According to a recent FAAN article, "Adkins is competing in business-driven tasks around New York City to raise money and awareness for FAAN, his designated charity. Throughout the series, over a million dollars will be raised for various charities, and the winner who gets crowned as the first “Celebrity Apprentice” will also have the honor of delivering a $250,000 bonus check to their charity of choice."

Trace has a little girl with food allergies. According to FAAN, "it was because of his daughter’s experience that Trace was motivated to join the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). “I know firsthand how important FAAN’s efforts to increase funding for food allergy research are,” says Trace. He and his family turn to FAAN for help managing Brianna’s food allergies, and now Trace is helping FAAN as its national spokesperson." To learn more about Trace Adkins and his connection with FAAN, check out FAAN's website.

Go to FAAN or NBC and vote yes for Trace!!

I totally respect any article this man writes. I know the information will be accurate and up-to-date and he offers great, real-life examples of living with food allergies. I've come across some whack-job recommendations and opinions that are written well enough to fool someone new to the whole food allergy topic. I recommend that we all add Dr. Sampson to our Rolodex of respected allergy experts. And any time we read something authored by him, we should really stop and listen to what he is saying.

According to the Hamiliton College newsletter, Dr. Sampson's "current NIH-funded research projects include studies of the Immunologic Basis of Cow Milk-Induced Hypersensitivities, the Immunobiology of Peanut Allergy and its Treatment, Immunoprophylaxis in the Primary Prevention of Allergic Disease, Therapeutic Effect of Chinese Herbal Medicine on Food Allergy, and Immunologic Approaches to Reduce Asthma.

"He is also the principal investigator in the Food Allergy Resource Initiative, in which a serum bank and registry of patients with well-characterized IgE-mediated reactions to a wide variety of foods is being established, along with a repository of cDNA expression vectors for all major food allergens."

Then an odd train of thoughts popped into my head: hey, if I buy jelly beans than my daughter with braces won't be able to eat them, and she'll feel bad because she usually likes them, and this will cause negative feelings not only on Easter morning, but every time thereafter that my other kids want to eat something from their Easter baskets.

Hmmm, there was something strangely familiar with this thought process. Except this was the first time it didn't fall under the big umbrella of food allergies, even though this particular daughter has food allergies. I guess it must pull at the parenting strings of "try to make every child feel as though they are the most important." I weighed it out in my mind: how bad the child with braces will feel if the others get jelly beans vs. how bad the others will feel if they don't get any jellybeans. I decided everybody would be just as happy with nut free chocolate.

So this Easter, we asked the Easter Bunny to skip the jelly beans. I'm hoping my other kids won't miss them too much. And I know that my dentist would be giving me the big thumbs up if he heard of my decision.

Now that my children are getting older, the ones without food allergies see the egg decorating kits in the stores and really want to try it out. I'm back to the same old question, how do I provide my children with the opportunity to (fill in the blank here) at the same time keeping them safe? And if it isn't really safe for my children with food allergies, do I allow my other children the opportunity or do we just skip it completely?

Last year I bought some ceramic eggs that my children will be painting this week. I also bought an Easter egg decorating kit from the grocery store at the persistence of my non-food allergic child. I will let all of my kids join in this activity. I figure if my daughters aren't touching the eggs but only dipping them in the dye, things should be safe. I already know that my one daughter who is allergic to eggs will feel left out when we bring them out on Easter. This is where I'm torn. I guess there's a life lesson here, enjoy the part of the activities you can do and then move on.

We still plan on celebrating Easter like we've always done, this year we'll just add in one extra activity!

Instead of real eggs, try:

1. Wood Eggs - paint, carve or decorate them with beads and jewels.

2. Plastic Eggs - paint and decorate with stickers.

3. Styrofoam® Eggs - paint or decorate with glitter.

4. Plaster Eggs

You can even find brand new egg cartons for storage at eggcartons.com

Happy decorating!

A couple of years ago we hit some rough weather while flying over the Midwest. We ended up circling over an airport for over 4 hours before we could land! Everyone was miserable, except my kids. I had packed enough food for an emergency meal, thankfully. Many parents were asking me how I thought to bring so much food. I was thinking, how could you not think of it? As food allergies become a way of life for us, some things become routine; and two of my most engrained routines are grabbing the Epi-Pens and packing at least one small, allergy-free snack before we go anywhere!

Below is the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis website's list of reminders.

