New Food Allergy Resource

I love this new resource created by two Boston pediatric allergists! Dr. John Lee and Dr. Michael Pistiner created AllergyHome to teach people who care for children with allergies. The food allergy section offers great information for parents to use to train babysitters, camp counselors, relatives, friends, schools and others about how to manage food allergies. The site also provides information about asthma and eczema and will soon offer tools to manage hay fever, sinusitis and environmental allergies. 


A separate section, Schools@AllergyHome, is intended for school nurses, school staff, school kids and school parents of children who don't have food allergies. I intend to forward the link, "School Nurse Resources" to our school district nurse department chair and I think everyone should take their food allergy quiz- including kids with food allergies. Did you get all the answers correct? I didn't !

Baked Milk and Egg Recipes for Dairy and Egg Allergic

Bake with Dry Milk

So is anyone working on allergy-friendly recipes that introduce baked milk and baked egg for those with dairy and egg allergies? 


This Twitter feed from Dr. Browdash at the 2012 Western Society of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (WSAAI) meeting says, "70% of children who are allergic to egg or milk can tolerate extensively heated forms of the protein (e.g. cookies, cake).


We've gotten the go-ahead from the allergist, but I'm getting a little bored with my chocolate cake recipe into which I add one egg now. The guidelines are: bake for a minimum of 30 minutes at a temperature of at least 350 degrees. This means no cookies or cupcakes (not in the oven long enough), my favorite granola bar recipe is out for the same reason too. Cake seems to work well as I can substitute the additional eggs called for in the recipe. I'm not doing well with the baked milk at all, although we've had some success with commercially available breads like Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Swirl, although I would prefer to make from scratch so I can control, and then increase the amount of dairy protein as tolerance increases.


This is an untapped area. Anyone else exploring this? I'd love some suggestions!

Food Allergies and a Leap of Faith

I've been reading more recent posts over General Mills decision to introduce a peanut butter flavor Cheerios®. Food Allergy Buzz shared the results of a survey in "The Peanut Butter Cheerios Mini Survey" and OneSpot Allergy believes GM's "Allergen Safety Statements Create More Questions Than They Answer". The Nut-Free Mom has even found a new cereal for her family. I know the announcement by General Mills has many asking questions about "shared lines" and "safe manufacturing practices".

And that's a good thing. These are questions anyone with food allergies needs to ask.

I am reminded of the leap of faith our family had to take nearly 10 years ago. With a diagnosis of allergies to dairy, egg, peanut, tree nut, corn, wheat, soy and oats we didn't know what might be safe. I still have the notebook we used when we contacted food manufacturers back then. Remember, those were the days before the Food Allergy Labeling Act, so no one was required to list allergens or even common names for ingredients. This was also a time when it was difficult to find allergy friendly recipes and ready-made foods. I spent hours on the phone for many weeks talking to food companies about their spaghetti sauce, hot dogs, potato chips, ketchup, pickles, bacon, cereal, and the list goes on...

Nearly every manufacturer produced products that contained one or more of the allergens we needed to avoid. So, while Ragu® plain marinara sauce was safe, they also made many sauces containing cheese. While one type of Oreo® was fine, many other varieties contained milk. I often was put in touch with manufacturer managers and even quality control specialists to get answers to my questions.

"How are the lines cleaned between runs?"
"What type of allergen testing do you conduct on your products?"

From one company I heard, "Lady, no one has ever asked me this before".

If I wasn't comfortable with the answers I got, I didn't buy the product. But still, a leap of faith was required. There were nights I lay awake with thoughts bouncing around my head- "Are those night shift people really following the proper procedures and cleaning all the dairy proteins off the equipment that just made cheese dogs before they run the all-beef hot dogs?" and "Who is checking to make sure that cereal manufacturer really is doing allergen testing on a regular basis?"

It came down to faith that companies were doing what they said they were doing. We had to rely on the system. It wasn't practical for us to grow all of our own food.

It's all about comfort level. We put on our investigative caps and then make the best decisions for ourselves and our families. You will still find Cheerios in my pantry- Honey Nut for some family members and plain for others, including my food allergic child. I respect that this is not something everyone feels comfortable with, but this is where we've arrived on our food allergy journey.

So, I'm happy we're asking the questions and that we have a network to share information. We are teaching food manufacturers and restaurants what we need from them in order to feel comfortable and that's a big leap in the right direction.

Food Allergy Webinars

Check out these online seminars on the topic of food allergies:

The School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) with the National Peanut Board offer “Teamwork is Key to Successful Food Allergy Management in Schools"will be held at 2 pm Eastern time on Wednesday, February 22. Register here. Counts for 1 CEU credit.

"Meal Planning with Food Allergies" hosted by the Food Allergy Support Group of Minnesota will be held from 7-8 pm on Thursday, February 23, 2012. Register here.

Arizona Food Allergy Alliance has posted several webinars including a "Back to School Kit" and information about epinephrine. Watch them anytime.

