I hate family parties

even when the hosts are bending over backwards to be helpful. It requires being THAT kind of mother.

This is especially hard when you don't see the family often.. having to explain about food allergies. Going over the party food beforehand to find out what they are serving so I can bring something comparable isn't too bad. Its when they really want to provide safe food that it gets harder; trying to convey you're not really paranoid when you ask to look at the packaging for the pasta and pasta sauce for nuts. Surprisingly both the pasta and the rice had 'we cannot guarantee this food is nut free' (this warning seems to be peculiar to British foods, as I haven't seen it in the US yet; I assume it means that the manufacturer didn't have any nuts, but they cannot guarantee the source ingredients they use aren't cross-contaminated). The desserts are particularly hard.

Thankfully our family were very accommodating and understanding. They didn't look strangely at me when I brought his bread rolls or pasta, but instead wanted to make sure their home-made pasta sauce was safe; they even made their own cake so my son could have some; I have not seem him that happy to be able to share in the party dessert, ever!!

It is almost as if our family had read the new Allergy Moms Newsletter entry 10 things Every Child with Food Allergies wishes you knew! The first entry speaks about longing to be included. He certainly felt included yesterday.

Thank you, great Auntie Gina. xxx

Catharsis

We just arrived in the UK, after 4 weeks of harrowing preparation. Not only are we on vacation, but we had to empty our living room, kitchen and bathroom beforehand. We're also renovating our kitchen! In addition to that we have built a wet-bar in the room above the garage which will serve as a temporary kitchen workspace while the construction is underway. So a mini building project prior to an international flight, prior to a kitchen rebuild. The morning of our departure the counter top was installed. Two hours after that the under-counter bar fridge was delivered (after 7 phone calls to the delivery people and their warehouse, and an impassioned plea to the driver).

Well, I can freely say this is one of the worst months of my life.

Whats this got to do with food allergies? During this time, I had to remember how to prepare for an international trip..

• how many Epis do I take?
• where do I put them so there is a low chance of them being lost?
• should I encourage L to carry his own Epi (in his spiderman hipbag)?
• what kind of food do I need to bring (and should I double it to allow his non-allergic brother to have some too)?
• how do I stop a helpful flight assistant giving my son food dangerous to him while I'm sleeping?
• should I let L have the fruit plate I requested for his meal? What is the chance that it will cause an allergic reaction?

How do I keep him safe??

Thank goodness we arrived safely (with an appalling lack of sleep all round). What choices I made?

I carried 6 epis, all in carry-on luggage. Two in my handbag (with Benadryl easymelts and an inhaler), two in an 'emergency bag' (which will be left at his Grandparents house), and two in our portable EpiPen carrier (with inhaler and single dose Benadryl). In the emergency bag I also included benadryl single-dose spoons and easymelts, Predinsone chewable tablets, and his inhalers. I also decided it would be a good idea to have L become accustomed to carrying his own meds, so L also had a Spiderman hip bag with an Epi and an inhaler. He was a real trouper and didn't complain about it at all!

When we were seated, I wiped his tray table down with two separate wet wipes.

For food, we brought cheese sandwiches made from a fresh french loaf, crispy apples, a large bunch of grapes, packets of potato chips, Peanut and Nut free Granola bars (way to go Canada!), fruit rollups, and Graham crackers! Oh.. and bagels with cream cheese! And a Gladware container full of his favourite breakfast cereal. And our nanny also over compensated by also sneaking in a large container of precut watermelon!! Whew. It was an effort remembering it all, let alone packing it all. I'm surprised the plane didn't list all the way to the UK.


What did I do to prevent the flight assistants giving L food without my knowledge? Not enough! I did prepare this laminated sign which was pinned to the headrest on his seat. I feel bad that I didn't remember to speak with the attendant to let her know of his dietary restrictions. Also, the first attendant didn't notice the sign! Next time we need to use bright coloured paper (yellow, maybe?).

I also gave in, and let him have some fruit from the fruit plate, for the dinner meal. By the time breakfast was served, I couldn't bring myself to take the risk of cross-contamination, so he ate a Granola bar and some grapes (after all the careful packing, he didn't want the cereal, because we didn't have fresh sliced peaches to go with the Cheerios - ahh.. the trials of motherhood!).

So we made it safely. Thank goodness.

I've missed writing about food allergies in the last few months.. and hope you will all forgive me for my tardiness :-)