*WE* Have FPIES Eyes!

 
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FPIES EyesIn honor of FAAW, I thought it a good idea to bring back one of my most popular posts: FPIES Eyes.

After that post ran, Darrel came up with the image up above. As part of raising awareness (and, let’s be honest, funds for our family), we created a Zazzle shop to sell “I Have FPIES Eyes” t-shirts! (And I’m particularly fond of the grocery sacks we made, and you HAVE to see the baby onesie – too cute!)

In honor of FAAW and my work with the FPIES Foundation, a portion of the proceeds from all purchases made at my Zazzle and Etsy shops through May 25th will go to support the FPIES Foundation!

So now, without further ado, the post that started it all: FPIES Eyes! (Orginally posted on February 26, 2013)

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Over the weekend, one of the other FPIES Mama’s on the boards mentioned taking her children to the circus.  She had received special permission to bring food for her FPIES kiddo, but her kids really really really wanted cotton candy!

Fortunately, she remembered to check the ingredients first, which was very good.  Turns out this particular cotton candy had SOY in it.

SOY.  In COTTON CANDY.  

Why the heck do you need soy in what is basically fluffy sugar?

She was properly horrified, and those of us who read her comment were in complete agreement: why do they have to put such junk in our foods?

I made a return comment about Burger King French Fries, basically saying that they are “safe” for Mr. Charm to eat (dairy, soy, fructose free) but that, after reading the ingredients with “FPIES Eyes”, I was horrified to feed them to my children.

The other Mama’s “got it” right away, but I realized…the world at large may not understand what I mean when I say “FPIES Eyes”.  So, I thought I would explain it.

Prior to becoming an FPIES Mama, the most I ever heard anyone say about “reading food labels” was counting calories, carbs, protein or sodium.  So, using my example of Burger King French Fries, let’s look at the label.  From Burger King’s own website:

Medium French Fry

Calories                    410
Protein                      4g
Carbohydrates       58g
Sugar                        0g
Fat                             18g
Saturated Fat         3g
Trans Fat                0g
Cholesterol             0mg
Sodium                   570mg

Not really great, right?  But I’ve read worse labels in my life.  It’s about what you’d expect of a fast food french fry, right?

So here comes Mr. Charm into my life, with his dairy/soy intolerance and egg allergy.  Suddenly, I had to learn to read a little more closely.

No longer is the chart on the wall of the Burger King enough; now, before I even leave my house, I have to actually download the Burger King pdf for “nutrition”.

This is actually a fairly well-done nutrition guide; over on the right hand side, you’ll see a nifty little column titled “Allergens”.   In that column, you’ll see lovely letters; for example, MWES.  Translated, that means that particular food has Milk, Wheat, Egg, and Soy in it.

Pretty easy, right?  Just scroll through the menu until you can find things that DON’T have your particular allergen, and you’re good to go, right?

Not so fast, Kemosabe.  If you look at the listing for the Hamburger, you’ll see that is says WS Allergens are present.  That’s Wheat and Soy.  So…is the wheat and soy in the burger, or the bun?  Or both?  Now I have to email the company to ask.  

In addition, there’s the cross-contamination issue.  Burger King offers Onion Rings and Mozzarella Sticks, both of which are deep-fried.  According to Burger King, they both contain Milk and Wheat, and the Mozzarella Sticks also have Egg and Soy.  Are they deep-fried in the same fryer as the French Fries?  Because if they are, well, the fries are not safe for Mr. Charm any more.  This question is best left to the individual restaurant, generally, because each location can tell you if they have a dedicated fryer for their fries or not.

Are you mentally exhausted yet?  Because I have had to do this for every fast food or regular restaurant experience we’ve had for the last two and a half years.  ALL meals outside of the house were planned with this much foresight.  

I had it pretty well under control; after two years of research, I had memorized all the restaurants and the individual items Mr. Charm could eat at those locations.  Eating out wasn’t a challenge any more.

Then came Mr. Happy and FPIES.  Now, looking at food through “FPIES Eyes”, I have found eating out to be a HUGE challenge again.

Let’s return to that pdf of Burger King nutrition, shall we?

Thanks to the way FPIES works in Mr. Happy’s little body, I have to know every single ingredient in the food he eats.  (Hell, sometimes I have to know every single ingredient his food ate when it was alive!)  So let’s scroll down further in that pdf until you see the “ingredients” list.

Straight from their pdf, here is what is in Burger King’s French Fries:

“FRENCH FRIES (Fried): Potatoes, Soybean Oil or Canola and Palm Oil, Modified Potato Starch, Rice Flour, Potato Dextrin, Salt, Leavening (Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Dextrose, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate added to preserve natural color”

*

*

*

Say what???

ALL of that is in French Fries??

Wait, you may ask yourself, aren’t french fries just potatos fried with a little salt thrown on them?

Why yes, as a matter of fact, you are correct!  Unless you’re a fast food joint.  Then French Fries are “Potatoes, Soybean Oil or Canola and Palm Oil, Modified Potato Starch, Rice Flour, Potato Dextrin, Salt, Leavening (Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Dextrose, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate added to preserve natural color.”

OK, so let’s look at this list with “FPIES Eyes”.  If you haven’t already just turned away in horror, stay with me while I break this down.  There’s a great book called “A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives” by Ruth Winter.  I broke out my copy and used it to decipher the ingredients in Burger King French Fries:

