Take Over Tuesday's Guest Blogger Laura. The Food Challenge

Meet Laura, a mom of a beautiful little boy with multiple food allergies. I've been getting to know her thought this blog and e-mails, and am so happy to have done so. We actually got to meet in person at the FANN Walk for Food Allergy this past October. She has a passion for cooking and a degree from the Culinary Institute of America. She has recently started a blog called Treats 4 Me 2 with some yummy allergen free recipes that she has made for her son.

The Food Challenge

My name is Laura and I am the mom of a 2 year old with multiple food allergies. We first discovered the allergies when I was nursing and had Jack's blood work drawn at 9 months old. Fast forward to July 2010 and we were given the green light to sign up for a soy food challenge at Mt. Sinai's Food and Allergy Center in NYC. I was told that we would receive a call in a couple weeks from the food challenge nurse to schedule. Two weeks passed and I was very anxious so I called and was told it is a 4 month waiting list for food challenges. My initial excitement was followed by short term disappoint by having to wait so long to have our test taken. We scheduled the first available morning appointment on Nov 23rd. 2 days before Thanksgiving! A huge food event in every Americans' home I was hopeful for additional foods to add to our meal plan.

My next "challenge" was to find foods containing soy to bring to the challenge that my picky 2 yr old would eat. I spent countless hours on the internet and in the grocery store aisles looking for things my son might eat. We packed soy chocolate pudding, instant miso soup packet, soy milk carton, soy milk yogurt and I panicked the night before and ran to the health food store and found soynut butter.

Tuesday morning arrived and I packed my soy food and hungry son in the car and we were on our way to the city by 715am. We arrived right on time to the appointment and waited less than 5 minutes before we were ushered into the food challenge room area. There were 3 rooms for challenges from what I could see and 1 nurse appointed to administer the challenges. Each spacious room was equipped with toys, table and chairs, flat screen tv. There was one little girl ahead of us so we had a wait several minutes for the doctor and nurse. I didn't mind because I thought this would make Jack even hungrier for breakfast which he normally has eaten by 730am.

The doctor arrived and asked how Jack was feeling health wise. Has he taken any meds or Benedryl? Everything was good so far. The goal of the challenge was to consume 5 ounces of soy without a reaction. The first food we were going to try was oatmeal mixed with soy milk. It took a little coaxing, but Jack had 2 spoonfuls and then it was time for a 10 minute break to watch for a reaction. The doctor and the nurse left the room and we were to get them if anything happened. The nurse did pop her head in to see how things were going. After the time lapsed the nurse came back and asked Jack to eat some more oatmeal. Again he didn't want to, but I think the hunger helped. 3 more spoonfuls and it was time to watch and wait. Jack coughed a couple times and the nurse asked if he had a cough, I told her no and she decided we should wait a few more minutes before we give some more oatmeal. I agreed and told her next time she could add some more soy milk to change the consistency. This time we asked Jack to finish the bowl and he did. At this point, Jack had had 3 ounces of soy milk without any problem. I really don't think the cough was related, but we will never know for sure.

The next food we were going to try was chocolate pudding. I really thought he would love it and it would be that easy. Forget it, the tears started rolling and the protests began. We begged, bribed with offers for new toys, we ate it ourselves to show him how good it was. I tried to push a spoonful in his mouth and it only made things worse. He took turns crying on my husband's lap and crying on mine. The nurse tried to give him a cracker with the soynut butter and he wouldn't even look at her. She offered him soymilk which looked identical to his ricemilk carton we brought and he wouldn't take a sip. I didn't even bother offering the yogurt if he didn't want the chocolate. It lasted almost an hour when the doctor finally came back in the room to say it was over and she didn't want to upset him any further. He was flushed and exhausted from crying and we wouldn't be able to notice a reaction at that point. The doctor thought the amount of soy consumed was sufficient to continue giving him the 3 ounces and increase it after a couple of weeks at home if there was no reactions. After the challenge finished we still had to sit the room another 45 minutes to make sure there was no reaction. In total we were there almost 2.5 hours. I was so mentally tired after the visit I couldn't imagine how Jack felt. The nurse offered us the opportunity to schedule a challenge in a month for yellow mustard, sunflower or wheat. I passed on all of the choices. If he wouldn't eat pudding there was no way Jack was going to try a teaspoon of yellow mustard or sunflower. I told the doctor Jack has been eating Cheerios with wheat all along and I started giving him saltines with no reaction. She told me I could try a small amount of whole wheat pasta. We haven't tried yet.

