Food Allergy Fun with Gingerbread Houses

As promised, our finished gingerbread house (a big thanks again to A&J Bakery for sending us one of their fantastic allergy friendly gingerbread house kits to assemble, decorate and share!). I did the assembly and my 10 year old son was in charge of decoration. It was a lot of fun and easy to do!

Give to this Fun Food Allergy Friendly Chocolate Campaign!

I received this interesting, irresistible message and just HAD to share it! By the way if you haven't had Seth Ellis chocolates or Sun Cups, you are really missing out! See this 2009 Food Allergy Buzz post about Seth Ellis pre-SunCups.

 

"Hello Friends ,

I wanted to draw everyone's attention to a great effort to help children with allergies. My company Seth Ellis Chocolatiers the makers of Boulder-based Sun Cups, a gluten, nut, corn and soy allergen free chocolate treat, is running an Indiegogo campaign. We want to give free Sun Cups to as many kids with food allergies as possible. I love our product and consider myself to be picky about my chocolate.

It's quite touching to hear the stories of kids with allergies who get their first-ever chance to eat something wonderful that the vast majority of us take for granted. Please consider supporting this campaign and let others know. (There's a one-year supply of chocolate for whoever refers the most number of funders to the campaign.)

To learn more and donate:http://igg.me/at/suncups/x/5294969

Thanks for your help and have a great week and Holiday season!

Sincerely,

David

P.S. With a very large percentage of the US population having food allergies and our product addressing 7 of the top 8 food allergies and then an added bonus is we are corn allergen free as well it is a very worthy endeavor and we need your help."

Look What Food Allergy Holiday Fun We're Working On!

Thanks to A & J Bakery for sending us an allergy friendly Gingerbread House Kit (free of the big 8 allergens) to share with you. We finished assembling the gingerbread house and will be decorating today! Since this holiday shopping season is so short this year, we wanted to make sure we shared this fun allergy friendly treat with you as soon as possible.

It comes with easy to follow instructions and everything you need except the icing. Super easy and fun and allergy friendly! It is $32.95 from A & J Bakery.

They also are offering chocolate Advent calendars for only $3.49 each. The Advent calendar chocolate contains milk and soy.

Stay tuned for the photo of our finished Gingerbread House and please share your allergy friendly Gingerbread House photo with us!

More on the Science of Peanut and Tree Nut Allergies

I'm back! Like the Energizer Bunny--"keeps going and going and going..."--or a Weeble Wobble--"Weebles wobble but they don't fall down", you'd be hard-pressed to find someone more dogged than me!

In keeping with my tradition of sharing food allergy news, I'd like to share a link to an interesting article "Cracking Nut-Allergy Mechanisms" which was originally published in the October 2013 of Agricultural Research Magazine. The article shares a bit of the science of peanut and tree nut allergies and the related proteins, in relatively easy to understand language for laypeople.

Food Allergy Memory: Then and Now

I have had this blog post growing in my brain for some time now, ever since I saw the article in Boston Globe Magazine about Friendly's. It's funny how life can sidetrack you from things. Food allergies seem so overwhelming. They are such a serious health problem, and then other stuff happens that is so much more overwhelming somehow, and you realize living with food allergies and managing food allergies has become just a part of life. The label checking, restricted list of products, foods, and restaurants...somehow it has all been incorporated into my routine. And I think that is a good thing. We're at peace with the food allergies. We have accepted them and thrive despite them. In the process, we have tried new foods and new recipes, learned so much, and made many new friends.  Isn't it strange, the journey life takes us on?

But getting back to Friendly's now. I can't ever think about Friendly's the same way. My old memories of Friendly's are joyful ice cream-filled memories--a happy place because when I thought of Friendly's, I thought of hot fudge sundaes, and what's not happy about chocolate fudge, and ice cream, and whipped cream?! That's how Friendly's was, until that day my then 3 and 1/2 year old son got this cute sundae, with the ice cream cone hat, and Reese's Pieces eyes and nose, that made his little throat close up. Then Friendly's wasn't a happy place. I look at the Friendly's sign and I remember. "Mama I can't talk. Mama I can't breathe." And the crying. And my fear, not knowing what was wrong with my son. Now the cute sundae seems like a creepy horror movie clown to me.

