Getting Healthy

Have you ever met the "sick kid" at school? You know the kid that catches everything that goes around. He misses lots of school. Always has a runny nose. You know you're near him when you hear that incessant cough.

Well, I have that kid.

Honestly, I cannot count how many times Tyler has been sick since Christmas time. We are in the double digits, I'm quite sure.

His weak immune system has eventually trickled down to the entire family. Our bodies are all exhausted from fighting each little bug that come in the house.

(If you're wondering why I haven't blogged as much lately, now you understand! I've had a sinus infection for nearly 2 weeks!!)

I consider myself a mom that is pretty health aware. I cook relatively healthy. I limit junk food and sweets. We do vitamins most of the time. Yet, my PA kid is not healthy!

Even though I know starting preschool will bring some of this on, I think we are beyond that at this point. I am concerned about the amount of antibiotics he has been on.

I think that the allergies and eczema he is constantly battling weaken his immune system considerably. My challenge has become how do I strengthen that immune system so that his body can fight every little bug that comes his way?

This summer I will be embarking on a bit of a journey to get him as healthy as possible in next 3 months so that his body is strong enough to have a healthier fall and winter once school gets under way again.

Here are some things I will be doing:

1. Keeping him home with me during the week, away from multiple children he might encounter in a preschool/daycare environment so his immune system can rest a little. (This does not include occasional play dates, zoo trips, park trips, etc. and church each week.)

2. Spend time outdoors, as I think there is a lot of healing just being outside in the sun (this will be limited somewhat due to his environmental allergies).

3. Eat mainly organic fruits and vegetables this summer. (I will be growing my own organic vegetable garden for some of these, the others I will get from our local farmer's market).

4. Incorporate multiple types of whole grains into his diet. (This will require lots of research on my part but the fact I have switched to more whole wheat is not doing the trick.)

5. Make sure he is eating several servings of both fruit and veggies each day. (This will require diligent menu and snack planning on my part...not a bad thing!).

6. Limit "junk food" to only a couple of times a week. (I think taking it out totally would backfire, but I can even make wise choices in the "bad" stuff I allow him to eat.)

7. Allergy proof our home, particularly his room, as much as possible.

I'm sure there are more things I should do but I think a list of seven is a bit overwhelming! I will be blogging about this. This will be a series throughout the summer each Wednesday that will be called "A Healthy PA Kid." I would love for others to join me!!

Goodbye Nut Buddy!

Every couple of months my husband and I sneak away on a date night and I almost always request that we get something with nuts!

We all do avoid peanuts and cashews since those are Tyler's most severe allergies but the allergist gave us the OK to sneak an almond or pecan on occasion when we are away. I absolutely love nuts but admit I feel guilty about it sometimes.

One tradition for Brad and I has been to eat the delicious roasted almonds they sell at Detroit Pistons games, our local NBA team. I'm not sure if I enjoy the almonds or the game more!

About a month or two ago, it was no different. Brad brought some almonds home from a game he went to with a friend. The kids were in bed and we ate our beloved nuts. Brad abruptly stopped eating them without saying much. About 15 minutes later, he told me he was having a reaction to something. (He has other food allergies so he knows "that feeling.")

Being the nut allergy mom I am, I realized it was to probably to the almonds and I freaked out. He took Benadryl and I knew right where Tyler's Epi Pens were if we needed them (two Epi Jr.'s equal one adult dose.)

He insisted he did not have a nut allergy but the Benadryl helped stop the reaction. I insisited he go in for allergy testing. Finally (after lots and lots of begging!), last week he did.

The verdict? An allergy to almonds and hazelnuts!!

He is now a member of the Epi Pen toting club. Tyler thinks its pretty cool that Daddy has a nut allergy and an Epi Pen now. (I'm not feeling so happy about it!)

Nothing really changes around our house, except that now I have no one in the house that I can sneak out of the house and safely eat nuts with!

This is proof that food allergies, including nuts, can develop at any age.

While part of me is relieved to have an answer about the "itchy throat issue," I have my own little bit of grief to deal with. Now I have two nut allergy people to worry about in our house!

Mystery Reaction

Chances are if you have a child with severe allergies, you have had the "mystery reaction." Our home is no different.

Yesterday morning when I walked into Tyler's room, it appeared that he had a black eye. When I turned the lights on, his entire left eye was swollen. The eyelid was so swollen it was half shut. The white of his eye was very blood shot. The area below the eye was purple. I was alarmed but thought it was a bad case of pink eye. (Man, I can be clueless sometimes!)

