Food Allergy Resources Make Great Holiday Gifts!

For those of you looking for holiday gifts for the allergic people in your life, (or if you would like to drop a few hints for your spouse or family), here's a short list of some of the best food allergy books/magazines out there.

I've had the pleasure of meeting all of the authors below, either in person or online, and I can tell you that they are completely devoted to helping food-allergic people and their families enjoy a better quality of life.

The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book by Kelly Rudnicki. Just awesome. Kelly provides delicious recipes for things like apple doughnuts, birthday cakes and a myriad of cookies and quick breads that are egg-free, dairy-free and nut-free. If you ever thought it was impossible to bake without eggs, dairy or nuts, Kelly will set you straight! Your kids will be the envy of their friends with these yummy treats. Full-color photos accompany each recipe. You also get to see Kelly's cute kids hard at work baking! You will love this book! Check Kelly's website to order. I've also found this book available at my local Borders book store.

The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook by Cybele Pascal. Martha Stewart featured this book as one of the best baking books out there and once you flip through it you will see why. This book is so gorgeous and filled with delicious-looking photos that make you want to roll your sleeves up and get baking. Cybele offers dozens of recipes free of all top 8 food allergens and gluten. A simply beautiful book! You can visit Cybele's website to order or visit your local bookstore. I got mine at Borders!

Food Allergy Books by Linda Coss. Linda Coss is a pioneer of food allergy parenting and cooking. She has wonderful cookbooks as well as a book of advice on how to live with food allergies. Her cookbooks are also free of dairy, egg, peanut and tree nut and she has some really awesome family-friendly meals. Don't miss her books! You can order them by visiting her website.

Enjoy Life Foods: Cupcakes and Sweet Treats for Everyone! and Enjoy Life Foods: Cookies for Everyone! Enjoy Life Foods offers great baking ingredients free of the top 8 allergens and then some. They bring their delicious approach to allergy-friendly eating to you with two beautiful books that will solve your allergy-free baking problems. I've found these at my local bookstore but you can order them from their web site, too.

Allergic Living magazine. I highly recommend a subscription to this amazing lifestyle guide. Besides tackling food allergies with wit, wisdom and tons of practical advice, editor Gwen Smith and her talented team also address seasonal and environmental allergies. Published 6 times a year, you will wonder how you ever got along without Allergic Living. Visit the website for subscription details.

I hope you'll check out each of the resources above. And thanks to the talented people behind them. You make a difference!

Lotions and Potions--May Contain Nuts

For those of you with daughters, especially, look out for "fancy" lotions! The other night I took my girls to a class at the park district to learn how to create their own body lotion and lip gloss. I know, they really need that at ages 6 and 9 but they begged me to go and I caved.

Now, most of the "little girl" type of lotions and cosmetics that I've come across over the years do not contain nut oils. However, that didn't stop me from asking the teacher if any of the products the kids would be using had nuts or nut oils.

She couldn't have been nicer or more convincing--"Oh, no I never use that stuff. Too many kids are allergic."

I left feeling pretty confident and hung out about 5 minutes away for the duration of the 1-hour class (allergy moms tend to stay close) but when I arrived for pick up, my daughter had that "look" that told me something was wrong.

The teacher had used almond scent, flavor and we think, almond oil. Even though my daughter didn't use the scent or flavor (and frankly, it was probably artificial, but how the heck do I know), she couldn't use any of her products since the base they used to make everything was "a mix of oils" according to the teacher. (My daughter asked.) So, who knows what was in there? After the almond scent, I wasn't taking any chances.

Now, maybe this teacher thought I was only concerned about peanuts. (I said all nuts, don't know how much more clear to be!) Unfortunately, almond is one of my daughter's top 5 allergens and in the past, she has broken out when she used cherry/almond lotion at a friend's house. If it got in her eye or mucous membranes, she could have a severe reaction. So, scary stuff!

Whew, boy. I ended up buying safe Bonne Bell stuff for her on the way home and she gave me her products to keep.