"Cooking and Dining Dos and Don’ts
• Don’t forget that egg substitutes may contain egg whites; egg replacers do not.
• Do prepare the allergy-free dishes before preparing foods containing allergens, cover them, and keep them separate from the cooking area.
• Do bring a “safe” dish with you when visiting a friend or a relative; he or she will appreciate it, and you’ll rest easier, too.
• Do ask about ingredients and cooking methods used whether you are in a restaurant, friend’s home, or about to serve a dish someone brought to your home.
• Don’t eat “high risk” foods, including desserts, sauces, pastry-covered dishes, and fried foods, when eating away from home.
• Do stock up on key ingredients.
• Do use parchment paper as a liner for your countertops when mixing or blending foods that may cause a reaction. Throw the paper away when you are finished."

Medical Alert Wallets is a good idea. The company “strives to provide the best products and service to our customers… Medical Alert Wallets provides top-notch quality wallets with a Medical symbol … each Medical Wallet comes with a Medical Information Card, for you to fill out.” It is a wallet with an information card that each individual fills out. While this would be useful in an emergency if somebody actually finds the wallet, do not get it confused with the services from MedicAlert.

MedicAlert builds “on nearly 50 years of experience in protecting and saving lives. MedicAlert's Emergency Response Center handles emergency calls providing instant access to identification and vital information. MedicAlert provides a 24-Hour Emergency Response Center, supported by on-site medical professionals. MedicAlert will relay your vital medical information to emergency personnel.” MedicAlert offers a variety of bracelets and necklaces engraved with a MedicAlert symbol along with their phone number and a patient identification number.

EMS responders recognize the MedicAlert symbol and can call the Response Center to obtain a patient history, i.e. anaphylaxis to nuts, prior allergic reactions, treatment that has worked or not in the past. MedicAlert offers jewelry which is easily spotted by EMS responders; whereas a wallet might not be seen until it is too late.

While both are pretty decent safety precautions, I urge you to do your homework and see what best fits your situation.

If you’re interested, MedicAlert also has a KidSmart program, which “provides comprehensive Kid Smart services that can safeguard and identify your child in an emergency. With a single phone call, emergency response personnel can access medical history and records, protecting your child against potentially adverse treatments or medication conflicts.
The Kid Smart program also ensures that designated family members will be notified should your child, in your absence, require emergency medical treatment. In addition, you have the reassurance that any time a lost child wearing a MedicAlert ID has been located or rescued, MedicAlert will contact you.”

I hope you never need these services, but it’s nice to know what’s available.

Another testimony to these cookies comes from my children without food allergies. Even though they can choose anything to eat, they consistently want the Enjoy Life cookies. Yes, they are that good!!!

The first time I read about this "assignment," I freaked out a bit. We ended up having the teacher draw my child's name so I could provide the lunch. My now sixth grader informs me that she thought it wasn't fair that the teachers always drew her name. So we came up with a better idea. My daughters now put their "Favorites for Lunch" in the drawing with all of the other kids. I write in the space provided for allergies that my daughter has multiple food allergies and I would like the parent to call me (I list my phone number). I tell the parent that I will provide my daughter's lunch in a plain brown paper sack. The teacher can put the brown bag inside the box or bag the child has decorated. Since most of the parents remember the letter about my daughter's allergies from the beginning of the year, they are more than happy to help in this way. And over the years, the other kids end up putting a small, non edible treat in the bag too, as an extra surprise.

I write down my daughter's favorites that she handed in (so I remember what she wrote), then I secretly pack her lunch the morning of the exchange. I staple the brown bag closed and decorate it with a few stickers. I staple it so she knows that what's inside came from our house. I find this is the best way to keep it both a surprise and safe! I'd be paranoid that a child would drop a few pieces of candy in the bag because they felt bad for my daughter. And since my daughter didn't help pack the lunch, she might think that the candy came from home. So if she sees the bag stapled shut in the morning, and it looks the same way at lunch, then she can eat the food without worries.

I set it up with the teacher that she puts my daughter's lunch bag inside the decorated box form the child who drew her name. That way she still gets to participate in the fun of guessing who had her name and the other child still has the chance to decorate a bag.

It works out well and has taken away the stress and worry.

Here's how it works: the Student Council sets up tables during recess and lunch the week before Valentine's Day. They have small pieces of paper xeroxed with space for the child's name, teacher's name and a special message. Kids can purchase one pencil gram for 25 cents. They then write their friend a note in the space provided. The Student Council then organizes the pencil grams by class, attaches each note to a pencil and on Valentine's Day, distributes the pencil grams to the appropriate classes.

We also encourage parents to send their child a pencil gram so that all kids get to share in the fun of the event. Everyone has fun and there is no food involved!!!

As my kids get older, I don't feel the need to attend every school party anymore. I of course still plan ahead and take all the same precautions. I like to foster my child's independence in a relatively controlled environment; that is, with a teacher who is very aware of the allergies and has been managing them at school all year. I figure as my kids get older and go off to junior high and high school, they will need to know how to handle their own allergies. So practicing in elementary school makes sense.

