How to manage your child's life-threatening food allergies Book Review

How to manage your child's life-threatening food allergies by Linda Mareinhoff Coss.

The first time I read this book, I was basically filled with fear and trepidation. We had been living with the knowledge of our son's life-threatening allergies for about a year and a half already and I thought I had it mostly worked out... but I didn't... actually I still don't! 

This book is a great resource and I wish that I had read it in the early days. We had worked out a lot of the tips about going out or going on vacation, so if I'd read this first, we probably wouldn't have had to learn things the slower or harder way. However, I do feel quite proud of myself for having worked out some of these tips ourselves too. 

This book made me very grateful for the country we live in. In Autralia, we don't have to worry about restaurants with peanut shells all over the floor; we don't have to worry about peanuts being thrown into the air at a sporting match, and we have definitely had a good experience with respect to our allergy specialist, the information he gave us and the general protocols concerning emergency medication and emergency protocols.

So what caused the fear and trepidation? All the suggestions about how to handle school. We've again been very blessed with a good experience at childcare but I now realise that primary school will be a completely new kettle of fish... filled with kids with milk, egg and nut products. And it's not just the kids, but teachers and other parents... all with lollies, chocolates, cakes and other treats that spells trouble with a capital T for us.

Thank you Linda for putting your insights into an easy to read, but harder to digest book. I've also got her cook book and am gradually working my way through some of those recipes... much easier to digest! Haha, stay tuned.

Verdict: a very handy book - get yourself a copy if your child suffers from food allergies. I've read my copy at least three times in three months and I'll be sure to keep flicking through the chapters again as we go through each new stage.

Steak and chips

Just had this tonight and loved it for oh so many reasons!

1. Our son cleaned up his plate and even had a second serve of chips... pretty big meal for a 2 year old. Dessert was a mandarin :-)

 2. The grown up meal looks remarkably similar right?! That's right folks, I only cooked one meal today. We had our steak with a smear of Dijon mustard... yum!

3. This is the clean up... seriously, just a pan, two trays, plus one bowl that I microwaved the vegies in. Even just using one utensil means less washing up.

For Australian readers, I used Birds Eye Golden Crunch Chips - supposed to be egg free, dairy free, nut free, but check the packaging each time, just in case. I also line the tray for our son just in case there are traces of other oils on there from previous cooking. But seriously, how simple is that?!

Big tick from my hubby too - what man can resist a good steak and chips?

Tips for non-allergy friends

If you knew that after every outing your child would come home with diaorreah, would you go to these places? What would you do?

It's probably too easy for me and other allergy parents to become cynical in our approach to others. So I thought I'd try and put together some top tips for how others can help. Although our son has numerous known anaphylactic allergies, all his food is carefully selected to ensure it does not cause him harm. Lollies, crackers and jellies - although these may not cause a anaphylactic reaction, could cause our son to have digestive or skin irritations that lasts for days.
     1. If you have kids, please please please don't let them walk around with food. I try and teach our son to sit and eat. Then we clean his hands and he is free to play. Although our motivation is allergy-based, I'm sure that there are advantages of teaching children to appreciate their food and thus lessen likelihoods of obesity. There's advantages of a cleaner house, cleaner toys - definitely worth the training!
     2. Although our son is incredibly cute, and probably irresistible, please don't hold his hands, please don't touch his face unless you know that your hands are 100% clean. If you've handled any food, DON"T TOUCH OUR SON! I know physical touch is incredibly important, especially for little ones. May I suggest that a pat on the back or on the shoulders is a better option.
     3. If you see some food or drink spilled somewhere, please help to clean it up - we'll be eternally grateful, as will your host.
     4. If you see leftover food or wrappers lying around, please help to clean it up.
     5. Don't try and give us your theories on allergies - I've heard it all: "It's because our society is too clean" - actually our family was not that clean before; "You just need to give them a little bit more each time and their body will get used to it" - actually that's how our son would most certainly die since every taste or contact brings us closer to that ever life-threatening threshold; "if you do/don't eat it during pregnancy..." - actually I ate heaps of milk and eggs, and hardly any nuts... so where's the trend there?

Having said all this, I have to admit that we have a wonderful bunch of friends around us. Some are more allergy-aware than others, but all of them want to do the best by our family. Hey, we were definitely NOT allergy aware until our little boy demanded we be. So thank you to all of you.