  • Potatos – straight forward.  If potatos are a safe food for your kiddo, you’re good to go.
  • Soybean Oil OR Canola and Palm Oil – Wait a sec – didn’t their allergen list say NONE for allergens?  How is that possible if they ‘may’ use soybean oil in their fries?  Soy is a top 8 allergen!  Hmm…though, other than that little misleading tidbit, this is straight-forward.  If your kiddo is safe with soybean, canola or palm oils, you’re good to go.
  • Modified Potato Starch – to quote from the book: “Ordinary starch that has been altered chemically to modify such properties as thickening or jelling.  Babies have difficulty digesting starch in its original form.  Modified starch is used in baby food on the theory that it is easier to digest.  Questions about safety have arisen because babies do not have the resistance of adults to chemicals.  Among chemicals used to modify starch are propylene oxide, succinic anhydride, 1-ocetnyl succinic anhydride, aluminum sulfate, and sodium hydroxide.  On the FDA top priority list for reevaluation since 1980.  Nothing new reported by the FDA since.”  OK, OK, wait…do we want to flip through the book and look up all the chemicals used to jack with our potato starch, or do we want to call this a big fat “NO”, and move on?  Well, depends on how restrictive your child’s diet is.  You may have the luxury of being able to say “Next!” but you may be so desperate for a food your baby can eat that you’re willing to feed them something that has been modified by something that likely causes an increased risk of cancer (propylene oxide).  Ahem.  Moving on…
  • Rice Flour – DING DING DING!  We have a major FPIES no-no here!  Rice is one of the top FPIES trigger foods; aside from that, why on EARTH do you need to add RICE to a french fry??
  • Potato Dextrin – In the book, there is no listing under “potato dextrin”, however, there is a listing for “Dextrin”: “British Gum. Starch Gum. White or yellow powder produced from starch and used as a foam stabilizer for beer, a diluting additive for dry extracts and pills, in polishing cereals, for preparing emulsions, and in matches, fireworks, and explosives.  May cause an allergic reaction.”  Um…sounds delicious, doesn’t it!
  • Salt – This is sort of straight-forward.  Salt is salt, right?  WRONG.  If you have a “corn-sensitive” FPIES kiddo, this might be a problem, because ordinary iodized table salt contains dextrose, which is often corn-derived.  So, maybe.
  • Leavening (Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate,  Sodium Bicarbonate) – Ms. Winter has no listing for Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate, but she does have a listing for Disodium Pyrophosphate: “An emulsifier and texturizer used to decrease the loss of fluid from a compound.”  Sodium Bicarbonate, of course, is Baking Soda.  So, the first is kind of icky sounding, though generally regarded as safe, and the second is innocuous.  However, I repeat the question: why is this necessary in a french fry??
  • Dextrose – CORN SYRUP.  No problems with corn?  You’re good to go.  Problems with corn?  NO.
  • Xanthan Gum – A FAM (Food Allergy Mama) or FPIES Mama is well versed in xanthan gum: it’s one of the two ways you can make baked goods that seem like normal, gluten-filled baked goods!  However, xanthan gum, while generally regarded as safe, is derived from corn.  So, again, corn okay? No problem.  Corn bad?  NO.
  • Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate – “A white mass or free-flowing powder used as a buffer.  It is a slow-acting acid constituent of a leavening mixture for self-rising and prepared cakes, doughnuts, waffles, muffins, cupcakes, and other types of flours and mixes.  Also used in canned tuna fish.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed that SAP be added to hot dogs and other sausages to accelerate the development of a rose-red color, thus cutting production time by some 25 to 40 percent.  It is related to phosphoric acid, which is sometimes used as a gastric acidifier.  Generally Regarded As Safe.”  Um, yeah.  Generally regarded as safe.  And it sounds DELICIOUS, too!!!

THAT, my friends, is what you learn about Burger King French Fries when you’re looking at food through “FPIES Eyes”.  

For comparison, follow this link for MY recipe and ingredient list for French Fries!

(And people wonder why I say that even after (God willing) Mr. Happy outgrows FPIES, I’m STILL going to make nearly all of our food from scratch at home.  Puh-lease!)

Anyway, THAT is what “FPIES Eyes” are.  They are the eyes that look at the smallest, most inconsequential ingredient in a food with a critical, evaluating appraisal.  They are the eyes that investigate the packaging of the food that our kiddos eat, wondering if it could have leeched something into the food.

And don’t EVEN get me started on the art supplies…non-toxic is just code for “poison my FPIES baby”!  (Non-toxic means corn and soy derived, generally, which are high up on the list of FPIES triggers.)

Fellow FPIES/FA Mamas, did I explain this well for our non-FPIES/FA friends?  Let me know if I left anything out!

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In honor of FAAW, would you please share this post everywhere you possibly can? Looking at the world through FPIES Eyes is an entirely new way to look at the world, and this will really help others see what FPIES Families go through every day. There’s no better way to build awareness than letting others see through our eyes!!

Thank you!

FAAW & The FPIES Foundation

 
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FAAW Banner Photo

Yesterday began this years FAAW (Food Allergy Awareness Week). Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) presents this week to spread the word about food allergies, to increase awareness and spearhead better medical treatment and general understanding about food allergies.

The FPIES Foundation has made their theme for this year’s FAAW “Awareness is Action”.

I am on the Volunteer Board for the FPIES Foundation, and I wrote a blog post for them outlining why Awareness is so important. Please go read it so you can see why I’m asking for your help in spreading the word.

Then I ask that you watch this video:

Then please visit the FPIES Foundation’s FAAW page and follow the links to their twitter and Facebook accounts. Follow along as we share the story of our tough, brave children who fight this lonely disease!

I know many of my readers are fellow FPIES families, but many of you are not. Those of you who read for reasons other than FPIES (I love you for that, by the way!) I’m asking for a favor: take just a few moments of your time this week to do some FAAW/FPIES Foundation social media sharing!

Let the world know that YOU know about food allergies, and that THEY should know, too!

The more people who are aware, the easier Food Allergy Families lives will be. There will be less convincing, less arguing, less fear in our interactions. There will be motivation to donate money to research for all food allergies. There will be a growing normality to the idea of being hurt by food.

Won't you please spread the word?

Won’t you please spread the word?

My little huggy bears, AKA Jed and Zac, would really appreciate your support! THANK YOU!!!

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And if you feel like being generous, would you please consider donating to the FPIES Foundation? You can also buy FPIES Awareness gear from them – funding their work AND spreading awareness! Double whammy!!

I’d also encourage you to read what a dear friend of mine wrote about FAAW on her blog: FPIES & Mudpies. She, her family and her story are beautiful!

A Servant’s Heart

 
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My brain is just filled with thoughts of Mother’s Day and Motherhood.  I sat down to write a post about it and it was just…going no where. Rather, it was going everywhere! Rambles and oh-so-earnest “lessons” and it just…sucked.

Mama’s tired, y’all.

And that’s as good a starting point as any, because don’t we ALL say we’re tired all the time? That motherhood wipes us out of energy? That having kids means we don’t ever get any sleep?

Yeah, we whine, y’all. We moan and complain. We lament the crappy Mother’s Day gifts we get (or don’t get, as the case may be) and the lack of general appreciation we experience all year long.

I’m tired of it. I’m tired of the Mama Whining.

Last year I wrote an explanation of why I selected “Cradle Rocking Mama” as my blog name. To sum it up very briefly, it came about because of William Ross Wallace’s poem:

The hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

That’s pretty righteous, right there.

We so easily forget that being Mama’s means we are

Mothersday

The reason we so easily forget this is because often our attitudes about Motherhood are all wrong.

