It's Halloween Again!

My kid’s daycare truly loves Halloween. They throw a giant Halloween party each year, complete with a two story, three slide, two bouncy house blow up area, a dance floor with DJ, food, candy, and let the kids run wild. They even close the daycare early the Friday before to set up. It is quite the spectacle. This year we came home with a bag of treats for each kid. Unfortunately, not one of the treats was allergen free. 

I mean, there are no peanuts... but it did feel like they were actively trying to poison my child.

I let my toddler unpack it and then told her I was going to switch out the candy for safe candy (the “switch witch”). She seemed fine with this solution, but it’s just a bummer that food allergies have such a profound effect on Halloween. 

Anyways, it's that time of year again, so here's last year's post about Tealoween!

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Halloween is pretty low on my list of favorite holidays. The stress of deciding on a costume takes away most of the joy. What you choose says a lot about you, you know? Do you go with a tried and true classic that everyone will know? Do you pick something obscure that you love that nobody else has ever heard of? I mean it'll make you happy but then you'll have to explain it to everybody which ruins the whole deal. It just seems so silly to buy a costume to wear for a few hours and then never wear again. Plus, these days, I don’t just have to worry about what I wear, now I have two kids to outfit. *sigh* Call me when it’s November 1^st.

The only redeeming part of Halloween is the candy. And I’m not talking about the lame fruit candy. I’m talking about the good chocolate stuff. Snickers and Milky Way and Reese’s and KitKat and I’ll even take just a plain Hersey’s milk chocolate bar. The bigger, the better. Creamy, chocolatey goodness.

Now my kid’s allergies have taken away even that.

Let’s look at the "Top 10 Halloween Candies" (in the US… and I say Top10 supposedly) and see what kind of allergens they have:

10. Candy Corn: egg

So disgusting, how did they make the top 10?

9. Tootsie Pops: milk and soy

If I’m going to have anaphylaxis from milk, a tootsie pop is definitely not worth it

8. Snickers: peanut, milk, egg, soy

So many allergens. So delicious.

7. Hersey kisses: milk and soy

The best thing about Hershey Kisses? A serving size is NINE. That’s the serving size I want of all chocolate candy.

6. Sour Patch Kids: NONE!

My kids LOVE these things. I looked everywhere at the grocery store for Halloween packs to give out and couldn’t find them.

5. Hot Tamales: NONE!

No allergens! But, what’s the point? I can’t think of a worse candy experience than getting blasted by cinnamon. At least sour things make your face turn inside out. Hot tamales just sear off some taste buds.

4. Starburst: NONE!

The name “starburst” definitely sets up your expectations for some delicious explosion of flavor. Mostly they are chewy. But I guess you can only do so much without the top 9 allergens.

3. M&Ms: milk and soy (may contain peanuts)

Though you know the best kind of M&Ms definitely contain peanuts.

2. Skittles: NONE!

The fact that a fruit candy beat all of these chocolate candies is a farce. There are so many other things I’d rather taste than the rainbow.

1. Reese’s Cups: peanut, milk, soy  

You knew it was coming. It’s 100% the best and 100% never going to happen in this household.

So, what’s the pattern? All of the delicious chocolate candies have at least milk in them, if not soy and eggs and nuts and peanuts and even wheat. All the crappy fruit candies are ok allergy wise but just bluck you know? (Here's a rundown of more candies, including some completely allergen friendly kinds like sunbutter cups!)

Because of the problems with Halloween for people with food allergies, Kids With Food Allergies is trying to spread the word about #tealoween. They are encouraging people to have treats that aren’t candy (WHAT?! Treats that you can’t eat?!??! That is NONSENSE) and then to paint a pumpkin teal to let other families know it’s a safe house with some treat alternatives. 

Well, we got ours all painted last week and my son and I picked out the only bag of Halloween candy that didn’t have allergens in it (Skittles) from the store, as well as some non food treats (glow bracelets!). Other ideas for non anaphylaxis inducing treats?

• stickers
• bouncy balls
• tiny cars
• crayons
• stamps
• yo-yos
• pencil erasers
• bubbles

So, if you want to attract some poor folks with food allergies in your neighborhood, get some teal paint and buy some non edible treats… worst case scenario nobody wants to come to your house because you only have the crappy candy and bouncy balls. That's ok, it'll save until next year!

New Peanut Allergy Blood Test

Guys. There’s a new blood test for an allergy to peanuts that is way better at actually predicting severe peanut allergies that skin or IgE blood tests (remember, those have around a 50% (!!!!) false positive rate). But before we get into how the new blood test works, we gotta remember how food allergies and the current blood test works.

