Since starting the allergy section of my site, I have not posted a lot here about the food issues that my family has been dealing with. So if you have not looked around the allergy section, you are probably not aware of my daughter’s nut allergy.
Earlier this year my daughter was diagnosed with a peanut, all tree nut, and sesame allergy. Yes, the family that loves peanut butter pie, peanut baked oatmeal, and many other recipes that contain nuts, is now dealing with nut allergies.
After my daughter was diagnosed with these allergies, I was a bit overwhelmed. I started doing research and reading all I could about nut and peanut allergies. One of the people I contacted, and asked advice from, was SnoWhite from Finding Joy In My Kitchen.
I do not remember how we found each other’s sites, but I have been reading and enjoying Finding Joy In My Kitchen for a long time. We both love to cook and have a very similar styles of cooking.
I knew from reading her site that she was allergic to tree nuts. We emailed back and forth quite a few times, and she has been very helpful in helping me understand not only the allergy, but how my daughter was feeling about the diagnosis.
Our emails back and forth soon turned into a desire to do a series on the subject of food allergies, especially nut and peanut allergies.
Together we want to share our experiences with nut allergies. We will be posting each Wednesday for six weeks. I plan to post mine in the allergy section of my site.
We will be dealing with issues like:
What is a nut allergy? How does an allergy differ from an intolerance?
What can I eat when I have a nut allergy?
Adjusting to a life with nut allergies
How can I have a “normal” social life when I have a nut allergy?
What?!? You want to cook for me? What to do if one of your dinner guests has a nut allergy.
Nut allergies and kids
We hope that this series helps not only those that are dealing with life threatening allergies, but those of you that might have a family member or friend that has a food allergy.
We will be focusing on peanuts and tree nuts, but much of the information will pertain to other life threatening food allergies. I recognize that this series will not appeal to all my readers, but many of you may know someone with a food allergy, maybe even a nut allergy.
We hope that you will join us as we share just two of many perspectives on the challenges associated with food allergies!
Disclaimer: I am not a Doctor. The information in this series is simply my experience in dealing with, and learning to deal with, a nut and peanut allergy. My desire is not to give you medical advice, but to share our journey with you.
I am extremely fortunate not to have any nut allergies in our family (immediate or extended) but its worrisome because at school there are classmates that do, so snacks get to be an issue. so this perspective is most welcome from someone who doesn’t have experience with allergies so we can safely entertain these kids and send in safe snacks for our own kids and their classmates (as well as teacher gifts etc in case one of their kids has this allergy)
As the parent of a teenager with a serious tree nut allergy, I can assure you it gets easier. At first it seems like everything is off limits, but somehow you just adjust. You make different dietary choices and in my experience, children learn very early on to read labels. I am very thankful we have never had to use our epi-pen. Being allergic to tree nuts, peanuts and sesame would be pretty overwhelming, but thank goodness there is a lot of allergy awareness now.
.-= flora´s last blog ..School Lunch Safety =-.
I love this! My little cousin has severe allergies and I want to be better able to help.
Great idea! I’m not allergic to nuts, but I think I’ve developed a sensitivity to them, so I’ve been avoiding them. Would definitely love to learn more from you!
Wow, you should be thankful that it’s just nuts! My son is allergic to all nuts (sesame and sunflower included), wheat, soy, dairy, eggs, and a number of other things that he is sensitive to and so we’re avoiding them. Fortunately, he’s young (16 months), so he doesn’t mind eating beans and cereal (alternately, rice, millet, and amaranth–he’s also gluten free) twice a day every day. But someday he will want to take a bite of his sister’s peanut butter sandwich, and then it won’t be fun explaining to him why he can’t. I just hope he outgrows the allergies! At least some of them! Being vegetarian with that many allergies is NOT fun!
.-= Lisa´s last blog ..Modest Mom Has Another Give Away! =-.
We have both gluten-free kids and nut free children in our home. My one son has nut allergies plus coconut and shell fish. We tease him that he’s allergic to anything in a shell. He’s 18 now and has had these allergies since he was a toddler now he notices that sunflower seeds give him a problem (it’s the shell thing.)
Baking can get pretty boring with gluten-free and nut free. So we bring on the chocolate.
Thank you for posting this on your site. My son has a Tree Nut allergy, He is 10 and reads the labels on everything. He had a severe reaction when he was six and has never had to us his epi- pen.
I’m also allergic to tree nuts, peanut sensitivity (not a full blown allergy yet) soy, & dairy! Not fun! I’m excited to see your recipes… I love everything you come up with! 🙂
Lynn, I have a peanut allergy, I’m really bad, In fact if I get around peanuts, I start to look like a smurf. The last time I was in the hospital for 3 days… But anyway, I got out and did a post on my blog about what I had learned about peanuts. If you have the time come on over and read it… You might have to do a search for it in the blog. I think you might find it interesting and helpful… Thank you, Michael’s Kitchen
.-= Michael´s last blog ..Sugar-Crusted Chocolate Cookies or a French Sable cookie =-.
Lynn, Here is the link to the post I did:https://michaelinhiskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/12/peanut-allergy-is-most-common-cause-of.html
I Hope this is some help to anyone that has an allergy…
Mike Long
.-= Michael´s last blog ..Sugar-Crusted Chocolate Cookies or a French Sable cookie =-.
@Michael, Thank you Michael for sharing that link. Thankfully my daughters nut/peanut allergy is not that severe, at least yet. I think I may link to your post next week, when I talk about the seriousness of nut allergies and why nuts allergies are more than an intolerance. Your story is a great example of why you have to be so careful with nut allergies. Thanks again.