It’s not really our fault; we live in a society and culture that sneakily undermines Motherhood at every pass and has become a self-focused mess of “what’s in it for me”? It’s hard to combat cultural norms when fighting every day, all day, to do what we have to do to take care of ourselves, our husbands, our children, our work, our extended families, and our myriad other obligations (see: the never-ending pile of laundry)!

But, Mama’s, I’m here to say: we have GOT to rally. We have GOT to adjust this attitude that has pervaded not only our society, but ourselves. We can’t let our laundry defeat us this way.

We have got to get over the “Martyr Complex” and actually BE Martyr’s.

Merriam-Webster defines martyr as:

1: a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion
2: a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle
3: victim; especially   : a great or constant sufferer <a martyr to asthma all his life  — A. J. Cronin>

Well, none of us wants to die, so let’s exclude definition #1. And definition #3 is exactly what I’m arguing against! So let’s examine definition #2.

 2: a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle

What makes a mother all of these things?
Mothersday

What makes a mother “the hand that rules the world”?

Because we are the teachers, leaders, and guides of our children. WE are the ones who instruct our children how to be good people. How to be holy. How to be kind. How to be useful, productive, purposeful, instrumental in change.

Through our example, we create the next generation of servants to mankind.

What kind of an example are we setting if we are begrudging servants of our own home?

How can we teach our children to affect positive change in the world if our attitude towards affecting change in our own homes is one of “woe is me” and “no one appreciates ME”?

We can’t, Mama’s. We just can’t.

True leadership – good leadership – is where you inspire your followers, give them autonomy and empowerment, give them guidance and do not rule with an iron thumb.

In short, good leaders are leaders of the Biblical sort: they lead with a servant heart.

A Servant’s Heart.

A servant’s heart is guided by Agape Love. A love that is not self-seeking; a love that seeks only the well-being of others – even if they loathe the very ground you walk upon.

Which, let’s face it, is really hard to do.

(Which is why we all whine so much.)

Mama’s, I’m just as guilty of this as any other Mama out there! And we all need to stop.

We need to take back our power. We need to reclaim our authority. We need to stop worrying about “what’s in it for me” and lamenting the lack of “_____ for myself”.

Whether you chose to become a mother or were surprised into motherhood, we are all Mother’s, and we have a responsibility to our children – and to the world at large – to be the best Mothers’ we can be.

That’s where definition #2 comes in: a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle.

There are ways to sacrifice your life without actually dying. Even better, whether we whine about it or not, all Mama’s sacrifice their lives anyway! It’s about giving up things that matter to you (the sacrifice) for the sake of your children (the principle).

  • Do any of us really relish the idea of doing 1-2 loads of laundry every day for 18 years?
  • Do any of us really love going to kids movies in the theater instead of the newest chick flick (or, for me, the latest action movie)?
  • Do any of us really love sharing our bed with cover-hogging children because they had a nightmare?
  • Do any of us really enjoy having to plan meals in order to fit into a budget and feed those growing bodies instead of just ordering out or going hungry because we’re tired?
  • Do any of us really love smelling like spit-up and poop?
  • Do any of us think wiping baby butts and/or cleaning up potty training accidents is fun?
  • Do any of us really like giving up spa days or date nights because of finances or lack of childcare?

Yeah, I think not. But we already do those things, don’t we?  So let’s fix our attitude to go along with our actions.

We’re Mama’s. We sacrifice.

Let’s do it willingly and cheerfully!

Let’s rock those cradles and rule the world by being cheerful, selfless, loving and kind. Let’s show our children the benefit to having a Servant’s Heart. Let’s teach our children that it’s not “all about me” – or “all about them”.

Because this Motherhood gig? It is hard. It is relentless. It is overwhelming at times. It is often unappreciated. And that, dear Mama’s? Isn’t going to change.

But we can ENJOY being Mama’s a whole lot more if we have the right attitude about it.

I’m tired of fighting to not get sucked into the “whine-fest” of so many blogs, Facebook posts, and in-person rants.

I chose to become a mother. I chose to have children. But even if I hadn’t, I HAVE children and I AM a mother. And I would love them just as much as I do had they been a surprise.

So I’m shouting it from the rooftops – and I hope you’ll join me:

I LOVE MY KIDS!
I LOVE BEING A MOM!
I DON’T CARE IF I DON’T GET TO READ A BOOK COVER TO COVER IN ONE SITTING FOR ANOTHER DECADE!
I DON’T CARE IF I’LL HAVE COMPANY WHILE I PEE FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS!

BECAUSE I HAVE A BEAUTIFUL LIFE THAT I AM WILLING AND HAPPY TO SACRIFICE SOME THINGS TO HONOR.

(OK, shouting over. You can sit down now.)

Besides, it’s not like we don’t get anything out of all this sacrifice.

It would not have been my first choice to put Jed into speech therapy. No one likes to think their child needs that sort of help, for starters, and it’s an awful lot of effort to get us into town twice a week for his sessions.

But I did it for him. FOR HIM. So he wouldn’t struggle. So he could express the humorous and beautiful thoughts in his head with ease.

So, it was a sacrifice.

But do you know what I got for Mother’s Day this morning?

Jed, running up to me, a huge smile on his face, wrapping me in a full-body-knockdown hug, shouting “Happy Mom Day!”

And that was the best gift I could have ever gotten.

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So this Mother’s Day, I’d like to start something new. Leave a comment here, or on Facebook, telling us what you love best about being a Mama. Tell us how you keep a Servant’s Heart when you’re raising your children. Tell us about a sacrifice that was worth it – what it did to help your child, and what YOU got out of it.

Let’s turn this cultural attitude of “pissing and moaning” on its’ ear and tell the world what we LOVE about being MOM’s!

Share this post with anyone you can think of to let them know: it’s okay to sacrifice willingly. It’s okay to be a cheerful Mom. It’s okay to love being a Mom more than you love peeing in private! Let them know that as Mom’s, they RULE THE WORLD!!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!

Blueberry Muffins – Vegan, GF, Fructose-Friendly (with Glaze!)

 
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IMG_7145 - Copy

I am DYING to eat one of these!

OK, so when you take out dairy, and eggs, and butter, and wheat, and sugar, well, you start to wonder if you can ever have a baked good again!

After many trials (and lots of errors), I finally tweaked my old, regular blueberry recipe to satisfy Darrel and Jed’s taste buds AND our overwhelming dietary restrictions.

Then I went and outdid myself and created FROM SCRATCH a lemon glaze – and it has no confectioner’s sugar, regular sugar, or fructose AT ALL!!