Don't get me wrong, I still have those happy old memories of Friendly's; and we're slowly accumulating new memories of reaction-free dining out experiences elsewhere, such as Burton's Grill in Hingham, MA. On that note, hats off to Burton's for consistent, worry-free, reaction-free dining out experiences. The staff at Burton's Grill truly "get" food allergies and should be commended for their excellent service and food allergy awareness. We can't wait to find another restaurant like Burton's!

Halloween with Food Allergies a la A & J Bakery

Instead of feeling anxious or worried about Halloween the way I did the first year or two after my now 10 year old son was diagnosed with peanut and nut allergies, I actually look forward to Halloween. It's a lot of fun, and I know he can safely enjoy it just like all the other kids. Every year, we enjoy peanut-free, nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free candy corn from Rhode Island's A&J Bakery. Last week, we were the happy recipients of a package containing A&J's candy corn, maple biscotti, birthday cake biscotti, white chocolate raspberry biscotti and two adorable large iced pumpkin sugar cookies. Anyone who has been following Food Allergy Buzz knows my sons and I love A&J Bakery. We're biased; I'll say it straight out. We've been enjoying baked goods and other sweets from A&J for many years now. I've known the owners for years now, and I have heard Joe explain the efforts he goes thru to source pure, un-contaminated (with peanuts, nuts, gluten...) ingredients. I know, when A&J says something is peanut-free, they mean the ingredients come from a pure peanut-free source AND their bakery is peanut-free. And tree nut-free and gluten-free too!

 

This year, the candy corn comes in attractive, handy reseal-able packages perfect for enjoying at home or gift-giving. We enjoyed trying new biscotti flavors. The maple is quite tasty and I like it with a cup of coffee. My sons got to work eating the birthday cake flavored biscotti right away. Still, my favorite biscotti flavor is the white chocolate raspberry! The three of us shared the delicious big iced pumpkin sugar cookies. The sweet icing and soft sugar cookie is--like all the goodies at A&J--peanut free, tree nut free, and gluten-free.

 

A&J is a family business, owned by Amy and Joe Hitzemann, both graduates of Johnson & Wales.

They are always busy at work coming up with new products. Joe got his start in Opryland and then worked as a bakery manager at Stop and Shop. Amy has been a teacher for years, and is getting her 2nd Master's, now in Counseling. These days, Joe is hard at work at A&J Bakery, from the wee hours in the morning. Amy continues her work as a teacher and then heads to work at the bakery later in the day to do cake decor. They're also parents too! I'm not sure how they do it all. I have a theory--either they don't sleep or they have cloned themselves. But seriously, they're two of the hardest working people I have ever met.

 

A&J is a great place to get your food allergy friendly Halloween goodies. (and don't forget their world-famous allergy friendly gingerbread house next month!) Visit their website, www.ajbakeryri.com, for more info and to check out your options.

Disclosure:My sons & I enjoyed a Halloween package courtesy of A&J Bakery for review/sharing on Food Allergy Buzz.

Food Allergies at School: Plan for Substitute Teachers and Nurses

With the start of school, there are a wealth of blog posts and articles about going back to school with food allergies. One thing that frequently gets overlooked is substitute teachers. None of the schools where I have substitute taught have addressed the issue of food allergies (or asthma, for that matter) with me. You'd think they'd want to let substitute teachers know what their practices are in case of an allergic reaction, and at the bare minimum, make sure the substitute knows how to recognize the symptoms of an allergic reaction...

Having done a good deal of substitute teaching in the past, I wanted to emphasize the importance of having some sort of plan in place for when there is a substitute teacher or substitute nurse at school. After October 1, substitute teachers begin to get calls. Teachers get sick or attend workshops, and your child will end up with a substitute teacher at least once during the year. If your school uses a computerized system for substitute job assignments and/or does not interview substitutes--as is the case in many public school systems--just about anyone who hands in the requisite paperwork may substitute. They may not have a certification as a teacher or experience with children at all. Can you depend on them to recognize an allergic reaction? or an asthma attack?  What if the nurse is out sick?

This is yet another good reason to make sure you have a good plan in place. Your child's regular teacher or the regular school nurse may have it down to a science and you may all be on the same page, but what if there's a substitute? Do your plans depend on a certain person being present or is there something in writing in place, that will work even if the usual players are out?