That same evening Jack got a fever. I don't think it was related other than the exhaustion and dirty city. I didn't call the doctor and it only bothered him at night. I think it was just an annoying coincidence. I haven't given him anymore soy milk because he barely drinks his rice milk (which is very bland in comparison). I got what I wanted from the soy challenge. Confirmation that we can give Jack foods that contain soy or where processed on equipment with soy.

It will be a very long time before I schedule another challenge for Jack. Our next visit to the Food and Allergy Center is July 2011. Jack will be blood tested for the first time in a year. It will be very stressful for him, but I am hopeful that his scores will come down and there will be a future challenge for dairy or eggs. Nuts will just have to wait and see what research is completed.

Guest Blogger Disclaimer: The information shared by the guest blogger does not represent the opinions and policies of No Nuts For My Peanuts and it's creator. As always seek proper medical attention for any issues, medicine dosage's or questions you have regarding your health and allergies. Always read labels before eating or serving any food to anyone who has food allergies.

Take Over Tuesday's Guest Blogger Laura. The Food Challenge

Take Over Tuesday Guest Blogger Nicole: Schools and Food Allergy Awareness

Nicole Smith is the author of Allie the Allergic Elephant: A Children’s Story of Peanut Allergies and Cody the Allergic Cow: A Children’s Story of Milk Allergies and Chad the Allergic Chipmunk: A Children’s Story of Nut Allergies. She became interested in writing a children’s book on peanut allergies after discovering her son, Morgan, has life threatening peanut allergies.

Nicole was raised on several military bases, but has called Colorado Springs home for many years. She graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D. C. and went on to work in the field of finance for several years.

She and her husband, Bob, own Allergic Child Publishing Group, the publishing company for Allie, Cody and Chad.

Nicole served as Treasurer for the non-profit organization, Kids With Food Allergies, Inc. and has helped school districts across the United States manage food allergies and create safe environments for food allergic children.

In Colorado, Nicole was the driving force to get Senate Bill 09-226 introduced and passed into law requiring all school districts to have a policy to keep food allergic children safe at school. Two years of meeting with senators, representatives and board members of the department of education culminated in the bill being signed into law by Governor Bill Ritter during Food Allergy Awareness Week in 2009.

Nicole is currently serving on the Food Allergy Initiative (FAI) Advocacy Steering Committee to help build a strong nationwide presence for the food allergy community in the public policy arena, and to actively seek to increase federal funding for food allergy research.

What can be done within your school district to raise awareness?

Some schools and school districts have yet to experience their first student with severe food allergies. Other schools have had tragedies of a child dying from a food allergic reaction. In each case, education and awareness is needed. You, being the parent of a food allergic child, are armed with the most important information about your child, allergic reactions and care that is needed. Make sure to share your child’s allergy information and reaction history with your child’s school and district officials. We have found that keeping our son’s allergy information secret is a recipe for disaster. We don’t want him to be known as ‘allergy boy’ but we also don’t want to withhold the information from the people who can help circumvent a reaction.

For those schools with experience with food allergic children, some feel they have all the information they need. The problem with this, we have found, is that not all parents live a life of vigilance around food allergies. For example, other parents may not have a problem with their child touching peanuts, and believe that a severe reaction can occur only if their child ingests the food. Schools can be complacent when the next allergic child enters school, and can’t understand why a different set of rules now apply.

We have found that participation in the school is vitally important. Participating in classroom volunteer projects, school parties and field trips allows you, the parent, to know how frequently food is being used in the classroom. It also gives you the opportunity to get to know the children and especially the teacher. Giving of your time to the school makes for a better partnership when you are asking for extra accommodations and allergy awareness for your child, regardless of whether the law is on our side!

