About two months ago, our little Fi was diagnosed with an allergy to America’s favorite snack, peanuts. This came as a huge surprise to us. We have no family history of food allergies, and at the time of her reaction, she had already been exposed to peanuts a couple of times. To say we were caught off guard would be an understatement.
Unlike something like a dairy intolerance, it is unlikely that a person will grow out of a food allergy. The body, for whatever reason, is unable to recognize a specific food protein, so it attacks the protein when ingested. As a result, histamines and other chemicals are released, and a whole bunch of nasty symptoms can occur. Some people get hives, nausea, swelling, change in blood pressure, the list goes on. Anytime one of these symptoms is severe or two or more symptoms occur simultaneously, it’s known as anaphylaxis. Not like I’ve been up staying up late on google or anything, though. Check out www.foodallergy.org for more info about allergies.
In my life pre-Fiona, I spent a significant amount of time in preschools, daycares, and elementary schools. I’m familiar with “the peanut allergy kid”. That kid sits at a separate table for lunch time, eats oreos when his classmates celebrate a birthday with donuts, and counts cotton balls instead of noodles because of possible factory cross contamination. While I’m inexpressibly grateful for my daughter’s general good health, there was a part of me that needed to grieve the loss of these typical childhood experiences. The Halloween candy she’d collect only to be swapped for peanut free alternatives and the lunch bag bartering that she won’t be able to participate in- just little things but important none the less.
So I grieved for a while, and then when I thought I was done…oops, no, I wasn’t. I grieved a little more. Then I got to work. I joined the groups, I read the books, we saw the specialist. I was surprised to find out that our world is adapting to fit the needs of this increasingly growing population of people with food allergies. Many of the restaurants we already frequent are actually 100% peanut free, and many others have special menus to allow patrons to see any potential allergens in each menu item. I found that many preschools in our area are nut free (nuts being one of the most common allergens), and that an increasing number of preschool and elementary school employees are trained to use epi-pens in case of anaphylaxis. All very promising and reassuring finds for this worried Mama bear.
I also got to brainstorming. This whole medical alert bracelet idea- while a great tool- just wasn’t going to cut it for my very fashion forward Fi. I came up with an idea to design and create an alternative to the boring bracelet that’s fun and fashionable. Hair bows, t-shirts, buttons and badges- all will soon (okay soon is a relative term here) be available at the babyfiandme etsy store. I’ll be sure to post a link once I start listing items.
Below are some additional resources and awesome finds for our other peanut free friends. If you have a great site or product to add, please leave the info below in the comments!
Barney Butter- the most amazing almond butter EVER! Tastes eerily similar to peanut butter, and is made in a peanut free (and gluten free) facility. (Fiona has been tested for tree nut allergies and has none.)
Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network
and good old Yelp.com is also a great resource! Search for peanut or other allergen free eateries in your neighborhood. I found a list another user had compiled of peanut free places, but if you’ve done the research for yourself, you could do your local allergen friends a favor and post your own list! Here is the San Francisco- Peanut Free Eateries list
EDITED to ADD: Baby Fi’s Peanut Free Shop is up and running!!! I decided to go with a cafepress.com store for now. Please check it out and spread the news to all your peanut free friends : )
Come visit my store on CafePress!
(www.cafepress.com/peanutfreeapparel.com)
