Don't Miss Nonuttin's 12 Hour Free Shipping Sale!

My sons and I are huge fans of Nonuttin. They make fantastic allergy friendly granola bars and other goodies free of LOTS of the top allergens. Take a gander at their allergen declaration. It is hard to beat. This is a great sale--don't miss it!

Per the Nonuttin email newsletter:

"12 Hour Free Shipping Sale
We don't do this very often so make sure that you're ready to place an order online this Friday ONLY from 9 am to 9 pm Pacific Standard Time.  All you need to do is place an order of $75 dollars or more before shipping and applicable taxes and you'll automatically get free shipping by ground to any location in the continental US or Canada.  Don't miss out!  Go shopping now in the Canadian store:  http://www.nonuttin.ca/   or in the US store:  http://www.nonuttin.com/shop/."

Powerful New Video from FAI

Check out this new video from FAI. It's short and really packs a punch : http://fai.mpilp.net/p1/

Would love to see it on TV!

Deadline for Living with Food Allergies Blog Carnival is Wed May 26 11pm ET

Hey all you bloggers who have something to share or say about food allergies! Our host for the next edition of the Living with Food Allergies Blog Carnival is Colette, known as @cmfjewels on Twitter. Collete's blog is When Fridays Were Fridays. Please take a few minutes to visit her blog, follow her on Twitter, and submit your blog post for Thursday's Food Allergy Blog Carnival. Thank you to Colette for hosting!

If you are interested in hosting an edition of the Living with Food Allergies Blog Carnival, send me an email, jenniferATfoodallergybuzz.com. You don't need to have a food allergy blog, you just have to be a blogger who has something to say about food allergies and wants to connect with others in the online food allergy community. It's easy to host--just a copy and paste job. Newbies and old-timers are all welcome!

Food Manufacturer Responses Can Build or Destroy Food Allergic Consumer Confidence

I love when food manufacturers ask for a doctor's note to provide specific ingredient information. Have you ever received that response from a food manufacturer? When I call or email to inquire about ingredients or risk of cross-contamination, and I receive a response that is less than satisfactory, it decimates my confidence in a particular product and often in all products by that manufacturer. When a company goes above and beyond to label clearly and answer my questions as thoroughly as possible, I become a loyal customer and will tell all my friends...and readers...and followers, and they'll tell their friends, readers, and followers, and so on... (Kinda like that 'ol Faberge Shampoo commercial, remember? The sound on this video's a bit distorted but you get the idea.)

Below is an email fellow Twitter user, @RockerMom1998, received in response to her allergen inquiry about Popsicle brand popsicles:

"Thank you for writing us regarding Unilever .

We do appreciate your interest in our company and its products.

When common allergens are used in our products, we list these under our ingredients. The common allergens we list, if present, are: Milk, Eggs, Fish, Shellfish, Wheat, Soy, Peanuts or other Nuts. We make every effort to stay informed about any additional ingredients that could be considered common allergens. Also whenever possible, we try to avoid using materials or ingredients that could be considered to be commonly allergenic, so that potential allergens are not included into categories such as "Natural Flavors".

Many of our unique flavors are created for us by flavor suppliers, and we purchase the flavors as a single component. Since the formula of the flavor is proprietary to the flavor supplier, we do not have a list of the flavoring ingredients.

In the case of allergies: it is extremely unlikely that an artificial or natural flavoring would contain the complex proteins needed to cause an allergic reaction. On the other hand, some people may find that there are particular foods which are not tolerated and need to be avoided.

Food allergies are caused when a sensitive person has an adverse reaction to complex proteins. Flavorings rarely contain any proteins. If they do, then the proteins are usually only simple proteins that should not cause an allergic reaction. If a flavoring contains complex proteins, then the source of the protein will be included in the ingredient list on the product label.

If you do have an allergy, we would ask that your doctor provide the name of the specific flavors or components in writing, we will then respond to your physician. As you may know, flavors often have complex formulations, containing many ingredients. The research may take several weeks to complete so we thank you for your patience.

Please send to:

Unilever Consumer Services
800 Sylvan Ave.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632"

Sincerely,

Your friends at Unilever

Some Food Allergy Questions Are Hard to Answer

Like my fellow food allergy bloggers, I sometimes receive questions from readers or followers that are really difficult to answer. 2 recent questions continue to puzzle me.

1. Allergies to food dyes. Does anyone have experience with allergies to food dyes? If so, did you or your loved one grow out of that food allergy? Lynda Mitchell of KFA reminded me--and it is a very good point--that there are artificial and natural food dyes to consider as well.