(Not only that, but do you see that picture up there? Is that not divine? I took that all by myself with my iPhone! See? I’m improving in my food photos! Now ignore how icky the rest of the photos are going to look, please!)

OK, so here’s what you do:

Mix together your flours, baking powder, and salt until well blended.

Then toss in your liquids: maple syrup, almond milk, olive oil, lemon juice, and vanilla.

Stir it together – but not too much!  Then fold in the blueberries. You can use frozen; I had fresh, so that’s what I used this time. Word of caution with frozen blueberries: in my experience, frozen blueberries are more prone to coloring your entire batter purple-ish if you stir them too much.  So, don’t stir them too much!

I didn’t take pictures of those steps because, well, it’s pretty self-explanatory!

What I DID photograph was my kitchen helper! After all, do you know why  we made muffins? Because Jed ran around screaming for “ma-hins!” all morning and I finally caved. So the stinker was sure going to help me out in return for all the mind-blowing whining I endured all morning!

He put the paper muffin wrappers in the muffin tin for me…

Making sure they're "all in"...

Making sure they’re “all in”…

He poured measuring cups full of ingredients into the bowls for me…

And he stirred for me…because if you STIR, then you get to LICK the SPOON! Of course!!

Yum!

Yum!

Then it was just a matter of pouring out the batter, popping the pan in the oven, and waiting!

Poured out batter...

Poured out batter…

And here they are, fresh from the oven!

Gorgeous!

Gorgeous!

Then let them cool, dump ’em out, and EAT!

OK, a couple of things:

  • I finally found the easiest way to pour batter into muffin wrappers without making a huge mess is to use a soup ladle. Duh, I know, but it took me until recently to figure it out and maybe there’s someone else out there that hasn’t caught on to that trick!
  • With gluten-free baking, a mix of flours is usually best. If you only have one safe flour, by all means use only that flour! I’ve made these with just one flour and they were fine. But they’re better if you can use two or more flours blended.
  • As for flours, one time I made these I experimented with dextrose as my sweetener (to make them fructose free). Darrel commented that they tasted “gritty”. So last time I used maple syrup as my sweetener. Darrel STILL commented that they tasted “gritty”. So I figured out that it is the RICE FLOUR that makes them taste gritty. I’ve heard that before about rice flour, but no one in my house ever complains of that texture issue when I use rice flour in pancakes so I figured it wasn’t an issue. Apparently, it makes a difference in muffins. This is fine by me, as rice is a major FPIES trigger! So, don’t use white rice flour as one of your flours in this recipe.
  • The original recipe I started with called for 1 cup of blueberries. That wasn’t enough for us, but 2 cups is a tad too much. I use 1.5 cups and it’s perfect!
  • This recipe is easily adaptable for FPIES Mama’s! As long as you keep your flour, sweetener of choice, a little fat and liquid, you can make these muffins. Change out or omit the fruit, and make them however you need to for your little one!

The muffins finally cooled enough for Jed to eat them, and he could hardly stand his little self! He held his muffin close to his body like someone was going to steal it from him! Hilarious!!

MINE! ALL MINE!!

MINE! ALL MINE!!

Well, that would have been good enough, to be honest, except…I got to thinking…wouldn’t it be nice to “dress it up” a bit? And since I can’t taste these, I really don’t know if they’re moist enough for my particular taste preferences. I hate dry muffins!

So a glaze would be lovely here!

Only problem: every glaze recipe I know calls for confectioners sugar in some way! Not in this household!!

So I started experimenting with coconut. First I used some coconut oil. I melted it, mixed in lemon juice and maple syrup, and got…a brown looking, runny liquid. Ick. I tried refrigerating it to see if it would look better as the oil solidified.

It didn’t. It just separated; syrup and lemon juice on the bottom, with a layer of coconut oil hardened on top.

Not. Appetizing.

So I grabbed some coconut MILK and messed with that.

BINGO!!!

It looked gorgeous! But…it was too runny to be a glaze; it would have soaked in almost immediately and disappeared into the muffin.

Then I had a brainstorm and found my Secret Ingredient…and it turned out perfect!

A tiny bowl of lemon glaze deliciousness!

A tiny bowl of lemon glaze deliciousness!

Jed called it “milk” and kept screaming to eat the “milk”! Darrel took a taste and his eyes got big and said “That’s really good!” – and he had no idea what it was or what was in it! (Yes, I often just walk up to him with food on a fork or spoon and make him eat it with no warning or preamble. I’m fun that way.)

I was calm, cool, and collected, but inside I was an Olympic gymnast doing backflips of joy! THIS was a total “from scratch” creation, and I have high hopes I can turn it into something A-MAY-ZING later this month! (I’ll share it if I can!)

So I hope you enjoy blueberry muffins! This delicious, vegan, gluten and fructose free muffin, with a fructose free lemon glaze will satisfy even a non-allergic person!

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VEGAN/GF/FRUCTOSE-FREE BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

– 2 c. total of safe flour(s) *see note above
– 1 c. dextrose OR 2/3 c. maple syrup
– 2 tsp. baking powder
– 1/4 tsp. salt
– 2/3 c. safe milk (we use almond)
– 1/4 c. fat (we use olive oil; shortening, butter, coconut oil are all suitable)
– 2 T. lemon juice
– 1 tsp. vanilla
– 1 to 1.5 c. blueberries

1. Mix your dry ingredients together in a bowl; sift well.
2. Mix your wet ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and mix together.
4. Fold in the blueberries.
5. Pour batter into muffin tins (spray first or line with paper liners) and put into a 400 degree F oven.
6. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
7. Eat as is, or add a glaze and enjoy!
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FRUCTOSE-FREE LEMON GLAZE

– 2 T. coconut milk
– 2 T. potato starch (the secret ingredient!)
– 1 T. maple syrup
– 2 tsp. lemon juice

1. Whisk all ingredients together until smooth and creamy.
2. Pour over muffins.
3. Be amazed at how good they make your muffins!

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Happy breakfasting!!

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We Have A Winner!!

 
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This was so exciting for me! I love writing this blog, and one of the reasons I do is because of my awesome readers. Y’all have encouraged and challenged me, and been my friends. So being able to give something away to you made me go “squee”!

I took the highly advanced, technical approach to picking a winner: I put your names in a hat!

No, for reals. A hat.

Jed's adorable hat.

Jed’s adorable hat.

Then I asked Jed to pick one slip of paper out for me.

Sorry it's blurry...he was fast!

Sorry it’s blurry…he was fast!

Without further ado, the winner is:

Congratulations, Amy C.!

Congratulations, Amy C.!

