What I Am Grateful For This Year

Vegan butter! Oat milk! Dairy free cream cheese! Vegan fig bars! What a time to be alive!

Okay, when I started this blog, one main reason was to vent about people claiming to have food allergies when they actually don’t. You know, the ones that say that are allergic to wheat, but really just read online about how gluten is bad for you and want to jump on the new fad diet bandwagon. Or they really do have a gluten intolerance, but don’t understand that a self diagnosed intolerance is way different than a life threatening food allergy. But that doesn’t stop them for telling everyone they are allergic and now half the world thinks that real, severe, anaphylaxis food allergies are made up and don’t actually exist.

A few years ago, I was visiting an old friend and we went out to a coffee shop. She’s lactose intolerant. She ordered a hot chocolate with oat milk. I ordered one with the real, deal, straight from the udder milk (oh to be young and without a food allergy care). The barista made both and put them on the counter. We asked which one was which. He glanced at the two cups and looked at us. Back to the cups. He shrugged and said he didn’t know. Maybe we could taste them and see? Well, this was not what my lactose intolerant friend wanted to hear. She laid into the guy, saying she was allergic and could die. I gave her a surprised look. I had no idea! Later, at the table, while enjoying our freshly made hot chocolates with the appropriate milk, she said she had embellished a little and really just gets an upset stomach. But the barista should have kept the drinks separate! He should know which one was which! I whole heartedly agree. He should have definitely known which one was which. But also, maybe she shouldn’t conflate anaphylaxis with explosive diarrhea. This is why it’s hard for people to imagine my kid could actually die from milk. The real moral of the story, though? I will never, ever, be taking my kid to that coffee shop.

Anyways. Today, I’m going to try to be grateful for those people. Not because they lie and tell everyone they are allergic. No, because there are so many people who think they are allergic, there’s an entire new market of food that wasn’t even available a few years ago. There’s a whole section of wheat free flours. There’s a cornucopia of dairy free “milk” at the local grocery store. There’s “sour cream” and “cream cheese” and there’s even dairy free “cheese.” I mean, it’s not good, but it’s there, you know?

So thanks to those people with lactose intolerance. Thanks to the vegans for learning how to bake without eggs and milk and then putting your recipes online. Thanks to all the people making food that’s safe for my kid to eat!*

*Just don’t say you’re allergic if you're not.

Going for a Scavenger Hunt at the Grocery Store

Guys. It’s been over a year of dealing with allergies and I still get confused about where to find all the weird ingredients I need. All grocery stores are set up a little different, but mostly you just head to the back of the store if you are looking for dairy. Peanut butter is in the middle. Produce is on one side or the other. But, now that I am looking for dairy free "cream cheese" and vegan "mayo" it kind of feels like a scavenger hunt every week.

Peanut butter alternatives are definitely the easiest to find. The nut butters, sun butter, coconut butter are all next to the peanut butter at my grocery store. Sometimes they are separated out by brand and you do have to check your jar twice to make sure you have the almond butter and not the peanut butter, but for the most part, it’s an easy section to find.

Egg alternatives get a little more confusing. The refrigerated egg substitutes are all next to the eggs (though I have to be honest I haven't been brave enough to try egg free scrambled "eggs"); but if you are going to make a flax egg, the flax ground seed is on our baking aisle. Vegan mayo, on the other hand, is not just in one place, it’s scattered throughout the store. There’s some that’s refrigerated in the tofu section, but then there’s some more with the other condiments. It seems odd to me that an oil based mayo would have to refrigerated, but some raw egg yolks are perfectly fine hanging out on the shelves... but I guess the safety of eating raw egg yolks is one thing I don't have to worry about anymore!

Diary alternatives are hands down complete nonsense. Take the milk alternatives- soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, and the drinkable coconut milk are mixed up beside the cow’s milk, but the cartons of milk alternatives are on the bottom shelf of the cereal aisle… and the cans of coconut milk are on the Asian aisle. There are a few vegan "dairy" things that live beside the tofu and refrigerated vegan mayo- “cream cheese”, “cheese” (shredded and sliced), and “sour cream”. They don’t have any soy in them, but sure, okay, that's where they live. 

Fancy real dairy butter OR vegan butter?! Let's play Russian (milk allergy) Roulette!

The vegan “butter” and vegan “ice cream”, on the other hand, are with the real butter and real ice cream, respectively. The problem with this is, they are haphazardly thrown together to make a wack-a-mole situation. You could be picking up the highest quality European butter or you could be getting a safe vegan alternative. The packaging designers clearly went to the same design school, the packaging looks remarkably similar- fancy writing, bright, clean colors, you just have to look closely for the happy cow picture that means it’s definitely not vegan. To further the confusion, there’s the whole margarine versus butter situation. While margarine is, by definition, a butter substitute that's made form oil, it usually has milk proteins in it for taste. Actually having milk in it, doesn’t stop the margarine tubs from putting a green leaf and bragging about being “plant based”. Most brands are jumping on the dairy free train, and have at least one version that is milk free, you just have to be extra careful which bucket you grab. You know, checking the ingredient list. And then double checking it.

I feel like what would make things easier would be if instead of calling it vegan "butter", they went for a different word. Booter. Mylk. Cheez. Isn't the whole point of getting a dairy free alternative that you don't want the real thing? 