What would I have done differently? First of all, avoid lotion and potion making classes unless I personally have inspected each and every product.

Second, I would have corresponded directly with the outside company offering the classes prior to the beginning of the workshop (turns out the company is not affiliated with our local park district).

More educating needs to be done--our park district is clear about their food allergy awareness with regards to cooking classes, but nut oils in cosmetics are not on their radar. Time to start contacting all parties involved.

Just wanted to give a heads-up so that you don't get stuck with the same problem. Has this ever happened to any of you?

Nutty Travel Adventures Part 1--Pine Nut Pizza

I'm back from my Wisconsin vacation and I have stories to tell about our family travels with nut allergies. Most of the stories are good--in fact, most are really good--so I'm going to get the "bad" one out of the way in the hopes that we can all be a little wiser for the experience my family had.

One of the places we visited in Wisconsin was Madison which is the state capitol, home of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a beautiful, totally cool and fun city in its own right. I attended the UW and it's always fun to go back there with the family.

We stayed in a hotel with a great view of one of the town's two major lakes. Connected to the hotel is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed, 6-story structure that houses, among other things, a stunning terrace that looks over the lake and also the capitol. We were so swept away by the view and the general vibe of the place (it hosted a free reggae concert on Wednesday night) that we decided to try the newly opened cafe that is located on the rooftop terrace.

The restaurant had a printed menu that I read carefully. It had basic stuff like Chicago-style hot dogs, individual pizzas, sandwiches and salads. My oldest daughter (the one with the nut allergy) really wanted to eat there. The views are amazing, so I didn't blame her. It looked like the menu was nut-free, so my husband walked down there to speak with the staff. He even got to talk to the chef, always a good thing. However, in this case, that wasn't the end of the story.

My husband asked about nut oils, nuts in the foods, etc. He was assured that they used only "canola oil" and that there should not be a problem with nuts in the food.

We felt pretty good so we ordered our daughters small pizzas--the menu said they contained tomatoes, basil and cheese.

Except, when my daughter was served the pizza, she took a bite and got a funny look on her face. "Something's wrong with this, Mom" she said. She dug into her pizza and handed me an object. "Mom, what's this?"

It was a pine nut. Turns out, the pizza was loaded with 'em. And yes, she had taken a bite, which she then spit out. And then she got upset. Tears, worries. "Will I be OK?" she kept asking me.

This is how it is with food allergies. One minute you're looking at a lake in the sun, the next minute you're checking your child for signs of anaphylaxis. Did I feel like a total jerk having not visually inspected the pizza before my child took a bite? Yes! I'm usually extremely careful and I probably felt pretty confident after all of the questions we'd asked. So this pine nut situation was a big, ugly surprise.

I figured I would have plenty of time to beat myself up later about how I should or shouldn't have handled the food order, so I focused on my daughter. She asked to go to the bathroom because she had spit her food out in front of the other diners and was embarrassed.

I took her aside and assured her I'd take care of her no matter what happened. Let me tell you, that was the five to ten longest minutes of my life. I had no idea if she had swallowed a pine nut or not. She wasn't sure if she'd swallowed any of her pizza before she realized what was in it. From past experience, I knew she'd react pretty much immediately if she was going to react at all, but I wanted to make sure I kept a close eye on her. Also, I had no clue if pine nuts would do anything to her. They're on her list of foods to avoid that our doctor gave us and they are officially a nut, so they had the potential of causing a reaction. Pine nuts are not in her "top 5" list of nuts that can cause her most severe reactions, but sometimes the body can confuse one type of tree nut with another and boom, there you go. Reaction.

Pretty soon it became clear that my daughter wasn't going to have a reaction. No hives, no swelling, no trouble breathing, no vomiting. I took her back to the table (my husband had already given the pizza back to the staff explaining why she couldn't eat it) and we got the heck out of there. The waitstaff did not seem like the ones to accuse and the chef was nowhere to be seen. Since the "pine nut incident" as we're calling it around here, I wrote to the restaurant and told them the story. I also asked them to be very careful about what they put into their menu. And I told them that pine nuts are indeed a nut. My husband's theory is that some people don't think that they are and that could be what happened here.