Food Allergies on Facebook

Are you using Facebook to connect with other food allergy folks? Many fan pages are available with help and support in the area of food allergy. Here are some new (or new to me) pages I've run across recently:

The Allergy Menu
Food Allergy Families
Food Allergy Confessions
Food Allergy Connection
Real Food Allergy Free
Food Allergy Daily
The Food Allergy Forum
Food Allergy Mom Doc

And, sorry for the shameless plug, but there is always great info on Food Allergy Assistant's FB page.

So, "like" your favorite pages to get updated food allergy information delivered right to your Facebook feed.

Did I miss any of your favorites?

Food Allergies: A Matter of the Heart

With my food allergic child now in middle school, Valentine's Day was less stressful this year. While a few teachers, and the bus driver, handed out lollipops, most of the day was a typical school day.

I did try to bring in some holiday festivities to our dinner by making mini meatloaves in a heart shape and by baking these Valentine's Day cupcakes. It's super easy to turn any cupcake into a heart shape. Simply drop a small marble between the liner and the side of the cupcake tin and then bake (yup, it's safe to bake the marble!). I frosted them in pink  and topped each with a chocolate heart made by melting Enjoy Life mini-chips and pouring the melted chocolate into my heart-shaped candy mold.

Take a few minutes to read Nicole Smith's Bring Your Own Food Allergy- to Parties. She offers some great insight into navigating the party scene for our kids with food allergies.

Love a Free Food Allergy E-Cookbook!

Enjoy Life has a new cookbook- and it's free. Download it or print it out here.

Don't forget to print out their coupons on the homepage before you head out to the grocery store. I always keep one in my wallet for their dairy-free mini-chocolate chips. It takes a bit of the sting out when I see Nestle or Hershey chips on sale. I feel like I'm getting a sale too!

Menu Changes Could be Dangerous to Those With Food Allergies

For our family, a trip to McDonald's is a safe treat as the hamburgers, fries and chicken nuggets are free of dairy, egg and peanut. However, changes in menus could catch those with food allergies unaware. Paul Antico, founder of AllergyEats, shares that Wendy's recently started buttering the buns of certain hot sandwiches.

According to this USA Today article, "Wendy's researchers knew customers wanted warmer and crunchier buns, so they decided that buttering them and putting them through a toaster was the way to go."

Good to know.

Antico says, "people with food allergies should always inform restaurant employees about their food allergies and ask about ingredient lists, dedicated fryers and possible cross contact - even if they've comfortably eaten at that establishment in the past." 

Great advice.

To stay on top of menu changes, consider the free Allergy Eats app for iPhone or Android. Adventures in Fast Food has a list of every fast food chain I can think of, with a link to each website and each menu.
So the lessons here are to be safe, stay informed and speak up about food allergies when eating out. Menus get updated, restaurant training and practices change, so never assume that something from your favorite restaurant is safe even if you've eaten it 1000 times.

By the way, I love Allergic Girl's latest post about dining out. Great lessons!

Food Allergy Blog Carnival is Worth a Read

Did you catch the latest edition of the Food Allergy Blog Carnival? It is packed with great information like "Common Food Allergens Found in Vaccines" and mouthwatering recipes like dairy-free chocolate syrup and Valentine's sugar cookies. Of course we can always expect a laugh from Food Allergy Fun who captures all of our food allergy moments in cartoon.

Head on over to The Allergic Kid to check out all the posts in the carnival.

Happy Friday!

Do Food Allergies Need a New Name?

The term "food allergy" has become a catch-all phrase that could include anything from an anaphylactic reaction caused by a food protein to a lactose intolerance to a food sensitivity. This week the Dr. Oz show explored the topic, "Are Food Allergies Making You Fat?".

"You could gain up to an extra 30 pounds a year because of a hidden food allergy," said Dr. Oz.

The segment acknowledged that this is "a very different kind of food allergy" than the "fast acting, even life threatening attacks," but I'm concerned about the use of the term food allergy in this context.

I think the idea was to create sensationalism, but using the term in this way leads to confusion and distrust. Headlines like this make it harder for those of us trying to explain to teachers, babysitters, restaurant staff, relatives and friends the seriousness of our child's, or our own, food allergies.

By definition, a food allergy is the immune system's abnormal reaction to a food protein which leads to the release of histamine and other chemicals, thereby causing symptoms ranging from mild to life-threatening.

So, I don't believe we need to come up with a new name for food allergies. I do think that all of us, especially writers, bloggers, journalists, TV personalities, and others need to be very mindful of the terms we use. There are many food issues out there: food intolerance, celiac disease, food poisoning, food sensitivity. All of these can be serious and can cause problems, but let's call them by their proper names. Don't say, "I have a food allergy" because it's easier, it sounds trendier, or it gets people's attention. This only leads to articles like "Most People With Food Allergies Don't Have Food Allergies" and "Statistically Speaking Your Food Allergy is Probably a Lie".

Use the correct words. Food allergy is already taken.