Food Allergy Awareness Gets a Boost from American Girl with Lunch Kits for American Girl Dolls!

Parents of kids who don't play with dolls-- please bear with me for a minute. This is news I simply have to share!

My daughters have been big American Girl ®fans nearly their entire lives and we've visited the AG Cafe in Chicago several times -- given advance notice, they've always been great with nut allergies. So imagine how thrilled I was to find food allergy awareness is now on the menu with regard to the American Girl accessory line for dolls. Check out this all new kit above!

 For those of you visiting an American Girl store this summer, this makes a wonderful treat for a doll-lover with food allergies. (Of course you can also order online. See link below.) Called the "Allergy-Free Lunch," the accessory kit pictured above contains cute doll-sized items that show what a "safe" lunch may look like. You get:

 - A pretend berry smoothie, container of vegetables and two sandwich skewers

 - A medical bracelet and allergy stickers to keep her safe while she snacks

- A faux allergy shot, just in case

- A fabric lunch bag to hold it all

Price: $28.

                                                          

Here's the link to this item on the American Girl website.

Late last year, American Girl® introduced a school lunch for dolls that had food allergy-awareness stickers and a healthy meal guide. I included that product in the gift guide I wrote for Allergic Living magazine this past winter; maybe you saw it. That one is adorable too; check it out. It's called "School Lunch Set for Dolls."

This kit has:

- A pretend croissant sandwich, raisin box, and container of applesauce
- A sheet of allergy stickers your girl can use to help her doll stay safe while she snacks

 - Healthy lunch tips, plus a sturdy lunch bag with a zippered compartment to hold it all

  Price: $28

I love both of these accessory kits and kudos to American Girl for making these available for their customers who deal with allergies each day.

What I love about the newer "Allergy-Free Lunch" (the first item pictured) is the doll-sized epinephrine shot and medical ID bracelet. This is a great way to demystify allergies for a young child and help them accept what can be a scary part of their lives -- that is, the possibility of needing a shot. You can even use this to demo how to use an epinephrine auto-injector on your child's doll (but of course, explain to your little one that it isn't the real thing.)

It may be only doll accessories, but to me this speaks volumes in how far allergy awareness has come. I couldn't have imagined anything like this 8 years ago when my daughter was first diagnosed. I remember my daughter asking me about something like this back then and I even e-mailed the company about it. Maybe it worked! I'm sure many of you had the same thought and may have gotten in touch with the company about offering these types of items.

When my daughter got Molly's (1940s American Girl®) lunch box for Christmas one year, it had a peanut butter sandwich. She called it a SunButter sandwich and that's how she referred to it. But to have something specific for kids with food allergies--that's something special, and I thank American Girl for their food allergy awareness. Could a "Girl of the Year" doll with a food allergy be far behind?

Note: No endorsement of this site by any third parties is intended or implied; this is my personal view of these products.