So, Amy, check your email so we can discuss which pendant you’d like and where I can mail it!

For the rest of you, if you’d still like a pendant for Mother’s Day, don’t forget to use the coupon code “Mothers13” at my Etsy shop for 10% off your entire order!

THANK YOU, EVERYONE!

For sharing my blog, for entering my little contest, for “liking” me, but mostly for sharing this journey with me every step of the way. Y’all ROCK!

_________

OK, so I need to get in to the kitchen to do some cooking (I plan to share something fabulous tomorrow!) and into the dining room to make some more pendants, so I’m going to cut this short.

Before I go, though, I want to share what Jed decided to eat for lunch one day last week:

Anyone else have a hard time getting the last sticky bits of the paper seal off?

Anyone else have a hard time getting the last sticky bits of the paper seal off?

Yeah. That was an unopened jar of Sun Butter before he got to it. He just ate it with a spoon, straight from the jar! At least 1/3rd of the jar! Apparently my dinner leftovers weren’t suitable, nor were the hamburgers and fries I made him when he snubbed leftovers.

But straight Sun Butter on a spoon? That’s fine dining right there!

Tell me again, why  do I cook so much for my family?

Oh, yeah, that’s right. I love them!

Even when they eat Sun Butter instead of the fruits of my labor.

What strange things have your kids eaten when they refused meals?

What To Do With a New Tooth

 
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Saturday afternoon, as I struggled to strap a screaming Zac into his carseat, I looked down to see that – oh my goodness! He got another tooth!

Finally.

This teething thing was getting old.

So he now has 7 little teeth in his cute little head, and I’m sure the 8th will shortly follow.

I’m a little scared by that, because…well, it’s easier to show you why.

Want to know what my determined 11 month old DID all weekend with his new tooth?

He chewed on a plastic covered candle.

Oh, Joy.

Oh, Joy.

Then he ate a candle.

No label on this candle, so what did he ingest?

No label on this candle, so what did he ingest?

Then he gagged, choked, and had a large spit-up/small vomit thanks to the (probable) soy in the candle and certain corn in the label of the other candle.

Then we moved all the candles out of the living room.

So he gnawed on a small bottle of bubbles Jed had received as a reward for being good in therapy one day.

More stinking paper!

More stinking paper!

So we removed all the little bubble bottles from the living room.

So he climbed into his car seat and ATE the HANDLE.

Are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me?

So he climbed onto the train table and gnawed on it.

Oh, just great!

Oh, just great!

And really, we have no where else to put the train table, so it is just going to have to stay where it is. Jed would have a stroke if we took it away from him, as it is by far his favorite toy in the whole wide world.

And when all else failed? He CHEWED on ME.

Hey, Fang! Stop biting Mama!

Hey, Fang! Stop biting Mama!

So I have found pieces of candle wax, white paint flecks, and other random things in his diapers for the last two days, not to mention the mucous that comes from mild reactions and the stinky smell. Fortunately, he didn’t have any more vomit/spit-ups, so I’m hoping it was a fluke “something didn’t sit right” thing rather than an FPIES thing.

I. Cannot. Wait. Until I can feed him quinoa. I found a teething cracker recipe that I can modify for him so I can sit him in his high chair and let him gnaw away on a food all stinking day long…and as long as it turns out to be safe for him, we will finally be able to stop finding mystery junk in his diapers!

Sigh…anyone have any suggestions for how to stop an 11 month old from gnawing on everything in sight? Well, everything EXCEPT for the actual teething toys we give him?

Good thing he’s cute. Good thing the probiotics seem to be helping.

Did I mention that my Dad’s new nickname for Zac is “Roomba”?

Sadly, it is very, very fitting. The kid can clean a carpet faster than any vacuum I’ve ever found.

And don’t worry…my bruises are already fading.

__________

Well, don’t forget to enter for my Giveaway! You have until Tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m. to get your entries in!

Just leave a comment on this post telling me you are a fan of my FB page, and for a second entry leave another comment saying you’ve subscribed to the blog and you could win a Bird’s Nest or Pea Pod Pendant for Mother’s Day!

Good luck!

My First Giveaway!!

 
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My Creation...Darrel's Photo...

My Creation…Darrel’s Photo…

So, we’re all clear on the fact that FPIES has made the Cradle Rocking Family start stretching pennies into dimes, right?

And that even without having our house crumbling around us, we may be in serious dire straights this summer if I can’t manage to return to work in a way that will also keep Zac alive?

All clear?

OK, good.  I just wanted us to all be on the same page, so it would make sense to you when I tell you that Darrel and I are trying to come up with Ways To Make Money that don’t involve me going off to work.

We’ve considered and discarded many, many ideas, mostly due to the fact that it would be really hard for me to be a telemarketer out of my home with Jed shrieks and Zac babbles going on in the background (all set to a Thomas and Friends TV Show theme song, of course!).  And almost everything else we could think of would basically require large amounts of childcare to free my time, which, um, that’s kind of the problem – we can’t find childcare, and if we could, we couldn’t afford it!

So, we started thinking outside the box.  Hmm…

Well, once upon a time, I was a pretty crafty person. I let that part of myself fall by the wayside when I started having little boys running around my house; they think it’s FUN to unravel Mama’s crocheting while  she’s crocheting it, after all!

But I’m picking that part of myself up off the shelf, dusting it off, and giving it a little time and attention, because hel-LO! Have you SEEN Etsy? People BUY that stuff!!

(And, you know, we’re kind of almost broke, here.)

SO, I opened an Etsy shop!

(I’ll confess it here, if not on my actual shop: I’m squeezing this in between taking care of my two boys, cooking 6 meals a day, doing laundry, cleaning the floors 3-5 times a day, so, yeah, I know I need more pictures on my listings and a banner for the top and a whole bunch of other things to make it look better but, well, you have to start somewhere and if I wait til I can get all those things done and perfect I’ll NEVER sell anything! Whew! The run-on sentence patrol is going to ticket me for that one!)

Of course, the first things I could think of to make and sell were something I myself had wanted: birds nest pendants!  If you have daughters, you get pink pearls! If you have boys, you get blue pearls! If you have both, you get purple pearls! (Just kidding!) No, if you have both, you get a pink or blue pearl for each of your offspring. Totally customized to your own little nest of hatchlings!

Birds nest pendant for two little boys

Birds nest pendant for two little boys

Then I saw pea pod pendants and thought those were awesome, too!

Two little "peas" in this pod!

Two little “peas” in this pod!