First off, food allergies are immune system mediated, unlike food intolerances or sensitivities (which deal with your GI system). For food allergies, your immune system recognizes the food with antibodies (specifically immunogloblin E, or "IgE") that trigger a reaction which can include runny nose, hives, difficulty breathing, nausea, continuous vomiting, lightheadedness… You know, your normal anaphylaxis stuff. Antibodies are super important for our immune system to recognize and fight off viruses and bacteria and we have all kinds that are constantly floating around in our body. But, they are not useful when they cause our body to react to foods that should be perfectly safe for us to eat.

Allergen binds to IgE, blah blah blah science/magic blah blah --> anaphylaxis

You're welcome, I was a biology major.

The normal IgE blood tests measure how much allergen-specific IgE antibodies are in a person’s blood. Does it give us any information about the predicting the severity of a reaction? Nope. Is it a great test to use on its own? Definitely not. That’s why an oral food challenge is still the gold standard for food allergy testing.

So, what’s different about this new test? Well, it turns out that there are a lot of different sites on a peanut protein where antibodies can bind. Out of the 64 possible binding sites, one study found that a specific site- Ara H 2 is a much better predictor than general peanut IgE. Allergenis, a company who is offering this new "epitope mapping test" that looks at the different binding sites on the peanut protein has even divided positive results into 3 different levels which predict how much peanut you can eat before having a reaction.

To me, this is huge. My kid has only had a very small amount of peanut butter one time and then had a very mild reaction. But, she’s needed epinephrine for milk and egg. So do we need to be more worried about milk and egg because that's what she's had a big reaction to? Or should we be more worried about peanuts because that's what everybody thinks of when they think of severe food allergies? Do we need to avoid anything that’s been processed next to peanuts? What about eating next to a sticky fingered friend chowing down on a peanut butter sandwich?

We have been totally, strictly avoiding peanuts for over 2 years now. It’s made it hard to find tree nuts that she should be safe to eat because tree nuts are often processed right next to peanuts. It’s made me nervous pretty much whenever we are in public, surrounded by ubiquitous peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, packs of nabs, and Reeses. 

So, if it seems likely she could handle 1/3 of a peanut and we can be 25% less crazy about food allergies? What a relief! And if it turns out she’s extremely allergic (ugh, please, no) at least we will know we are validated in being insane people around peanuts.

PS: WHY ARE PEANUTS EVERYWHERE? I’M LOOKING AT YOU, HALLOWEEN.

The Benefits Of Actually Talking to a Human Being

After I complained about how hard it was preparing meals without garlic because all of the jarred and premade pasta sauces, salad dressings, salsas, spice mixes contain garlic or garlic powder, our dietician suggested trying Fody. It is a brand that is for people trying a low FODMAP diet that can help with IBS. It is not at all related to food allergies, but people eating low FODMAP foods happen to avoid garlic so it had the potential to be helpful for preparing food for my kid. I searched the Fody website and found out that they have some products in the Whole Foods right by our house.

Off I went, with high hopes of finding a garlic free pasta sauce. I arrived at the pasta sauce aisle and quickly scanned the shelves. I couldn’t find anything by Fody. So I pulled out my phone and looked for a picture of the Fody label on the website. It’s a pretty easily spotable purply-blue. Now could I have asked for help at this point? Sure. But here’s a list of things I’d rather do than ask for help at the store:

• Continue to waste time looking by myself.
• Look online and see if there are any clues about another aisle it might be on.
• Leave the store without getting what I came for.
• Poke myself in the eyeball. (Not hard. I'm not a crazy person. I just really don't want to have to ask for help, you know?)

I mean, I’m definitely an introvert so why deal with other people when I don’t have to? Plus, being a millennial, we’ve almost completely lost the ability to talk to people in person or on the phone. You have to track somebody down. You have to wait. I just want to find my stuff and go!

Anyways, I must have looked like I needed help because not 1 but 2 helpful Whole Foods clerks asked if I needed help finding something. Despite my best efforts, I did actually need help, so I told them I was looking for Fody pasta sauce. I knew they had some Fody products at the store, but I wasn’t sure which ones- they make ketchup, pasta sauce, BBQ sauce, salsa.. all things which could potentially leave me with less work preparing meals. They had only ever seen the ketchup at that store, but asked further what exactly dietary restrictions I was dealing with. Once they knew I just needed to eliminate garlic, they suggested a different brand of pasta sauce and salsa.

She loves to tell a joke, but won't take it when it's about her... she's a sensitive marinara.