For my second grader with food allergies, I send in a treat bag with popular but safe Valentine's Day candy (so she feels like she can eat the same candies as the other kids). I also find out what the main treat will be (usually a cookie or cupcake), and I send in something similar. If the kids will be doing their own decorating, I send my daughter in with frosting (and a plastic knife or spoon to spread it with), sprinkles and candies of her own. She knows not to eat anything else at the party, and when she gets home, we go through the candy and treats together. I usually have a small stash of treats she really likes, so I have something to give her when she trades in unsafe candy.

As for my sixth grader, she is totally independent at school now. I usually make her favorite treat (brownies) for her to bring to school. For Valentine's Day, I also give her some candy hearts since that's a popular candy. Then she makes her own decisions at the party. If there is a treat that has ingredients, she'll read them and determine if it's safe to eat. She never eats homemade or bakery treats because that's been drilled into her head since before she could talk!

This works well for our family and we no longer feel stressed out when it is party time at school!

Here are some excerpts from the New York Times article:

“Sitting at the table in her suburban kitchen, with her four young children tumbling in and out, O’Brien, 36, seems an unlikely candidate to be food’s Erin Brockovich (who, by the way, has taken O’Brien under her wing).

She also cautioned against taking the advice of people who have no medical training or run Web sites not certified to have reliable medical information. “She’s a dot-com,” Munoz-Furlong said of O’Brien. “It’s completely different than a dot-org. From the very beginning our intent was education.”

It’s great that there is yet another parent rallying for the safety of her child. I’m a bit cautious about O’Brien though, especially the part where she dings the Food Allergy Network. Come on, it is a solid foundation with many reputable allergists! And it’s one of the best voices we have in the fight for research, education and awareness nation-wide. I’m all for sticking together for our cause of food safety. But let’s keep our feet grounded, so we don’t get the reputation of being overly-protective nut jobs!

It's people like O’Brien that make it difficult for the majority of us other parents who simply want to create a safe environment for our children. This novice food allergy parent's use of scare tactics, criticism and personal recommendations not supported by research actually causes those of us who have made progress to take two steps back! Ugh!!

Thank you Sara Lee!! I wish you were a person, because I’d invite you over for an allergy-free dinner so you could see the smiles on our faces first hand! There are so many foods being added to the “can’t have” list, that I think we should start appreciating those companies who keep the allergens and cross contamination to a minimum.

According to FAAN, the food labeling law effective January 2006 mandates that foods containing the top eight allergens (milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, and soy) must declare the food in plain language on the package. This was put into place to help food allergic consumers. Besides listing the top allergens, some companies also voluntarily include allergy advisory labeling, such as the statements “may contain traces of…” or “processed in the same plant as…”.

“Since these statements are voluntary, every company has its own guidelines for when to use them and what words to use. As a result, consumers do not know which statements are accurate or how to interpret their meaning.”

To me, it seemed that companies were just covering themselves to avoid potential law suits. I started wondering if I should believe that this product I’ve used for years was really off limits. Or was it only the label that changed and not really the food itself? I wanted to just ignore those labels, but the neurotic side of me asked how could I take a chance with my child’s life?

FAAN recently published an article in their newsletter (Food Allergy News, Vol. 16, No 6) that made me rethink how I looked at those labels:

To see whether or not consumers paid attention to the advisory statements, FAAN developed a structured questionnaire and gave them to persons attending the 2003 and 2006 FAAN Food Allergy Conferences. The majority of the respondents were parents of a child with food allergy. The findings were concerning. In 2003, 85 percent responded that they would “never” purchase a product with an advisory label. This decreased to 75 percent in 2006.

“To determine the risk of eating foods with advisory labeling, scientists at the University of Nebraska analyzed 200 types of packaged foods for the presence of peanut. Samples included 179 products with advisory statements for peanuts and 21 products with peanuts listed as the last ingredient or near the end of the ingredient statement. The analysis showed that, of the products that included peanut as the last or close-to-last ingredient, only one-third contained detectable levels of peanut. Some food categories (bakery products/mixes, snack foods, frozen desserts, instant/quick meals) did not have detectable levels of peanut.”

The results of this study show that an increasing number of people are ignoring allergy advisory statements. According again to the FAAN article, “This may be due to a number of reasons, including the increased number of products bearing allergen statements that had safely been eaten before a new warning was added, or the belief that advisory labels are for a company’s legal protection rather than because of a real risk that allergens are present. Since there is no way for individuals to know if a product with advisory labeling does or doesn’t contain the allergen, the authors recommended that products with these labeling messages, and those that list peanuts at the end of the ingredient statement, should be avoided.”

Now even though my child’s food selection is still limited, I don’t feel as frustrated knowing that these statements might really mean what they say!!