And I have more ideas for things I’m going to add to the store, but for now, in honor of Mother’s Day next weekend (guys, did you forget?), I’m GIVING AWAY one pendant to one of my lucky readers! 

You have TWO chances to win. Leave a comment telling me you’ve subscribed to my blog for one entry. Leave a comment telling me you’re a fan of my Facebook page for another! (They have to be two separate comments, as the winning entry will be drawn from the comments section of this post.)

I’m going to let the entry period run through Tuesday morning, May 7th, which should still leave enough time to ship the winner their pendant in time for Mother’s Day.

SO…

Make sure you’re a “fan” of the Cradle Rocking Mama Facebook page (and tell me so in a comment).

Subscribe to my blog (and tell me you have in a comment). Just click on the RSS button or email button on the top right hand side of the blog page.

And Tuesday morning, bright and early, I’ll pick a winner! (Through some highly scientific but as yet undetermined method…like having Jed randomly point at the screen or something.)

Then, when YOU win, we’ll have a lovely email exchange where you tell me which pendant you want, designating however many kids/eggs/peas and which color you need them, and I’ll drop it off for quick delivery!

Click on over to my Etsy shop for more photos of the variations on these necklaces that are available.

_____

Now, if you just can’t wait for the contest to end because you HAVE to have one of these NOW, well, this is your lucky day! I’ve set up a discount coupon for my beautiful readers! (Really, have I told you how beautiful you are lately?)

From now through Mother’s Day, you can simply use “Mothers13” at checkout to receive 10% off your entire order from my shop!

I know I have the most brilliant, talented, amazing readers on the planet, and I’m SURE that you all have fabulous friends, too, right? If you don’t mind, would you be the kind and generous people I know you are and share this giveaway and my Etsy shop links with your buddies?

You know, to help feed my kiddos? They sure would appreciate it if you’d help their Mama out!

(The gratuitous gushing, fawning, begging and brown-nosing is over now, thank goodness!)

Ready…Set…ENTER TO WIN!!!

_____

And, I’m so sorry to my non-US readers, but I am not practiced at mailing things out of the country. So for at least this giveaway, I’m limiting it to US Residents only. Hugs and apologies, and I hope I can include y’all in future giveaways! Thanks for sticking around!

Zac Probiotic Trial: Update IV

 
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My Little Cutie Patootie

My Little Cutie Patootie

Well. I know you all sit anxiously by your computers, just waiting for my latest post to arrive every Monday through Friday, so I know I’ve been letting you down for the last two weeks with my sporadic posting. <grin>

There’s a good reason for my late Zac probiotic update and inconsistent posting, though. In short, I’ve been insane for the last two weeks!

BAD MATH

April 23rd, Darrel asked whether there was any particular reason we were putting Zac’s probiotics in 4 ounces of water, because Zac was having a bit of a hard time taking so much fluid from the medical syringe. I had to answer “Nope. Just did it that way because it made the math easier at first!”

If you remember, we were originally giving him 1/4 of a dose. 4 divided by 4 is 1 – so, 1 ounce! Easy, right? Except we started giving him 1/8 of a dose right away…but, still easy – 1/2 an ounce!

Then we switched to 1/6 of a dose. Still fairly easy – split the difference between the two and you have 3/4 of an ounce.

But when Darrel pointed out the obvious, that Zac was having a rough time with that much liquid, we decided to put the probiotic in a smaller amount of water.

So I put one ounce of water for one dose of probiotic.  Then I stared at it, thought really hard (you could smell smoke) and administered the meds.

Almost immediately I had a nagging thought…so I asked Darrel (the resident math/science geek). I talked it out loud to him and he said “Uh, nope. That wasn’t 1/6 of a dose – that was 1/3 of a dose!”

Oops!

Well, it was too late to do anything about it then, so we decided to just watch him and see how a HUGE jump in his probiotics would affect him.

The next day, he was just fine! He took shorter naps that day, but he was in fine spirits and seemed perfectly content.  Then, that night, he had a rotten diaper with trace blood – but it had a tree bud in it, so I wrote it off as a reaction to that. We went ahead and gave him 1/3 dose again.

Day 3 of the increased probiotic found him taking great naps, in a great mood, and even walking more! But…he had two horrible diapers that day.  Still gave him 1/3 dose again, though, hoping he just needed to push through.

Day 4 was much the same: good naps, good mood, but horrible diapers – and this time one had blood. I was distraught! There was always “stuff” in his diapers, so was he reacting to something he ate? I didn’t know, but decided to drop the dose down to 1/4 of a dose just in case.

The next day was last Saturday, and his diapers looked better. We started thinking it was maybe just a “too much, too fast” push on the probiotics and crossed our fingers.

But then I started thinking…we haven’t really had him at a true “baseline” since October.  The probiotics began when his diapers were just “better” – not truly “good”. We know he’s reactive to corn. On the corn-free message boards, the folks there often say that when you first discover you are sensitive to corn and remove all obvious sources of corntamination, you instantly feel “all better”! Then, a few months down the line, your body starts to become sensitive to the minute traces of corn from other sources and you have reactions again.

Was this what was happening to Zac?

I delved into the Corn Boards full-force. And my stomach started dropping into my toes…

WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE, AND NOT A DROP TO DRINK

I learned that WATER is corntaminated! Water!! The sea salt we use sometimes causes reactions in corn-sensitive people. Potatos and carrots are often sprayed with gases that are corn-laden. The tea bags I use are a known corny item.

So all this time, I thought I was “corn-free” for Zac, and really, I still had traces of it in my diet! How do you remove it all?

More urgently, HOW am I to stay hydrated on the road? My airline switched from serving Crystal Geyser water to using Dasani while I was out on maternity leave. Dasani is filtered through a corn filter, put in a bottle made of corn, and makes every single corn-sensitive person on the boards react horribly!

I can’t carry 4 or more days worth of water with me when I’m flying; the weight would be ridiculous and TSA would have a fit. So I started trying to figure out how to avoid at least the known, obvious corny water when on the road. I spent days asking questions, calling manufacturers and STILL I’m not sure it can be done.

I called Brita and their rep confirmed that there is NO corn in any of their products. Then I reported this conversation to the corn-free people and many of them wrote back that no, they’ve all had reactions to Brita filters (though they did concede that it could be some other ingredient in the filter causing their reaction).  If you don’t even know what to ask, how can you get a straight answer from the manufacturer?

So the best I can figure out is to carry a travel Brita bottle with me, buy 3-4 of the large Kleen Kanteens, and filter tap water every day I’m traveling and carry it with me. (Because plastic will absorb corntamination and can never be cleaned of it, so stainless or glass bottles is all I can really use.) Then I only *might* be getting corntamination, whereas if I strictly drank the water I can drink all day for free on the planes, I will *definitely* be getting corntamination.

