Living with kids with allergies

A Potted Plant

Honorary Sod
My son turns 2 on the 1/14, and its been ok for the most part but yesterday was a close call. Asked a waiter what kind of oil they use and he said canola and went ahead and ordered, while I'm waiting for my food a lady came in and asked the same question and got a different answer. Turns out they use peanut which our son is extremely allergic to. Just wondering how other parents handle allergies, currently I've given up most gluten(this is hard) and I don't consume any peanuts due to my son's allergies to lower the risk of him being exposed and so he doesn't go it alone once he is more aware.
 

A Potted Plant

Honorary Sod
What is he allergic to and how bad is his sensitivity?
Peanuts and Gluten

If he eats gluten he just swells up but a previous reaction is no indicator for a future reaction so we just avoid it till his next test in a month.

Peanuts he was highly reactive to and we were told he was deathly allergic to it so we avoid it at all cost, he can do tree nuts so it isn't to bad.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Simon is allergic to peanuts but not terribly so. We basically removed peanut oil from the house, and we just keep the PB out of reach. At this point (age 9) he's old enough to know to avoid it, so it's a non-issue though we still keep any peanut things out of reach.

Don't eat at any Chinese restaurants. The food is based on cooking with peanut oil and while a lot of places have converted now because of this, not all of them have and they're just too inconsistent to say. We find that Thai places are better at this.

Gluten is tough. No experience there and not sure how to approach it. It's kind of everywhere. I would do my best to just remove the most offensive stuff from the house entirely.

Good luck with sale the allergies.
 

StayHydrated

Swedish Chef
currently I've given up most gluten(this is hard)

I am a big baker. We have had people in our lives (our very good friend's ex-girlfriend) who had celiac disease. I have been able to fool gluten gluttons at friendsgivings with the help of this:
https://www.bobsredmill.com/shop/flours-and-meals/gluten-free-1-to-1-baking-flour.html

10/10, highly recommend.

Take this recipe (I am also a big King Arthur Flour fan - I haven't tried their GF products but I always buy their flours and swear by their recipes): https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gluten-free-sandwich-bread-recipe
If you use that, substitute in the Bob's Red Mill product, and leave out the xanthan gum (already in the 1-to-1 substitute). Check the comments, the people are super helpful. KAF also has a baker hotline you can call with questions, and they would certainly be helpful: (855) 371-BAKE

You said tree nuts are cool, so slap on some almond butter and jam (or even better, some Nutella) and you're good to go. Plus, when he gets a little older and can help more, the baking can be a family activity.
 

pygmypony

Well-Known Member
our two daughters both have celiac disease. they were each diagnosed in their early teens and are now 19 & 18 so we’ve been living with this for the last few years now.

going out to eat and to friends and family houses is the biggest challenge for sure. people usually mean well but cross contamination poor labeling and misinformation can have disastrous results

we made a decision at the outset that our home we be virtually gluten free (with the exception of beer!) despite the fact that my wife and i and my son can all eat gluten. it was just something we wanted our daughters to always know they could eat anything in the house and not worry about it

if you do go out to eat, we use the find me gluten free app, which has yelp like ratings specifically for gluten free dining.

would also endorse the king arthur’s products as well as pamela’s gluten free bread and pancake / waffle mix. we bought a bread maker (dedicated GF) and go through at least two loaves of that stuff each week.

in terms of the nuts, i would imagine that’s just as hard to police, and considering the severity of the reaction even tougher to handle than the gluten issue.

anyways good luck and feel free to hit me up directly if you need any gluten free parenting info.
 

gmb3

JORBA: Sourlands
JORBA.ORG
I don't have too much to add here but i'm a new allergy parent too so i'll tell my story. My son just turned 1 and has been confirmation tested positive for a bunch of allergies (dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts). Dairy was a scary one when a couple licks of an ice cream cone sent us to the ER with face swelling and hives. Everything else has just been hives. Allergist says he may grow out of the eggs and dairy but nuts are usually life-long. I'm still not convinced of either nut allergy because he had them multiple times before a very minor skin reaction and doc even said the tests do result in false positives a lot. We're too scared to risk testing the limits though.

How are we handling it? Obviously being so young, we're still in control of everything he eats so we have not cleaned the cupboards or anything like that. He doesn't have a siblings so don't have to worry about that either. We read every label before buying or giving him food, we eat what we want but wash our hands and surfaces frequently, we're mindful of what we touched while feeding him, usually bring his own food from home when we go out, and we always have Benedryl and an epi-pen on hand just in case. His daycare is nut-free (as most are these days) so no worries there, we just have to circle the things he can eat on their weekly menu and his teachers read the labels of anything questionable. We're still learning how to deal and figuring it out as we go. This was actually one of my biggest fears before having a child, however irrational that may be, but i guess it's not as bad as i feared. None of his allergies are "touch it and goto ER" bad so we're lucky there and he's never had breathing issues during a reaction so we've never had to use the epi. We're just really hoping he'll grow out of at least some of them so his eating can be a little more convenient. It's just crazy to me how prevalent allergies are these days, especially with no family history of them. "Back in my day" (the 80s/90s) i didn't know a single kid with a food allergy and there was always a open tub of peanut butter in the middle of the lunch table.
 

walter

Fourth Party
Growing up, and to this day my older sister is extremely allergic to shellfish. I remember several close calls when we were younger. Fortunately, my children so far are OK on rhe allergy front, but Jesus Christ man, just hearing that story 2 weeks ago about the young boy dying just from smelling the cooking fish dinner got me all choked up.

Good luck to you all, hope you all can work through it with minimal episodes.
 
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