Here's the link you need: http://www.themotherhood.com/talk/show/id/Navigating-Food-Allergies:-When-Family-Members-Don[*]t-Understand
We had some great tips, questions and "been there" advice from our panel of hosts and co-hosts, including the always wonderful Lori Sandler of Divvies and Emily McKhann from The Motherhood.com. Joining us were Kelly Rudnicki of Food Allergy Mama, Kim Lutz of Welcoming Kitchen and Elizabeth Goldenberg of Onespot Allergy.
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We also had some wonderful questions and suggestions from active participants on the chat and we had many more who were participating as viewers. We hope that this chat provided some help and encouragement for you, especially during the holiday season where food is ever-present and family dynamics are an issue.
If you're looking for some food allergy-friendly gifts, I hope you'll click the links for each person above and visit their web sites and blogs as many of them have written cookbooks or offer great products for those with food allergies.
One of the things we spoke about during our chat yesterday was the need to bring our own food and be willing to host others. If you're looking for prepared foods to serve at your party or event, I hope you will take a look at the right sidebar of this site.
I am so happy to have several site supporters who offer fabulous nut-free (and other "free from") foods and sweet treats to make our lives easier and more tasty: Nutphree's Cupcakes, Skeeter Snacks, Vermont Nut Free Chocolates, Dean's Sweets, Cakes for Occasions, Surf Sweets, Sweet Alexis. Plus, if you're looking for medical ID jewelry that is both safety-conscious and stylish for all ages, Hope Paige Medical IDs is a great site to visit. To visit the web sites of each of these companies, please click their respective images to the right of this post. Scroll down and explore them all! Each of these companies supports people with nut allergies, so I encourage us all to support them.
My e-book is a user-friendly guide to educating others about nut allergies and right now, it's at a reduced holiday price. This concise guide can help see you through the "nutty" holiday season--I've had readers tell me that they are also using it to help friends and relatives understand life with nut allergies. Check it out today by clicking here.
Thanks once again to everyone who made yesterday's chat happen! We will have more live chats like this in coming months, so please check back to this site often for updates.
This Friday on The Nut-Free Mom blog: A sweet deal from Peanut Free Planet!
Don't miss this Friday's post, where you will learn about a special offer from Peanut Free Planet...just in time for the holidays! See you then.
2 comments:
I wish people with FA could appreciate the accommodations family members make to keep their children safe. In my family my cousin's son has multiple anaphylactic allergies and they change the dynamics of any family get together. My cousin does not allow her son to eat any place but in her own home so Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, are in a very small, not guest friendly home rather than in another family member's much more spacious place.
Please don't make us the bad guys because we miss eating some of our traditional, generation-to-generation dishes. Are we wrong to miss these holiday treats. Not only are they not served, but she gets all defensive if someone even mentions how they enjoyed eating them and says, "Do you want (her son's name ) to die?" Obviously no one wants to cause him any harm, but that does respect other people's feelings.
It seems to me that being reasonable, or at least appreciative goes both ways because my family experience is that it's a one way street.
Please do not take this post to be dismissive of anaphylaxis, just an acknowledgement of what other people do for their children.
Hi Mary, Yes, I remember that you've complained about your cousin before -- you don't like her food and think she's a control freak. From what you've said here, it sounds like all she is trying to do the best she can and trying to involve family while keeping her son safe. Hosting is a lot of work--I'm sure she could use some support so that she can have others host from time to time. She may not feel that all of you take it seriously or are angry at her need to keep her son away from certain foods, so she doesn't trust others to host. This is something that can be changed, if you are willing and your family is willing. Only you can answer that question. Maybe you could work together as a family on who hosts the holidays, etc. and help to build a bridge instead of getting angry at her response when you complain about the foods not being served at her gathering. From her perspective, the foods you are asking about are dangerous to her child, so try to show her some compassion and she will appreciate it and thank you for it. Right now it sounds as if you are simply expressing resentment about being denied certain foods and barely tolerating these parties at her home. Remember, you can make traditional foods at your home and if you want to have a day where you have relatives come over and eat the traditional foods you are missing, why not? That might be one solution. I hope you will reach out to your cousin in a kind way and find a family holiday solution that works for everyone. Your is trying to keep her son with a life-threatning medical condition safe and healthy while also seeing her family. Families work out the logistics of these things all the time so I hope you and your family will come to an agreeable solution. It won't happen, though, unless you can talk to your cousin about some of the problems you share here and be open to a discussion. I hope you'll consider it. Happy holidays and all the best! Jenny
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