I mean. I never would have known these existed had I not talked to them. I had completely given up hope that pasta sauce could be premade without garlic! Is it good? Who cares! I've got it in my pantry for whenever I need an easy, safe meal.

Free Snacking: Spudsy

Free snacking is baaaaaack baby! This time with a savory option without garlic powder, brought to you by my neighbor who found them at Whole Foods. So many of the dairy free “cheesy” flavored things have garlic that I’d given up on checking each package. We still can’t eat the ranch flavored Spudsy things, but at least we can eat their cheddar puffs!

Spudsy’s goal is not just allergy related- they original got into business to help with food waste. They take sweet potatoes that are perfectly fine to eat, but too ugly to sell, and make them into “fries” or “puffs”.  Unfortunately my store only had ranch fries so we just tried the puffs.

Cheeto puffs with no allergens? Why, yes, thank you neighbor!

Vegan Cheesy Cheddar Sweet Potato Puffs

Okay so the household was split on these guys.

Adults who haven’t eaten a real Cheeto in many months: LOVED them. Could eat the whole bag in one sitting. It didn’t have the same bright orange… fake cheese flavor that gets caked onto your fingers when you eat Cheetos or nacho cheese Doritos; but it did have a vaguely cheesy taste and the puff texture was great.

Kid who has never eaten real cheese: liked them.

Kid who eats real cheese on the regular: did not like them one bit. Tried to like them. I mean really, truly tried. Not like when he "tries" a bite of a vegetable that he’s already in the process of spitting out before it touches his mouth. He tried them on 3 separate occasions. It came in a crinkly package! It’s junk food! He really wanted to like them. He did not.

Cinnamon Churro Sweet Potato Puffs

Household wasn’t as split on these- adults liked them, kids loved them. I think they do have a slightly strange aftertaste, but I can’t tell what it is from the ingredient list. Maybe pea protein isolate? I’m really not sure why that is even included- the nutrition for both puffs is very similar the Cheeto puffs (similar calories, similar protein, though the cinnamon sugar sweet puffs do have more added sugar). Whatever it is, it’s just a little off putting and I didn’t notice it on the cheesy puffs. 

I also think that churro is maybe not the best qualifier. Sure, churros have a similar delicious cinnamon flavor, but what makes a churro a churro is the crispy fried ridges on the outside with a doughy delicious center. Puffs, on the other hand, aren’t as crispy on the outside and aren’t a soft on the inside. With all that said, they weren’t bad! I just liked the cheddar ones more.

 

So if you haven't had a real cheese in a while, try Spudsy and save a sweet potato.

Epinephrine: Soon with 100% Less Needles?

Over the summer, at one of my kid’s visits, our allergist was excitedly telling us about a new development in epinephrine- a film that dissolves in your mouth. She was so excited to tell us all about it, but I didn’t really get the appeal. Epinephrine is epinephrine, right? However you take it, it’s never something that you want to have to take. It means all of your planning on safety didn’t pan out. Something was accidentally ingested and now you are in a life threatening situation. So, does it really matter what way you take the medicine? Not to mention, continuous vomiting often accompanies my kid’s anaphylaxis… so the thought of trying to put a sublingual dissolvable film into a constant spew of vomit sounds unpleasant and ineffective.

Do you think the epinephrine will kill 99% of bad breath germs, too?

But the more I thought about it (and read about it!), I started to realize the appeal. (Also, it’s not just a dissolvable film, there are also two different nose sprays.) First of all, delivering epinephrine without a needle is great- especially when some people are terrified of needles. When it’s so important that epinephrine is given in a timely fashion, the last thing you want is someone hesitant to use epinephrine because they don’t want to stick themselves. Or a caregiver cautious to deliver the medication just because it’s a needle. Or they don’t know how because they’ve never practiced with that type of injector.

Not to mention autoinjectors are bulky. And my two year old is supposed to have 2 (TWO) on her at all times. If a nose spray or 2 thin sheets of film easily fit in a pocket, it’s got to be much better than two epipens. I mean I suppose it’s called an epipen because it’s supposed to be pen shaped. But, really, it’s more like a pack of 5 pens. It won’t fit in my pocket and it definitely won’t fit in anything two year old sized.

There’s also a potential for the medication to be more stable, and less restrictions of temperature and possibility a longer time to expiration could make a big different when it’s a medication you have to carry with you at all times.

So bring on the innovation! I mean, sure, ideally, the innovation would happen in the prevention of food allergies, or you know, actual treatment to stop allergies, not just stopping people from dying once they have an allergic reaction. But, I guess we will take what we can get.