Be Prepared: Food Provisions

photo courtesy of Victor Habbick at http://freedigitalphoto.net

So you’ve lost power.  You’ve decided whether you’re jumping ship or staying put.  Either way, you have to feed your food allergic kiddo!

Each of us has our own food specifics that we deal with, so I can’t make blanket recommendations like “stock up on canned soup” or “always keep sandwich fixings around”.  You know best what your family can eat, so take my advice and tweak it to suit your needs.

To start with, I recommend meal planning.

Say what?

Yes.  If you start meal planning now, aside from all the economic and sanity saving benefits you’ll reap at the present, you’ll also have a very good idea of what your family consumes, in what quantities, for how long.  That will be invaluable information for deciding how much “extra” you should have in your pantry.

I meal plan.  Our FPIES diagnosis this summer has seriously thrown me off my game, but I’m getting back in the swing of things.  I hope to share with you how I do it later on (once I’m better at it again) but for now, just start with a week at a time.  Jot down what you’ll eat at each  meal for a week.  After the meal, make any notes you need to remember.  Like ‘can use half as much meat if I add more quinoa’ or ‘was not a huge hit – had a ton of leftovers’.  This will help you make better meal plans as you go along.

photo courtesy of Ambro at http://freedigitalphoto.net

Once you know what you will need to sustain your food allergy kiddo for 2-3 weeks (I’m picking that time frame in the hopes that anything any of us go through only lasts that long – feel free to extend this if you like!) start buying a little extra every time you shop.

If you’re in my boat and only able to use certain items that you can only get through Amazon, just buy one extra box every time you make a purchase.  If you can get things through your local health food store, pick up an extra pound of millet/amaranth/alternative flour every time you buy.

The trick to that is to continue buying on your normal schedule!  In short order, you’ll have enough extra that you won’t have to worry that your shipment or grocery shopping trip has to be delayed because the roads are too dangerous.

If there are any foods your kiddo can eat that do NOT require preparation or cooking, emphasize those to start with.  For one, it will make it easier to ensure your kiddo can keep eating regardless of the circumstances you are in, and for another reason, those foods tend to be ‘snack’ foods – and that means comfort food!  In a power outage and heavy winter storm, stress might be a factor in your house. Comfort foods will help make things feel more normal to your kids.

If you’re able to, try to pre-make several meals worth of food for your allergic kiddo that can be dehydrated, frozen, or canned so that the first few days of acclimation in your new digs or in a frozen house will be a little less stressful.  It’s far easier to dump a can of ‘safe’ food into a pan and heat it up than to clean, prep, and cook from scratch an entire meal while exhausted from packing, evacuating, driving and being in a new place, or trying to keep the family warm when the power goes out!

For those FAM (Food Allergy Mama)’s that have kiddos still on formula or breastmilk, don’t forget about that, either!  If you can, try to buy an extra can of formula a couple times a month so you’ll have a decent stockpile of it in case.  When emergencies hit, staples tend to fly off the shelves; it would be terrible to have to drive all over town in inclement weather trying to find sustenance for your baby!

Keep in mind what fuel/cooking options you will have when deciding what meals to plan for your food allergic kiddo in a power outage.  Some things will take quite a bit of cooking time; those are not well-suited to this scenario!  Think of the foods you make your kiddo that cook up quickly and easily, and require little clean-up.  Those are your go-to foods for an emergency stockpile.

photo courtesy of winnond at http://freedigitalphoto.net

So far I’ve only discussed losing power, as that is the most common problem to face in a winter storm.  But keep in mind that you could lose water, too.  So try to buy a few extra cases of water when you can, just in case.  The general rule of thumb is to have AT LEAST 1 gallon of water per person, per day.  So plan accordingly.

I mentioned it in Part I, but please don’t forget your diapering needs.  Grab an extra pack or two when you have coupons or find a good deal on Amazon.  Don’t give up on the idea of cloth diapering, if that is what you currently do.  I posted a link to a fantastic plunger that can at least keep you in diapers through a crisis in Part I.  Of course, if you’re planning to keep cloth diapering, you’ll want to store extra water for washing diapers.

Next I’ll discuss Food Preparation.  Stay tuned for Part III!
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See the whole series:
Part I – Be Prepared: Power Outage
Part III – Be Prepared: Food Preparation
Part IV – Be Prepared: The First Aid Kit
Part V – Be Prepared: The Car Kit

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Do you have any tips on how to provision the specific foods your food allergic kiddo needs in case of an emergency?

This post has been shared with Allergy-Free Wednesdays, and Real Food Wednesdays.