Just Another Mommy Blog

Child Magazine recently ran a great article on food allergies. Check it out!

At my OB appointment last week, I found out that I am measuring 6 weeks ahead for where I am in pregnancy. It's no wonder I am getting strange looks and comments from strangers.

First, people have started to talk to my belly. Half the time I want to wave and inform them that there is a head attached to it.

Then there are the comments. I went to on a couple of errands the other day, and had the following conversation with a cashier:
Cashier: When are you due?
Me: June
Cashier: (with a look of horror on her face as she stares at my belly) Oh.
Me: It's twins
Cashier: Ooooooh (relief washes over her face).

I can see what they are thinking:
Cashier: Oh my goodness, stand back, that woman's water is going to break any second...
Me: June
Cashier: Dang, she has really let herself go. She looks awful.
Me: It's twins
Cashier: I guess she looks OK then.

10 weeks and counting...

Being allergic to both soy and milk leaves two options for margarine, and both hard to find. The first is Fleischman's light in the blue container (made with corn oil) and the second is Mother's Margarine. Not just any Mother's Margarine though - the Kosher for Passover kind. The first option is hard to find because other margarines taste better and sell better, so most grocery stores don't stock it. It's hard to special order, because there are two UPCs, and one of them was discontinued. Rumor has it that they are no longer distributing it at all to half the country. The second option is hard to find because they only make it once a year. That time is now.

The thing is, there is not a huge Jewish population in Portland, so most stores don't carry many K for P products beyond matzah. Martin asked around though, and got a lead on a store that carries a large K for P selection.

So, on Saturday, I packed Chloe in the car, and headed out to the burbs. We were on a mission. I found a huge selection of K for P products, and picked up some safe products for Chloe including apple butter, potato sticks, a gelatin free jello like dessert, and sour gummy bears (OK those are for me). They certainly did have a good selection - a K for P deli, a frozen foods section and a huge area of dry goods. I walked the store three times searching for Mother's Margarine though and didn't see any. I reluctantly headed to the checkout, and decided to ask a worker if they had it. He said, "Maybe - Check by the other deli in the produce department." Note that this is no where near the area where the butter/yogurt/cheese cases were kept, so I was skeptical. I walked over there though, and holy cow - they had it!!! I bought out the shelf. It was seriously like a pot of gold. I felt light on my feet, I wanted to sing. I really did. I was so happy and kept telling Chloe it was her lucky day.

Why is this so exciting? Because it means I can bake something safe for Chloe that might actually be edible to the rest of us. I can't use any milk, wheat, oat, soy, nut, or egg products when cooking for Chloe. Try making cookies, a cake, or any decent dessert within those limitations -- it's not easy. To me, margarine = apple crumble, sugar cookies, icing for gluten free cupcakes, gluten free graham crackers...oh, the list is endless, really.

Not that we need those things all the time. But, when hosting playgroup, a birthday party, or when making dessert on a special occasion...it will be nice to have a Chloe safe option!

Yippee!!!!!!

Now we just need a second freezer to store it in.

Chloe's food allergies are largely under control. We know what they are, and we manage well day to day. We carry her emergency medications with us, and know when to use them. We have effectively found a balance between keeping her safe, and letting her be a kid. She goes to the park, music class, playgroup, reading time at the library. She has small reactions to things regularly, but overall, she is happy, healthy and thriving. More and more, her allergies are taking a place at the back of my mind, not the front of it. We are optimistic that she will either outgrow some of her allergies, or that they will find an effective treatment. But for the most part, we just accept her allergies as lifelong, and go about our lives.

But every so often, I get a sober reminder of the seriousness of her food allergies, and I am taken back to the day she had anaphylaxis. Today it came in one of my food allergy newsletters. Two years ago today, Kailey Bowles died from her milk allergy. She was a seven year old girl was bright, friendly and sweet. Like us, her family knew the seriousness of her allergy, but also did their best to let her be a child. Her girl scout troop made sand art, a project she kept in her room for a couple of months. One day, she opened the jar, and tasted the brown sand. It wasn't sand, it was hot chocolate. She went into anaphylaxis, and she died. My heart aches for this family, and my thoughts are with them today.

You can read about Kailey here.