Birthday parties and food allergies

[AlexPowell]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for parents of kids with food allergies, for an article on birthday party safety.

For most of us, It’s not the first thing that comes to mind when planning a children’s party. But rates of allergies to foods such as peanuts, tree nuts, milk and eggs are on the rise - and for kids with food allergies, the wrong slice of cake or bite of candy can be literally life-threatening.

I'd like to talk to parents of kids with food allergies to find out what they do to make parties safer - and what they'd like other parents to know to make parties safer for all guests.

Interested in sharing your stories and tips? Email me at apowell@jam.rr.com by August 24, 2006.


Thanks!

[K Ray]

I don't have any personal experience from the perspective of a mother of a child with allergies, but my child has a classmate with an allergy to milk products. It seemed to me that his parents taught him very early to not accept anything he recognized as containing anything he might be allergic to. He also doesn't drink soft drinks. When I first realized this was a problem, I began to always add a few containers of bottled water when it was my turn to bring snacks/drinks for soccer, etc.

[Ele]

I have a nephew with food allergies which affected the entire family as we're big into birthday parties. I discovered a line of cake and cookie mixes from Cherrybrook Kitchen that's available at Super Targets and larger healthy food stores. Makes life easier.

www.cherrybrookkitchen.com

Hope that's the right url.
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[AlexPowell]

Thanks! :D

[momnatur]

I'm actually planning my daughter's first birthday party (for September), and I have to consider food allergies, but not in the conventional sense. She's shown sensitivity to cow dairy, soy, tree nuts, and peanuts, all through what I've eaten. She gets it through the breast milk and has a reaction. I've been avoiding these foods in the hopes of keeping her from developing food allergies to them. But now it's a challenge because I'm trying to figure out how she can have her cake and eat it too, so to speak.

One of the things that has amazed me while dealing with this (as a whole, not just for the party) is how many food items have soy, milk, or nuts in them. It's astonishing, and I've had to become a strict label reader. Some shockers: tuna in water, pretty much all commercial bread, chicken and beef broth, and pasta sauce. It's certainly worth it in the long run, but what a pain! And how revealing of what the food industry puts in our food.

Andrea
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"All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives lies a mystery." --George Orwell

[groovy-old-lady]

My dear friend's 4 year-old little boy, Nathan, has a peanut allergy. We invited him to our little girl's birthday party. It was a "Ladybug" party, so I picked up some cute little ladybug truffles from the health food store. I never even looked at the label. The girls and I had had them before, so I knew there were no nuts in them. Nonetheless, only seconds after I gave one to Nathan he screamed and spit it out and started yelling, "It had nuts! It had nuts!" And then his face started swelling!

She didn't have an epi pen, but we gave him a double dose of children's liquid benedryl (which I fortunately had in the cupboard) and he was fine.

Moral of the story? ALWAYS carry benedryl and/or an epi-pen (ddepending on the severity of their allergy) with the allergic child!