Beyond the school, participation at the district level is even more important. Meeting the school district 504 officer will allow him/her to put a face with your child’s name. Gaining understanding of your school district’s process for creating accommodation plans allows you to get exactly what is needed for your child to be safe. Additionally, if you are willing to assist your school district to better understand food allergies, volunteer on district-wide committees and bring up the topic of food allergies.

I did exactly this several years ago, and was able to get a requirement added to the accreditation process for all schools in our district. The requirement is for every school to have training on 504 plans and health care plans and to receive training on how to respond to students undergoing an allergic reaction. It was a small step toward safety for all food allergic students.

In the spring of 2007, I participated in a Food Allergy Task Force for our school district along with 15 other parents, district administrators, principals, district school nurse and others to create guidelines for our school district’s severely food allergic children. This task force came about because so many parents were attempting to teach their individual school about food allergies and felt they were reinventing the wheel at each school. Some schools in the district had experience, while others had none. We wanted to create a standard set of guidelines and procedures for all schools in the district to follow so that a food allergic child enjoys awareness of food allergies and prevention of allergic reactions regardless of which school he/she attended. It was a tall order!

You can view these guidelines here.

You will see that peanuts and peanut products aren't served in the cafeterias of schools with peanut allergic students if the parents and principal request it. We don't ask other children to not bring in peanuts. Instead we create nut free zones at specific cafeteria tables. The monitoring of a "peanut ban" creates a nightmare for everyone, we felt, and is virtually impossible to guarantee.

We also agreed that while peanuts are a very serious allergy, there are students with equally severe allergies to milk, fish or many other foods. In fact, our school district of 21,000 students had 275 students with life threatening food allergies. It would be impossible to remove all the different foods from the schools without banning food entirely.

There are some school districts that have banned peanuts entirely such as Aspen School District in Colorado. Anaphylaxis can and has still occurred at schools such as this because a child ate a food he assumed was safe, yet other non-food allergic parents don't always completely understand the ingredient label.

We prefer “food allergy aware” to food bans in schools!

If you’d like more information about food allergies and schools, please visit AllergicChild.com.

Nicole can be reached as follows:

Allergicchild.com

425 W. Rockrimmon Blvd, Suite 202

Colorado Springs, CO 80919

nicole@allergicchild.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleshieldssmith

Guest Blogger Disclaimer: The information shared by the guest blogger does not represent the opinions and policies of No Nuts For My Peanuts and it's creator. As always seek proper medical attention for any issues, medicine dosage's or questions you have regarding your health and allergies. Always read labels before eating or serving any food to anyone who has food allergies.

Take Over Tuesday Guest Blogger Nicole: Schools and Food Allergy Awareness

Take Over Tuesday: Meet Morgan Self Advocating on Food Allergies

Morgan's Mom Nicole commented on my post about peanut free schools. She has an amazing website Allergicchild.com

where I learned about her family's story. I asked her and her son if they would be guest bloggers. They both agreed! First up is Morgan. He an an amazing young man who is living life with food allergies.

Morgan is 14 years old and is in 9th grade in high school. He is anaphylactic to peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish and shellfish. He is severely allergic to dogs, cats and other furry animals. He gets eczema from food dyes and is allergic to grasses, weeds and trees. He is currently receiving allergy shots and is seeing a huge decrease in his seasonal and pet allergies!

When your done here, Check out Morgan's Corner on Allergicchild.com.

Self advocating on food allergies

My mom says that I started asking if a food had peanuts in it from the time I learned how to talk. I don’t remember that. I do remember wanting to learn how to spell peanuts so I could read labels and find the word. I remember my mom telling me that “Sooner or later, you're going to live alone and when you do, I'm not going to be with you. (Let's hope not at least.) Let's start now on working on how you can deal with food allergies by yourself.”

In preschool, my mom took care of everything. She made sure that no one brought in peanuts or nuts. And she made sure I had a safe snack to eat every day.

In kindergarten, I stayed all day at school, which means I ate lunch there too. That’s when food allergy signs started on the lunchroom table. My teacher and my mom talked to my class about food allergies and about not eating unsafe foods around me. Also, everyone had to bring in safe snacks for the snack bucket, but I still brought my own snacks. I knew what my food allergies were, and I knew not to eat foods other people tried to give me.

