“With a kiss let us set out for an unknown world.”
-Alfred de Musset
Finding out your child has food allergies can be scary and uncharted territory for any parent. This is what happened to us when we found out our 4 year old had some severe food allergies that we had no idea about.
Our son was constantly battling upper respiratory infections and often had severe asthma symptoms such as wheezing that required him to be on a daily steroid treatment and on a nebulizer often. I never thought that the culprit of the asthma symptoms could be food allergies.
Am I sure that the two things are related? Well, no and no doctor would confirm it either but I find it very coincidental that after we eliminated the triggers from his diet the asthma symptoms disappeared.
After getting diagnosed we all took a crash course in how to administer an epi-pen and our doctor recommended that we get the Auvi-Q because there was no out of pocket cost after insurance! We ended up getting what she recommended and thankfully we haven’t had to use it yet! However, it does come with a handy trainer that speaks the instructions to you in case we need a refresher.
Our sons allergies included wheat, soy, tree nuts and the dreaded peanuts. This brought me so much anxiety and uncertainty because so many foods contain wheat and many are made in factories with nuts. One of the most important pieces of advice is to talk to your child as soon as he or she is diagnosed. Make sure that you teach them to ask if any food has peanuts when something is offered to them. Even at 4 years old our son has been taught to ask and he does it often. As parents we cant’t be with our children 100% of the time, especially when they are school aged so they are their own first defense.
We are due for our annual allergist visit in June so we will see if he has outgrown any of the allergies he was initially diagnosed with-which is something that could happen.
Through my research I found many resources such as the Asthma and Allergy Foundation. There are also so many moms out there in the social media universe that are dealing with the same issues and they have proven to have valuable information
Unfortunately, the rest of the world needs to catch up when it comes to food allergies. Restaurants should be preparing food allergy safe products and also provide a list of allergens in their menus.
There are so many issues to talk about when it comes to food allergies and I hope to continue doing so through this forum and my social media channels.
xoxo,
Michelle
Coupon Parents 