2. Food allergies as a factor in visitation schedule in divorce. What to do if one parent has a documented substance abuse problem and has refused to learn about food allergy management and how to avoid reactions? The parent in question temporarily has been granted unsupervised short day visits, is not in treatment for substance abuse, and is seeking overnight visits. Very scary! What resources (in Massachusetts) are available to protect the food allergic child?

If you have any helpful information on either of these questions, please comment below or send an email to jenniferATfoodallergybuzz.com.

Living with Food Allergies Blog Carnival

Check Avoiding Milk Protein later today for the latest edition of the Living with Food Allergies Blog Carnival. There are many good posts to read--thanks to everyone who submitted one! 

I need to schedule more hosts to keep the carnival on track. A few of you wrote to me and I haven't gotten back to you yet. Feel free to nudge me with an email or tweet--jenniferATfoodallergybuzz.com. The activity level here has been so frenetic at times, I actually missed checking email for a few days on and off over the last two months. It's hard for me to believe too!

National School Nurses Day is Today, May 12, 2010

There are days to honor so many people in our community. Did you know today is National School Nurses Day? I am so grateful that my children's elementary school has a full-time nurse there every day. On Twitter and other blogs, I read about food allergic kids with life threatening food allergies attending school where there is no full-time school nurse or no nurse at all. I worry about my food allergic kid at school and we DO have a nurse. I wonder what would it be like without one and feel even more grateful!

There are so many children with food allergies these days, not to mention diabetes, asthma and other medical conditions. Every time I pass by the nurse's office, she has a line of small children waiting for her help. She calls to let me know when there is an injury or symptoms of a new ailment or cold. When they are absent, she calls to find out what they have. She is on top of everything. She has her hands full with a very important job, caring for the health of our children and the school community at least 6 hours a day, 5 days a week during the school year. So, I tip my hat to our wonderful, caring school nurse and to all the school nurses. Thank you!

What's Going On at FAB this Week?

There are two things cookin' here on Food Allergy Buzz this week:

1. Food Allergy Awareness Week (I'm co-hosting tonight's Twitter Party with my food allergy pal Ruth of Best Allergy Sites!) and 
2. the Living with Food Allergies Blog Carnival. This week we are honored to have Karen Blue of Avoiding Milk Protein as our host! If you would like to submit a blog post, please click here 

Locally, I am very grateful that another food allergy mom and I were able to obtain our school principal's support of Food Allergy Awareness Week--she agreed to include a short blurb about Food Allergy Awareness Week and being a PAL in our school's monthly newsletter. Up until now, food allergies hadn't really been spoken about so openly, so that was a big accomplishment. A big thank you to our school principal!

What's going on in your neck of the woods during Food Allergy Awareness Week?

KFA's Faces of Food Allergies

Kids with Food Allergies has a fantastic Food Allergy Awareness Week activity for you and your food allergic kids! It is called Faces of Food Allergies. Send your kids' photos to be included in the online KFA photo gallery. He or she may be the only one in their class, their grade, or even their school with food allergies, but they can see on the KFA website that they are in good company and there are a lot of food allergic kids just like them. It makes a huge difference to know you're not alone. I love KFA's idea!

Food Allergy Awareness Week Twitter Party May 11, 2010

In honor of Food Allergy Awareness Week, Ruth (founder of Best Allergy Sites), and I are thrilled to be hosting a Twitter Party with some amazing guests. We are honored that Julia Bradsher, CEO of FAAN, as well as representatives from the International Food Information Council Foundation are special guests at this year's Food Allergy Awareness Week Twitter Party. The hashtag for this event will be #FAAW, so be sure to include it in your tweets during the party. Twitter handles for our special guests are@FoodAllergy, @JuliaBradsher, @IFICMedia, and @FoodInsightOrg.

Hope you'll join us!

Food Allergy Awareness Week (Twitter Party) (Eastern Time on Twitter)

May 11, 2010,
8:00 PM

http://www.socializr.com/event/299395925

Join FAI's Give It Up Campaign During Food Allergy Awareness Week

The Food Allergy Initiative's Give It Up Campaign is encouraging friends and families to show their support to food allergic loved ones by giving up a favorite food for the duration of Food Allergy Awareness Week, May 9 to May 15. 

FAI also has a special Facebook page where you can send photos or videos about how you're participating in the Give It Up Campaign during Food Allergy Awareness Week this year. Whoa--one lucky participant wins an Apple ipad. If you're usually camera shy, don't be! 

