STAYING SAFE WITH FOOD ALLERGIES

During this COVID-19 pandemic time many people are experiencing a lot of uncertainty and fear regarding how to keep themselves and loved ones safe. But what if you and/or your loved ones have food allergies? This can create an additional level of challenges to deal with. Fortunately, there are some things you can be doing to stay safe and healthy during this time, if you fall into this category:

• Make sure your Epipen is not expired, if you require having an Epipen.
• Make sure you always have your Epipen close by and accessible.
• Read ALL the labels on EVERYTHING! Ingredients can (and do) change without notice.  
• If you are using grocery delivery or grocery pickup, ensure the items you ordered are EXACTLY what you ordered. Store employees who are doing the shopping for you may accidentally select a different product than what you ordered. Many products' packaging can look similar but have slightly different ingredients which could cause you an unexpected reaction. Alternatively, they may substitute what you ordered with another item, if what you ordered is not available. Check and double check.
• If you have safe and non-safe food being eaten in the same house, have a system in place that helps prevent potential cross contamination issues. 
• Safe food items are CLEARLY marked "SAFE".
• Create a safe area in either a kitchen cabinet or kitchen pantry to keep safe food items separate from the non-safe food items.
• Clean counter tops before working with safe food items so there are no non-safe crumbs, ingredients, etc. left behind.
• Wash your hands before you touch safe food products.
• Especially, wash your hands after you touch non-safe food products, so there is not the potential for the non-safe food residue to be placed on items around your home, which could be touched by the person with the food allergy, and they end up with a reaction. 
• Don't share the serving utensils being used at meal time between safe and non-safe foods.
• Respect and honor your food allergies. AVOID the food you know you should. Eating foods, you should not eat will compromise your immune system. Symptoms from food allergies or food intolerance can sometimes appear to be like symptoms for a cold, and now is not the time to have a “cold”. During this pandemic time, you especially do not want to compromise your immune system with foods that will give you symptoms that could lead to actually becoming sick with a cold - or even worse. 
• For example: If you typically get congested when you eat dairy products, that congestion can lead to excess amounts of phlegm that can mess with your ears, eyes and worse, your sinus and bronchial areas. (COVID-19 affects lungs, which is a bronchial area…) 
• Be sure to continue taking your vitamins and/or supplements to keep your immune system healthy. If you are not taking anything, consult with your health care provider regarding what you can take to keep your immune system in tip-top shape (i.e. Vitamin B, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Omega 3, Probiotic, etc.).

These are just a few of the many ways to stay safe now, and in the future, if you or a loved one has food allergies.  

FLYING SAFE WITH SPIRIT AIRLINES

During the last several months, there have been several stories in the news and on social media regarding negative incidents that have occurred involving airlines and people with nut allergies.  I can relate as a mom of four children with multiple food allergies, two of them are allergic to nuts. It can be scary and challenging at times, traveling with them, because not everyone understands the potential for a life-threatening situation.  And when flying, having an anaphylactic incident occur is the last thing I (and I’m sure anyone else) wants to have happen in the air during a flight.

Recently, I was flying from Las Vegas to Kansas City on Spirit airlines by myself, sans kids. As I sat down in my seat and prepared to place my bags on the floor in front of me, I noticed peanut and tree nut shells all over the floor in front of my seat.  Immediately, I stopped what I was doing and accessed the situation.  Sure, it would be great if the airlines could do a “quick” vacuum of the floors between flights – to clean up after the people who seem to think the floor is a garbage can. But that is probably an unrealistic expectation.  

Even though I wasn’t traveling with my children that have food allergies, I knew that whatever I placed on the floor in front of me was going to end up with peanut and tree nut debris all over it – which I would then be bringing into my home.  This was not good.  

When we are traveling with children who have food allergies, especially peanut and tree nut allergies, we will request the flight be nut-free (if possible), we wipe down the trays, seats and areas where our children will be touching and sitting, we check around the floor and seat for obvious signs of nuts, etc.  

But when we travel without our children who have food allergies, are we taking the same precautions?  After all, if after our flight we will be heading home and/or will be coming in contact with our children who have food allergies, we are putting them at risk by exposing them to the allergens we picked up on our flight, that we try so hard to keep our children (and homes) free from.  

The initial solution to my dilemma was to ask the flight attendant if I could move to another seat with a “clean” floor area around me, after I explained my situation to him. He was very friendly about my issues, expressed equal concern, and immediately obliged in moving me to a new seat. But as I sat in my “new” seat, I got to thinking that my solution was possibly not the best one, because on Spirit, customers purchase their seats.  Whose ever seat I was now sitting in, may not want my “old” seat.  Or perhaps it is a family traveling together with children, they probably aren’t going to want to split their party apart. I can understand that as a mom. 

The revised solution: I decided to go back to my “old” seat, but asked for several large plastic bags, which the flight attendant gladly gave to me.  I placed a couple of bags on the floor for my feet to rest on (so no debris ends up on my shoes) and I placed my items into the plastic bags that then allowed my items to be safe from the nut debris on the floor. When I got off the plane, I gave the used plastic bags back to the flight attendant to throw out. Crisis averted.  My items were protected and I prevented bringing nut allergens into my home.  Thank you Spirit Airlines for helping my children still be safe, even though they weren’t flying with me this time.

