My son, as I've mentioned before, has a severe peanut allergy. He is not alone in this as it is believed that approximately 12 million Americans suffer from food allergies today. I read another blog regularly, The Nut-Free Mom, where she writes about problems she faces daily with a peanut and tree nut allergic daughter.
I'm mentioning all of this because next week is Food Allergy Awareness Week. I'm hoping that eventually we won't need a week designated to it, to make people aware. In a perfect world, there wouldn't be food allergies or allergies of any kind, but it's not a perfect world. For any parent of a food allergic child, everyday is a battle. We have to read every label, even if it's something we buy regularly because you never know if production will change somehow. We don't eat at most restaurants because the risk for cross contamination is so high. We have to carry epipens with us every where we go and make sure that if we aren't with them, someone that is with them knows how to use them. It is scary.
Ben is only 2 1/2 and he doesn't really know about his peanut allergy. We try to talk to him about it, but I don't think he understands or will for a while still. With luck, he'll outgrow it. While I say with luck, I'm not holding my breath. All I can really hope for is a cure, and in the mean time, we need more people aware of the severity of food allergies, and how to prevent reactions from happening.
To learn about food allergies, please go to http://www.foodallergy.org/.
Sorry if this post seems out of left field, but it is something very close to my heart and if we don't talk about it, we don't fix anything.
I'm mentioning all of this because next week is Food Allergy Awareness Week. I'm hoping that eventually we won't need a week designated to it, to make people aware. In a perfect world, there wouldn't be food allergies or allergies of any kind, but it's not a perfect world. For any parent of a food allergic child, everyday is a battle. We have to read every label, even if it's something we buy regularly because you never know if production will change somehow. We don't eat at most restaurants because the risk for cross contamination is so high. We have to carry epipens with us every where we go and make sure that if we aren't with them, someone that is with them knows how to use them. It is scary.
Ben is only 2 1/2 and he doesn't really know about his peanut allergy. We try to talk to him about it, but I don't think he understands or will for a while still. With luck, he'll outgrow it. While I say with luck, I'm not holding my breath. All I can really hope for is a cure, and in the mean time, we need more people aware of the severity of food allergies, and how to prevent reactions from happening.
To learn about food allergies, please go to http://www.foodallergy.org/.
Sorry if this post seems out of left field, but it is something very close to my heart and if we don't talk about it, we don't fix anything.
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