So, if you are tasked with going to the grocery store and getting safe, allergen friendly foods, good luck! Take a map and some reading glasses. It might take a while.

Shots, shots, shots, and allergies, allergies, allergies

Vaccines have been all over the news lately in the US- with the FDA giving emergency authorization for the Pfizer COVID vaccine in kids age 5-11, then Aaron Rogers testing positive and missing a NFL game after refusing to get vaccinated, plus, lest we forget with everything else that's going on, it’s flu shot season. So, it seems like everybody is rolling up their sleeves and waiting to get jabbed. But, what does this mean for people with food allergies?

The Flu Shot

For years, I’ve seen the “are you allergic to eggs?” question whenever I’ve gotten my flu shot, but I never thought twice about it until my kid was diagnosed with an egg allergy. Well, suddenly, it has become super important to me so I did some research. Both the flu vaccine and flu nasal spray vaccines can contain a tiny amount of egg protein (although there are two versions that are completely egg free). Because many contain egg protein, in the past it has been advised that anybody with an egg allergy wait 30 minutes at the doctor’s office to be observed.

But, because the risk of a severe allergic reaction is so slim even if you have had anaphylaxis to egg in the past, they recently took away that recommendation! Wahoo! No more extra time in doctors office! Oh wait, the news didn’t reach our pediatrician’s office, though, so we still spent an extra 20 minutes hanging out in the room, looking at books, singing songs, trying to stop the crying. But honestly, I'd rather be safe than sorry and the thought of having to pull over on the way home to jab her with epinephrine on the side of the highway was enough to feel great about waiting.

Good news for people with an egg allergy- it doesn’t seem to be as big a deal with the flu vaccine anymore. The only allergy they are concerned about? If you have had an allergic reaction to a flu shot in the past. More info on the flu shot and food allergies

The COVID Shot

None of the three approved COVID vaccines in the US (Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson) have any food proteins, latex, or preservatives in them. Which makes them safe for people with food allergies, even with history of anaphylaxis in the past (woohoo! woohoo!). Although there shouldn’t be any reaction, they will still make you wait 30 minutes afterwards, instead of the normal 15 minutes. You know how they love to trap kids with food allergies at the doctor's office. More info on the COVID vaccine and food allergies

 

Well, this post wasn’t very funny. Hard to make vaccines too funny when they are so important these days. Having food allergies means having an immune system that is overreacting to ubiquitous, delicious, and benign things that other people eat with no problem. So why don’t we turn the tables and train that immune system to do the thing it’s meant to do? Get out there and fight viruses. Get vaccinated!

Halloween Wrap up

Do you want help with that? No, I'll carry my own poison, thank you.

Well, we survived our first Trick-or-Treating with food allergies experience! Despite my kid’s food allergies, she is irresistibly drawn to candies that could kill her. To be fair, with a severe milk allergy, there are a lot of candies that qualify as deadly. But she was especially interested in ones with multiple top 9 food allergens. She came home with 5 Reese's. A packet of peanut M&Ms. At least 2 Snickers. If she had actually tried to get more unsafe candies, I am not sure she could have broken her current record. 

Our plan? Just let her choose what she wanted to choose. And we would make them disappear when we got home. Definitely no grazing on candy while Trick-or-Treating. Plus, a required 5 minutes hand scrub when we got home before eating dinner. 

What did we learn?

Individual packages “not labeled for retail sale” are the wild west of food labeling

There are generally three options:

1. No ingredient information. No allergy information. 100% not helpful in this household. On one hand, every Skittle package I’ve ever seen has been top 9 allergen free. On the other hand, you never know! Large Laffy Taffy’s have egg but small Laffy Taffy’s have soy. What if this weird sour skittle have something extra mixed in? C’mon, Mars. Just put some allergy info on each package! Having the ingredient information only on the large bag in my neighbor's trash is completely unhelpful.

Great, thanks. Literally anything could be in this package.

2. No ingredient information BUT top 8 allergy information. Wonderful! This seems like a great solution.

Twizzlers have wheat? I didn't know, but now I do!

3. Full ingredient info and allergy information. This may be a little overkill but, you know what, gummy bears, I appreciate it. I do not appreciate that they may contain traces of milk (get your factory together!) but I do appreciate the warning.

Yep, this package has got everything! Full ingredient list, a may contain statement, and maybe even milk!

We need to have a lot of candy to “swap” out next year

This year she’s really too small to eat much candy and she didn't realize when her whole bag disappeared. Next year, though, if she goes for 100% Reese's again, we are going to need a whole bag of Sour Patch Kids just for her. Even when she’s old enough to know which candy not to get, there were a lot of houses that didn’t have any safe options for her. And then there’s the problem of the candy that’s probably safe but isn’t labeled with any information so unless we want to play allergen Russian roulette we just need to have some switch out.

I really missed milk chocolate candy

One plus? There was a lot of candy that we were forced to consume. You know, for the safety of the baby. Candy I wouldn’t buy (it seems mean to buy something only ¾ of the family can eat!), but candy that when I’m at the store I daydream about the days when I could buy without a second thought.

Getting to eat all my kid’s Halloween candy doesn’t make up for the stress of dealing with her food allergies all the time… but it’s nice to get a treat once a year! And man was that milk chocolate, peanut, nougat candy good.