We learned that the terms you use when describing any type of food allergy or intolerance are crucial. Make sure you list all the things to avoid--maybe someone doesn't know what tree nuts are or what gluten is or the different terms for milk protein. Spell it out for them. Also, please be suspicious of "gourmet pizzas." They are bound to include pesto or pine nuts--stick with the simple stuff.

All's well that ended well here, and my darling daughter and I ended the evening dancing at the free reggae concert. I was so grateful she had been able to bounce back from the bad experience and I was also grateful that I wasn't sitting next to her in a hospital bed or worse. I was really, really rattled, though I tried not to show it. My husband felt awful, too. My daughter picked up on it and assured him that she didn't blame him and that she knew we had both tried to get the info on the food. Yep, she's that sweet. And I think that she was relieved as well.

Since she didn't have a reaction, I think this was probably a good experience for her in the sense that she learned to trust her instincts on a food. She told me later that the pizza didn't "smell right" to her and the first taste was just wrong. I told her to always honor that instinct in her life--even if she has to spit out the food, order a completely new meal or leave the restaurant. She promised that she would.

It just goes to show you that no matter how aware you are as parents or caregivers--others are probably barely aware or moderately aware. You've got to be polite but firm and very, very communicative. You'll be so glad that you were.

With that said, my next dining out/travel story is a great one--a Lake Geneva, Wisconsin restaurant dealt with our child's dietary restrictions like pros. They blew us away with their concern for our child's safety and their overall professionalism--not to mention the delicious meal. I'll save that story for later in the week.

It's good to be back home with both kids happy, healthy and safe. My daughter wonders why I keep giving her all the extra hugs--but you all know why, right?

The Nuances of Nut-Free Baking

My last blog post reminded me of something I just read in my daughter's elementary school newsletter. The school is having their Winter Carnival in about a week and the PTO is looking for people to contribute home-baked goods.

This year, for the first time, they asked parents to label the baked goods "Nuts" or "Nut Free." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read that piece of info.

Don't get me wrong. I'm thankful to the PTO moms who even thought about food allergies in the first place. And I know that they mean well. But if your child has a nut allergy, you know it's not that easy. It made me wonder who advised them on this issue. Had I known, I would have put my two cents in.

The good intentions of the PTO mothers, unfortunately, will be wasted on any food-allergic family that I know. We won't touch home-baked items from people we don't know (and of course no bakery items) because of the cross-contamination risk.

Here's the problem: just because an item was not baked with nuts doesn't make it nut free. For example: You use a knife to spread peanut butter on your kid's bread. You then slice into a stick of butter and spread that on your other child's bread. You put the butter back in the refrigerator.

Then, you decide to make a recipe for the bake sale that uses a half a stick of butter. You add the butter that touched the peanut butter knife into the recipe. You bake your brownies, cookies or whatever and you don't add nuts. Then you label the item "Nut Free." Voila! It's now contaminated by peanut matter not reflected on the label.

That's one scenario. I can think of many others, such as using a non-safe cake mix or frosting, or candy cake decorations that may have been processed on lines that process nuts. Besides utensils, shared bowls or the baker's own hands can transfer peanut or nut matter into recipes.

See, I know it sounds nit picky. But I can't risk my child having an allergic reaction. So of course we won't eat your home-baked treat. I'm sure it's delicious. It's nothing personal, really!

I considered baking a treat for the carnival and labeling it "Nut-Free. Prepared in a completely peanut-free, tree-nut free kitchen. My kid is allergic so I know what cross-contamination is. Eat it. It's safe. REALLY." (Or something like that.) I can still contribute, but I'm not counting on a food-allergic family to bring my treat home unless they know it's baked by me!

If I read that label, I'd still steer clear. You just never know. Better to skip the cake walk and bake something for my daughter at home. Better still if we could have "non-food" alternate prizes for various games and activities. Maybe next year!