Ugh.

THANK GOD FOR FOOD JOURNALS

While I was delving into all this corn stuff, we were still watching Zac for reactions. His naps were…okay.  Sometimes great, sometimes just so-so. Bedtime was good, but sleeping through the night was just NOT happening. We were back to every 2-2.5 hour wakeups. Diapers were all over the map! Some better than others, but all with some reaction signs.

I looked up this past Tuesday and wondered to myself “How long have his diapers been so rotten?” and realized I had the perfect answer: the Food Journal!

So I whipped it out and started flipping backwards.

And there it was: in black and white, clear and plain as can be…Wednesday April 24. I had forgotten all about this, but not before I wrote it down. We were in the grocery store.  While I was loading some produce into a bag, Zac seized the opportunity to wriggle in the cart until he could reach the cilantro and the kiwis I had already selected.  I wiped a cilantro leaf out of his mouth (who knows if he actually ate one first or not) and snatched a kiwi out of his mouth – complete with deep teeth marks where he’d been eating/teething on it!

Kiwi attacks!

Kiwi attacks!

Well, there you have it! The probiotics may not have been a good thing to “jump” so high, dosage wise, so quickly, but he almost certainly was having a mild reaction to cilantro and/or kiwi!

Whew!

That doesn’t mean that he’s not having a mild, low-grade reaction to corn, but it takes the pressure off of us for figuring that out right now. Because odds are, it was cilantro, kiwi, or increased probiotics.

To begin our sussing out procedure, we switched to corn-free water for his probiotic dose, and I’m trying to find all other possible corntamination in my diet so I can remove those.  Then, we’ll just progress from there.

In better news, the last two nights he’s been sleeping GREAT through the night (3-4 hours between wakeups), napping better, and his diapers have gone back to a yellow color with a milder smell and less mucous with no blood.

So it’s working, I think.

I knew FPIES was never going to be easy, but the last two weeks were a reminder to never get complacent in my FPIES diligence. The slightest thing can throw off his behavior and reactions and have me pulling my hair out trying to find out what is wrong!

Keeping food journals is imperative, even for a child that doesn’t eat solid foods yet. Were it not for having a place to write down his accidental ingestions, I would not have seen the connection between his grocery store snack sneaks and his reactions.

Zac-wise, we’re all taking a big deep breath and a sigh of relief that we are still actually on the right track and waiting for some “good diapers” to appear so we can increase the probiotics again.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE CAMP

We’ve managed to trial Jed on asparagus again, and its a pass! He’s not able to just eat as much as he’d like, but a small serving once or twice a week should be just fine for him.  Yippee!!

My grandmother had another episode like the one we traveled down for over Easter, and this time they tried to do a heart cath. They were unsuccessful, due to the large blockage in her arteries. So they decided the best thing was to put her on hospice care. The whole family is trying to digest that news.

My parents are trying to get their house packed up and moved up here so they can watch the kids when I go back to work, but they seem to be constantly battling against “life”, which is hell-bent on interfering in their plans.

And all of this together is a very long-winded way of saying that I’ve been actively losing my mind and fighting to keep it together the last two weeks, and that is why I dropped the ball so badly on posting here.

I dropped the ball on a lot of things the last two weeks, so now I’ll be playing catch-up as fast as I can. That means you may be seeing double posts some days, because I actually have some cool things to share with you that I just didn’t get around to doing in a timely  manner. Hope that’s not too annoying for you!

And I’m working hard on some great recipes that I hope to share soon, so stay tuned!

Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus

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Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus CradleRockingMama.com

Last week we trialed asparagus on Jed. Thanks to the accidental lollipop ingestion the next day, I wasn’t able to get a good “read” on whether asparagus was safe or not.  So I decided to try it again this week.

I’ve also been seeking out safe bacon for him. I know that table sugar is technically “safe” for fructose malabsorption, but I would really prefer to stay away from it as much as possible. There’s a large history of diabetes and other inflammatory diseases in our families, and straight table sugar is an inflammatory food. Better to not develop a taste for it at a young age, right?

And there’s no real need for it, most of the time! Maple syrup is a delicious sweetener that typically subs out for table sugar just fine.

Except it is exceptionally hard to find bacon that is sweetened with anything but sugar, brown sugar, or honey.  So poor Jed has been bacon-deprived for months now. (And this is a child who loves bacon so much he would eat his weight in bacon every morning of his life and be quite happy!)

I was about to bite the bullet and say “OK, I give. He can have bacon once a week and just a few slices at a time” when I saw a package of prosciutto at the store. Ingredients: pork, salt, water. And prosciutto is sort of like bacon, right? Worth a shot!

But I didn’t really know what to do with it. Everyone I asked basically said to wrap fruits or cheeses in the prosciutto and that it was delicious that way. One problem: Jed can’t have most suitable fruits for wrapping or any cheeses!

So, on a whim I asked my parents if they’d ever wrapped a vegetable in prosciutto. Notably, asparagus. They hadn’t, but they said it would probably be delicious. And just like that, a recipe was born.

Here’s what I did:

I grabbed my asparagus and snapped the ends off.  You could cut them, if you like, but why dirty a knife when it’s just so darn satisfying to snap the little suckers!  Then I washed them and put them in a steamer basket on the stove.

I cranked it up to high, and when they’d turned bright green I pulled them out of the basket and brought them to the counter.

While they were steaming, I got out a cookie sheet and a piece of parchment paper. I opened up the prosciutto package and pulled off a couple thin strips. This was a little tricky; I don’t know if this is normal, but the package I bought had the prosciutto slices sort of folded over each other in weird ways. So, it wasn’t as smooth and pretty as it could have been.

Oh, well. It was edible and still looked good to me!

Then I laid 4 spears of asparagus on the prosciutto, wrapped the little piggy strips tightly around the spears, and placed them seam-side down on the parchment paper.

Ready to Bake Asparagus CradleRockingMama.com

Drizzle a little olive oil and black pepper on top to enhance it, but do not add any more salt! The prosciutto is salty enough as it is – it doesn’t need any help!  Probably garlic powder would be lovely here, too, but Jed can’t have that, so I can’t speak from experience.

Then I tossed them in the oven for about 13 minutes.

They came out looking good!