In 1^st grade, I learned more about self-advocating. I was at school one day and my class had to go to another classroom. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to go into other classrooms at school because pets could be there, or kids eating peanuts. My teacher felt that the other classroom was probably unsafe, pet or food wise. I had to stand out in the hallway for a few minutes, being left out of whatever went on in the classroom. I came home, crying, and told what happened to Mom. She suggested that I needed to talk with my teacher. I wrote up a letter of how I felt when the incident occurred. The next day, I came in to school and I read the letter out loud to my teacher. My Mom was there as parental support. It was just us three. Both the teacher and I cried at the end. She said she never wanted to hurt my feelings, and I wanted her to not leave me out in the hallway ever again.

I learned in 2^nd grade that I had to start to take care of myself, and that my mom wasn't going to be there all the time. One day in the lunchroom, no one sat by me at my peanut free table. I didn’t like that at all. I asked if I could get rid of the big sign that said, “Peanut Free Zone” and just be able to sit at the same place with no peanuts around me, but also no sign. We talked about this at my 504 meeting that year. By the way, I started to go to all my 504 meetings with the teachers and my parents from kindergarten on. I always was asked what was working and what wasn’t working. And what wasn’t working for me was to have a BIG sign that said “Peanut Free Zone.” So, we agreed to remove the sign, but that I would still sit right in front of the cafeteria monitor just to make sure no kids brought in my food allergens.

In 3rd grade, I started doing a PowerPoint presentation I created for the class. I continued doing this in 4th and in 5th grade. There were just a few slides. I talked about what my food allergies are, what the class can do to keep me safe (don’t bring in peanuts, nuts, sesame or fish) into the classroom, don’t sit by me at lunch if you’re eating those foods, and don’t get upset if I ask you to move if you are eating those things. It really helped.

In 4th grade, I got to go on field trips on my own. Before that, my Mom came on every field trip. I wanted to go on field trips without her. I carried my own EpiPen and other medicines in a fanny pack on the field trips. Everything worked out fine.

In 5^th grade, I started to carry my own EpiPen at school. The law in Colorado passed, and I could start doing this. There was still a medicine box in the office at school with my Benadryl and eye drops in it, and an extra EpiPen just in case.

In 6^th grade, I brought in all the Peanut/Nut Free Zone signs for my classrooms. I talked with the principal about the peanut free tables in the lunchroom. My Mom didn’t come into school at all for that. We (Mom and I) had a meeting with all my teachers at the start of the school year, and talked about no foods being in any of my classrooms.

In 7^th grade, the process happened again, but this time my classrooms were spread apart, unlike the Pods in 6^th grade (classes in one group/area). This year, there were more dances and parties, but food was no problem since I had already dealt with my teachers.

In 8^th grade, it was the same as 7^th, just my classes were a bit farther apart. Lunch was no problem in any of the middle school grades since I had made my friends aware of my food allergies.

The step from Middle School to High School was more of a leap than a step. At my high school, people can eat lunch anywhere on campus: hallways, courtyards, even classrooms. This created a problem for classes after lunch- thankfully only one class each day is after lunch. Even then, people can eat anytime and anyplace. This includes during class time and during free period. My choir teacher simply just said ‘No food allowed’. It has worked quite well and I haven’t had any problems. Other teachers have been sort of lenient on food, but the class that does allow food is a freshman class, so I have been with these friends for 3 or more years, and so they understand my food allergies.

9^th grade is a blast! I had met with my teachers in the spring time before school ended and before school started in the fall. Every one truly understood my hidden disability and is very helpful and supportive. I really feel the leap was much easier with all my teachers understanding!

Guest Blogger Disclaimer: The information shared by the guest blogger does not represent the opinions and policies of No Nuts For My Peanuts and it's creator. As always seek proper medical attention for any issues, medicine dosage's or questions you have regarding your health and allergies. Always read labels before eating or serving any food to anyone who has food allergies.

Take Over Tuesday: Meet Morgan Self Advocating on Food Allergies