I rushed him the to the doctor and it was actually an allergic reaction. To what? I have no idea! His meal the night before (meatloaf and baked potatoes) was made entirely from scratch by me.

After dinner, he played outside with his brother and dad. My guess is that one of the plants in our backyard (or possibly even the grass) caused the reaction. What is a little perplexing is the fact that he had a bath before bed.

This is the most dramatic "mystery reaction" we have had to date. I'm not going to forbid him to play outside. That would be cruel. But, I will play close attention to what he comes into contact with.

What is your most recent "mystery reaction?"

Amazon Sale on Enjoy Life Foods

I'm back! Little by little, we are all recovering from our illness last week. Thank you for all of your prayers and concerns.

I've got some misc tidbits today to play catch up on today.

Amazon Sale

Have you tried Enjoy Life Foods? They have incredible food even if you don't have food allergies! Amazon has all of their products 20% off right now. They are made in a dedicated nut free facility. Plus, they are free of all 8 major allergens, as well potato, sesame and sulfites.

A few things you can find are:

Remember, buying in bulk is key in food allergies (like these items are sold). They will certainly last a year or more. You will always have a safe (and delicious!) treat.

You can find the complete line of their products here. Just enter ENJOYLIF at checkout.

(Remember, purchasing these products or anything from Amazon through a link on this blog helps support it!!)


Food Allergy Week

Did you remember it was food allergy awareness last week? I nearly did. Did you hear about food allergies from an unexpected place? Something really exciting happened in the midst of my crazy week that reminded how reward food allergy work truly can be. You will have to wait until tomorrow for that, though!


Detroit Support Group Meeting

Finally, if you are in the Detroit area, the next support group meeting is tonight. (Yes, no notice is better than none!). If you are interested, you can visit the website. If you are in the Detroit area and would like to be added to the mailing list, please email me cofafmichigan AT yahoo DOT com.

Round Three & A Break

The stomach flu is making its third appearance in our home since January. But, who's counting, right? This usually hits everyone very hard and leaves me one tired Mommy! Last week was my turn to have my own health issues. Thankfully I got some rest so I can care for everyone.

As a result of all of this "fun," I will be taking a blogging break this week. I will return next Monday when hopefully everyone in the home will be healthy.

Eating Peanut Butter M&M's?!?

First, I would like to apologize for my little mini blogging hiatus this week. I will be back to normal tomorrow. Since our home never seems to lack drama, the fact that I fell down a flight of stairs two days ago will surprise no one! Things like sitting and blogging have been a bit of a challenge. Today, however, I am feeling a little less sore.

Instead of reading something I wrote, I strongly encourage you to visit Ask About My Peanut Allergy. This is a blog about a boy in Louisiana who has been undergoing peanut desensitization. You will be overjoyed with this child who has been ingesting peanut flour for about a year now. His snack recently was peanut butter M&M's....with no reaction.

I like this blog to be a place of encouragement and I can't write anything even close to the promise that this post brings. It absolutely brings tears to my eyes!

On the Road with a Peanut Allergy - Part 1

Eating out is one of the biggest challenges when dealing with a food allergy, particularly a peanut allergy. Last week we took a trip to Springfield, IL (the town the boys were born) and Chicago, IL. We were gone for 5 days and there was a lot of eating out that happened!

I will chronicle each meal (yes, I am that detailed), what Tyler ate, and the reason I allowed him to eat it. I know for many of my readers, eating away from home seems a near impossibility. The thought of being on the road for 5 days and eating out frequently is enough to send them into a cold sweat.

Hopefully, by showing what we did, I can help you see that traveling, eating out, and safety really can go hand in hand as long as plenty of research and planning is involved.

I had quite the challenge on the trip down to Illinois. Not only was I managing Tyler's peanut allergy, I was also caring for a 2 year old that was recently out of the hospital and was on a very, very bland diet. Managing PA while traveling is a challenge, but when you add in the sick child, it really kept me on my toes!

Here is a little glimpse into our trip as it pertained to eating:

Friday, April 24

Breakfast: McDonald's. The boys split a sausage egg McMuffin. (Tyler ate half the English muffin with the sausage, Dylan ate the other half of the English McMuffin with the egg to accommodate his "no grease" issues).

Lunch: We stopped at a truck stop where Tyler got a cheeseburger at Burger King and Dylan was able to get a chicken taco at Taco Bell with a little cheese. Man, was I glad there were several choices!!

Dinner: We ate at a BBQ joint called Hickory River. Their website shows they are safe. Tyler ate mac & cheese and some fried okra. Dylan was able to eat grilled turkey and mashed potatoes.

