he grows, but I know we need to. His allergies are
dangerous and that is scary, but I suppose it is good
practice for me in letting go, when I can.

Nanci K.

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