The "Safely Delicious" Story - Food Allergies Changed Our Lives

About 11 years ago, my kitchen, cooking and life was changed when my 3rd child was diagnosed at 18 months old with food allergies.  I knew he couldn't tolerate dairy from when he was born, because anytime I would eat or drink anything with dairy, he would have a reaction since he was being breastfed.  So, once he turned a year old I began giving him food and drinks with either rice milk or soy milk.  For 6 months he would go back and forth with diarrhea that would last for days and then it would stop.  I could not figure out what could be causing this and either could the doctors.  Finally, on Thanksgiving day 2004, he began to have bowel movements that would not stop and kept getting worse, to the point that his bottom was bleeding.  It was horrible!  The next morning I took him to the doctor and requested they run any and all blood work on him, to determine what could be going on with my little guy.

Having to wait for one week for the blood work results was the LONGEST week ever!  I will never forget when the nurse called me to share the results with me - I was floored!   She told me my son was allergic to peanut AND soy!  Peanut???  That was interesting, since he had not yet been introduced to any peanut products, but I was thankful they discovered that prior to us trying peanut with him and then who knows what kind of reaction he would have experienced.  But Soy....WOW!!!  I did not see that one coming!!!  I was speechless!!!  And felt horrible, since I had been giving him soy products to replace the dairy products I knew he wouldn't tolerate, and then to find out that the soy products were just as harmful for him.   After I hung up the phone with the nurse, I proceeded to the refrigerator and threw out the soy milk and any other products that clearly had soy.  But then I began to read the labels on EVERYTHING in my refrigerator and then my pantry.  OMG!!!!  More than half of the food and drinks in my home had soy as an ingredient!  I couldn't believe it!  I actually sat down on the floor in my pantry and had a good cry!!!  All the food I had always eaten and known, was no longer safe or healthy for my child!  What to feed him - and me - now???  Since he was still nursing at the time, my diet needed to change too!  Not only was his diagnose life changing for him, but for me as well!  For the next several days, I remember feeling like I was in a fog about his diagnosis.  

At the time I didn't really know any other moms that had children with food allergies.  This was a whole new world for me.  But as with everything else in my life, once the shock wore off, I dove right into learning everything and anything I could about food allergies - especially the ones my son had.  My grocery shopping changed.  It took twice as long to shop because I had to read EVERY label to confirm it was soy free, peanut free and dairy free.  My cooking changed.  I became a pro at learning what foods could replace the allergy laden ones - and still taste good.  And as my child entered the pre-school world, I learned how to prepare and cook allergy-free Kosher food, so that my son could enjoy lunch with his peers at the Jewish preschool he was attending.  The preschool provided Kosher lunch for the children, but most of it he was allergic to.  So I would meet once a month with the school chef who would share with me the menu for the month and we would discuss what I could make instead to replace what they were serving, so he could eat lunch with his friends - and it would still be Kosher.  Not only did the food I was preparing have to be Kosher, but the items I was using to prepare the food needed to be items that had not been used with non-Kosher food.  So I bought new pots and utensils and created an area in my pantry that was exclusively for Kosher only food and items. 

Originally, they offered he could bring his own lunch, but if it wasn't Kosher, he would not be allowed to eat it in the classroom with the other students - since only Kosher foods were allowed in the classrooms.  He would need to eat it somewhere separate by himself with a teacher assistant.  That didn't seem like a good solution.  Part of the fun of attending preschool is the socializing the children are able to experience with their friends - especially during snack time and lunch time.  Thank God, the preschool was wonderful in working with me, teaching me about Kosher food and preparation, and my son was able to fully experience lunch with his friends.  That experience inspired me to continue on my quest to create and make foods that were allergy-free my son could eat, but would be similar to what his friends were eating.

Then in 2007, my 4th child was diagnosed at 16 months old with food allergies.  This was discovered because he had a serious reaction to a food item that had cashews in it.  Upon eating this item, he broke out with hives all over his body and face and started throwing up.  The next day we took him to the doctor and blood tests were done.  One week later it was confirmed that he was allergic to peanut, tree nuts, dairy & gluten.   WOW!!!  Here we go again - but this time I handled it MUCH better!  Food allergies had been a part of my life for several years at this point, but now I needed to add Gluten and Tree-Nuts to the mix.  I didn't miss a beat, and started doing for him, what I had already been doing for his older brother.

One of the many results of having children with food allergies is that I have been making allergy-free snacks for them, so they would feel included with their friends at school and birthday parties. With the support and encouragement from them, family and friends, I have FINALLY decided to start sharing with the rest of the world some of the ALLERGY-FREE snacks my children (and their friends) believe are "delicious."  I started a company called "SAFELY DELICIOUS."

These allergy-free snacks have NO GLUTEN, NO DAIRY, NO PEANUT, NO TREE-NUTS, NO SOY, NO EGG.  At this time we offer two types of snacks - Yummy Bites (made w/ Semi-Sweet Chocolate) AND Yummy Dark Bites (made with Dark Chocolate).  These snacks somewhat resemble Muddy Buddies, but are healthier AND allergy-free!  We are also currently working on some new allergy-free recipes and hope to have those available in the near future.

My website is www.safelydelicious.com. You can also follow me on Facebook at Safely Delicious; Twitter - @safelydelicious; or email me at safelydelicious@gmail.com. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post.  Please feel free to share this information about my company and blog with family and friends - especially those with food allergies!   THANK YOU!!!