Saturday, April 25

Breakfast: Home cooked at a friend's house (Dylan's dietary restrictions were thankfully lifted on this day!! Yeah!!)

Lunch: TGI Friday's. Tyler ordered pizza. I explained to the waiter about Tyler's allergies, he spoke with the chef, and he assured me it would be safe.

Dinner: Dinner with friends, home cooked.

Sunday, April 26

Breakfast: Mostly home cooked at a friend's house (more on this meal on Thursday because we had "issues")

Lunch: Home cooked meal at a friend's house

Dinner: Home cooked meal at a friend's house

Monday, April 27

Breakfast: Home cooked meal at a friend's house

Lunch: McDonald's chicken nuggets

Dinner: Olive Garden; Tyler ate spaghetti


Tuesday, April 28

Breakfast: At the hotel. Normally this would not be OK with me but there were some safe options. He ate prepackaged Yoplait yogurt and a sausage patty.

Lunch: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. He ate a burger and fries. I explained in detail to the waitress about his allergy and she assured me of the food's safety.

Dinner: CiCi's

Wednesday, April 29

Breakfast: At the hotel again, repeat of previous day with some scrabled eggs

Lunch: Burger King, chicken nuggets

Dinner: Boston Market, Tyler ate chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn bread

All in all, we had a great trip! I always have a little anxiety when we are somewhere unfamiliar. You will notice Tyler always ate very simple meals. They may not have been the most healthy meals but his allergy is more important while traveling.

All of the families who cooked for Tyler were well educated about his allergy. Most of them had cooked for him since he was a baby. So I did not have many qualms about that.

As I stated, we had one issue. I will talk about that more in detail on Thursday.

Review of CiCi's Pizza

During a recent Facebook discussion, one PA mom said that her child's favorite "safe" place to eat is CiCi's pizza. Since we don't have one very close to us, Tyler had not tried CiCi's yet.

I will admit CiCi's is near and dear to my heart. I ate it all the time in graduate school. In fact when my husband and I were just getting to know each other, that was where we went. It was away from campus and CHEAP.

So, when we went to Illinois on vacation last week (more details on that tomorrow), we found one so that Tyler could try his first buffet. He has never had the experience of being away from home and getting to choose anything he wants to eat. He loved it!

On his first trip up, he got way more food than his little tummy could handle. But, it was his first experience at a buffet. One he tried a few things, I let him go back and get a few more things that he really liked. I'm not normally an advocate of wasting food but I allowed it that day.

The quality? Well, its cheap pizza. But can pizza really be "bad?" Not in my opinion! The safety far outweighs it not being the world's best pizza. (But it's still good!!)

The best part of all this is from their website:

None of our products contain peanuts, peanut oil or are processed in a plant that processes nuts.

Not only do they have pizza, they also have desserts. This includes brownies, apple pizza, and cinnamon sticks. I admit, this made me a tiny bit nervous. Brownies? Without cross contamination issues? That I have not made? Yep!!

The price could not be beat. Adults were $3.99. Kids 4-12 were $1.69. Kids under 3 (i.e. Dylan) were free! We all drank water to save money so I'm not sure what the price of drinks were.

In the end, we had a blast. I enjoyed watching Tyler enjoy himself at his first buffet. These are the types of things children without food allergies take for granted. We made a memory that day and it was a good one!

Oh, yeah. My non PA kid loved it, too!


The nearest Cici's is about 45 minutes from our house. We had such a positive experience that, as a special treat, we will make the trip and induldge in this "safe" buffet again.

Anyone else have a great experience with CiCi's?

Weekend Link

This weekend my posting is a little light. We returned from vacation on Wednesday only for me to go straight to jury duty. Things should return to normal tomorrow.

I did find one link this week that is worth passing along. Beside reading on food allergies, I also love reading about home organization. I was excited this week to see one of my favorite home org blogs wrote an article on food allergies, too.

You can check out "11 Ways to Manage Your Child's Food Allergies with Organization," click here.

The Results are In: It's a Boy!!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our weekend discussion last weekend, sharing if your PA kid is a boy or a girl. Many of you also mentioned the gender of relatives and classmates. Those are included in the results, as well.

With 54 participating in the survey, here are the results:

BOY: 46
GIRL: 22

So, is there a connection between gender and a peanut allergy? Read what one respondent said:

"My allergic one is also a boy (peanut & much more). My 2 girls have no allergies at all. I mentioned this to the allergist and he said something about that pesky x chromosome. I won't be at all surprised if they figure out one day allergic tendencies reside on the X so that's why more boys have them."

Anyone else find this fascinating?