Last but not least, FAI needs your support in writing our elected officials and requesting more funding for research for a cure for food allergies. FAI has done all the hard work and even has a form letter ready to go; you can write your officials straight from the FAI website--no extra work required!

Don't forget to check out FAI's home page and see what FAI is all about. There is a lot of great work going on there and Food Allergy Awareness Week is a great chance to learn more about what wonderful resources the food allergy community has for you and your family, and also how you can get involved!

FAAN Conference in Tarrytown May 8, 2010

The following press release is from our friends at FAAN. I had the opportunity to attend the FAAN conference in Tarrytown last year and it was fantastic!

FAAN’s Annual Food Allergy Conference Comes to Tarrytown

Learn How to “Respect Every Bite” at this Daylong Educational Conference

FAIRFAX, Va. (April 30, 2010) – The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) is bringing together parents, physicians, dietitians, caregivers, and others for its 17th Annual Food Allergy Conferences in Tarrytown, N.Y., an event that promises to give attendees new insights and strategies about food allergies and anaphylaxis.

The daylong conference on May 8 will urge everyone to “Respect Every Bite” and feature topics such as the psychosocial impact of living with food allergies, safety at school, food allergy basics, Camp TAG (a summer camp for children with food allergies and their siblings), and a research update from one of the nation’s top allergists. It is the third of FAAN’s four spring conferences, which have long been known to offer a unique opportunity for individuals managing food allergies to gain a top-notch learning experience while connecting with others who share similar challenges.

This year’s conferences, which were held in Baltimore on March 27, in Las Vegas on April 24, and which will also be held in Oak Brook, Ill., on May 22, now offer attendees more choices in the form of multiple breakout sessions from which to choose.

“We have planned a fantastic program this year that is designed to provide everyone from parents to school nurses to babysitters with the knowledge they need to avoid food allergy reactions, which can be potentially fatal,” said Julia Bradsher, CEO of FAAN. “It doesn’t matter if someone has managed food allergies for years or is newly diagnosed – everyone will gain valuable information.”

Top food allergy researcher Dr. Scott H. Sicherer, professor of pediatrics, clinician, and clinical researcher at Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, N.Y., will be one of the featured speakers in Tarrytown.

“The conference is a fantastic opportunity to learn the nitty-gritty of managing food allergies from a variety of perspectives,” Sicherer said. “I enjoy this venue because participants can ask the various experts all of their questions and receive timely and accurate information and advice on all areas of food allergy. I am looking forward to sharing the many exciting research advances; there is more in the pipeline now than ever before.”

The Tarrytown conference will run from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the Marriott Westchester Hotel, 670 White Plains Road.

For more information or to register for one of FAAN’s Food Allergy Conferences, visit www.foodallergy.org or call (800) 929-4040.

Peanut Butter Blossoms, Summer Temps, and Itchy Hives

We went to a children's birthday party this afternoon. We've known the family for several years. They had a tray of cookies, including peanut blossom cookies on one of the tables. Some children set their cookies right on the tabletop, with no napkin or plate. I make a conscious effort not to worry unnecessarily or to make my son worry. I silently wondered about invisible peanut molecules on the children's hands, on the tabletops, and every other surface their hands touched. 

It was an abnormally warm day here--my thermometer read 86 degrees--and my allergic son often gets hives and is itchy in the summer. He seems to be very sensitive to heat. I don't know if the hives appeared because of the warm temperature today or because of exposure to microscopic bits of peanut, but he was  itchy everywhere for the rest of the day. Good 'ol Benadryl--what would we do without you? Thank goodness we don't have a bottle from one of the recalled lots!

This food allergy and heat hive-itchiness today got me thinking--how common is it to have both food allergies and sensitivity to warm temps? What can one do to avoid the itchiness brought on by warm temps other than stay in air conditioning? Playing outside in summer weather is irresistible, so our summers are just...itchy. In fact, our daily regimen for weeks last summer was a dose of Zyrtec in the morning and Benadryl at night to control the itchiness and eczema. I bet there are many of you who can relate--got any tips to share?

Wow! Zyrtec Recall, Tylenol Recall...

Seeing many visitors in search of more information about the Zyrtec recall. Here's a link to the latest:

http://www.mcneilproductrecall.com/page.jhtml?id=/include/new_recall.inc

I just finished checking our Tylenol, Benadryl, Motrin and Zyrtec bottles and we are ok, thankfully. Be sure to check your medicine cabinet too!