Baked Asparagus CradleRockingMama.com

And once again, Jed wolfed down the asparagus.  I served this as a side dish to some Cilantro-Lime Crockpot Chicken, which I know he loves, and he only ate a few bites of the chicken in favor of eating as many spears of asparagus as we would give him! (Only 11 last night. I want to see if he can tolerate that much before I move on to larger servings.)

So here’s a simple, allergy-friendly, beautiful, fancy-pants looking side dish that is delicious as can be!  Enjoy!

Yummy Asparagus CradleRockingMama.com

Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus
 
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Prep time
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Author:
Recipe type: side dish, appetizer
Ingredients
  • asparagus (however many you want in multiples of 4 or 5)
  • prosciutto strips (one or two strips for each bundle)
  • black pepper
  • olive oil
Instructions
  1. Snap the ends off your asparagus, wash and set in a steamer basket on the stove.
  2. Steam just until the asparagus turns bright green.
  3. Lay out a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
  4. Wrap 4 or 5 asparagus spears in 1 or 2 prosciutto strips tightly.
  5. Lay seam side down on the parchment paper.
  6. Put a 400 degree oven for 13 minutes.
  7. Serve and enjoy!

Now I’ll get to see if I can make prosciutto into a breakfast dish for Jed! How do you use your prosciutto?

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Renee Moilanen’s “Dirty Laundry”

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Renee Moilanen's Dirty Laundry CradleRockingMama

Sigh. Well, I hate to do it, but I’m going to have to share a link. I don’t want to send any more traffic to this horrible waste of the written word, but you won’t understand what I’m talking about it you haven’t read it. So, go read why Renee Moilanen says “Parents Should Relax a Bit About Kids’ Food Allergies.”

Finished? Good. Furious? You and a few thousand other FAM’s (Food Allergy Mama’s)! 

I hardly know where to begin with my disgust over this piece.

Look, the woman is entitled to her own opinion, and I’m grateful we live in a country where this sort of ignorant blathering is allowed; that doesn’t mean I have to like it, and it certainly doesn’t mean I have to take it lying down.

Because this article? Well, it’s a serious case of “them’s fightin’ words” to me.

How dare she presume to know a single thing about my – or anyone else’s – childrens’ food allergies? How dare she presume to tell mothers like me that we’re overreacting, that we’re inconveniencing her, that we’re wrong?

Has SHE watched her children suffer in pain from FOOD? Has SHE spent many thousands of dollars in medical bills trying to suss out foods that could kill or harm her child? Has SHE had the pleasure of sending her child off by air ambulance to a hospital hours away simply because the local hospital isn’t equipped to handle the dire medical condition of her 7 week old son?

No? She hasn’t?

Then she needs to shut the hell up.  Period.

Ignorance like this is deadly. No, seriously deadly. The fact that the Daily Breeze would run this opinion piece NOW, right on the heels of four recent childrens’ deaths from food allergies, is irresponsible, short-sighted, and as prime an example of Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry” as I’ve ever seen.

The Daily Breeze and Renee need to go read the following articles:

and then come back, look us all in the eyes, and say that the horrible piece they published had any merit to it whatsoever. I dare them. I’m confident they wouldn’t (convincingly) be able to do so.

Four children dead since the beginning of March, all of them before this piece was published.  

But, seriously, we just need to relax about our kids food allergies! Just keep feeding the food to our kids until they build up enough immunity to the food that it isn’t a problem anymore! After all, that’s what she did to her son!  (sarcasm, in case it didn’t translate)

<Deep Breath>

Okay. So what really bothers me about this article is that not only is she dismissive, demeaning, insulting, selfish, completely heartless and entirely wrong in her statistics (it’s more like 8% of children now, Renee, and you’re lucky you didn’t kill your son – oral immunotherapy is still in trial phases and hasn’t been proven effective yet) but that she missed a golden opportunity to actually start a valuable conversation about food allergies in children. She could have done some good here, and instead she spewed vitriol and falsehoods.

She could have pointed out that it is highly confusing to a mother of a normal food child when so many of her sons’ classmates have allergies, intolerances, and varying degrees of reactions to their conditions. It makes little sense, and makes her feel as though these parents are just jumping on some kind of band-wagon (because having food allergies is “cool”, right?).

That might have started a dialogue about how diagnostic procedures are widely variable.  That individual allergists offer different advice about how to treat and prevent reactions. That parents are inconsistent with how they approach food allergies in the classroom. That schools are all over the map in how seriously they treat food allergies in the classroom. That the rest of the children are often confused and inconvenienced by this, and while yes, that is annoying, it might just be a prime opportunity to TEACH these small children empathy, compassion, compromise, and that – perish the thought – the entire world DOES NOT revolve around their ‘need’ for a cupcake.

She might have started a conversation that did some good.  

Instead, she squelched anything resembling tact and good will from appearing in her article and created a conversation that is angry, scathing, divisive, and not at all productive.  

Well, unless she’s a stock holder in a Homeschool Education Company. Then it would be very productive for her.  Why would any Food Allergy Mama want to send her child to a public school with children raised by women like Renee? Homeschooling looks more appealing than ever after reading her article.

After all, WE love OUR children. Not only do we want them to stay alive and healthy (and no, Renee, hives and days of stomach discomfort are not worth the temporary pleasure of a cookie), but we want OUR children to learn compassion and humanity. It will be difficult to teach those lessons to our kids when every fiber of our being wants to (fill in the blank with whatever action you can imagine) a mother like this for putting our childs’ life in danger.

Over soy ice cream and graham crackers. 

Seriously. Is that so distressing, Renee? So hard to bear? Well, I know just who you should talk to about bearing inconvenient things as a mother. I’m sure they’ll be able to help you get through this terrible, life-altering ordeal of your sons 3rd birthday party not being what you imagined.  It’s actually four people that I think could help.

The mother’s of Ammaria, Tanner, Cameron, and Maia.  They know exactly how “inconveniencing” food allergies can be.

“Kick ’em when they’re up, kick ’em when they’re down.  Kick ’em when they’re up, kick ’em all around…We all know that crap is king, we love dirty laundry…”

I think Renee is a lost cause, but seriously, if you are blessed to have no food allergies in your family, please use a little judgement and compassion when talking to those of us who do deal with food allergies. We’re constantly afraid for our children; the last thing we need is more people like this “kicking us all around”. Be a good human being. Feel free to ask questions; just try to ask them in a tactful, gracious way.

And in the end, even if you’re confused by the answers you received, ask yourself: “Is it worth killing a little boy or girl so my child can eat a PB&J?” 

If you can’t answer correctly to that question, then go hang out with Renee. The rest of the world would prefer you not poison our children – whether their bodies, or their souls.