Please Consider a 504 for Food Allergies in School: A Plan for Inclusion, Safety, and Prevention
There is a false assumption that schools already have adequate policies and procedures in place that cover the specific needs of all children with food allergies. I have been guilty of this assumption myself, before my daughter started public school. You hear that a school has a “nut free" lunch table and you assume that they understand how to manage all food allergies. Yet, I soon learned that In Massachusetts, the guidelines for food allergies in public schools are voluntar
The Joys of Cooking for a Picky Allergic Child: My Top Five Egg, Dairy, and Nut Free Recipes
If you are at all like me, you have been blessed with an incredibly picky eater. You know what I'm talking about: the foods can't touch each other on the plate, any new recipes are met with severe suspicion if not open hostility, and there is quite a limit to what will actually cross her lips. When she was two, for the entire year she literally ate only four specific foods: pasta, garlic hummus, cereal, and little orange fruit cups, and often TOGETHER. Can you imagine how tha
My First Experience with a 504 Plan for my Preschooler
She looked at me with her almond eyes full of thought, as if she understood everything. After a long pause she softly said, "It's okay, Mommy. I won't care if no one sits with me at lunch time." My heart broke for her. At four years old, she was exceptionally perceptive. I could tell she was sad, but she didn't want me to worry about her. I wanted to cry; she was trying to take care of me, but I was the mom. I had just explained to my daughter the plan that we created with he
Discovering the Holy Grail: A delicious egg free, dairy free, and nut free cake recipe
I'm an allergy mom but I'm not a fan of eating cardboard cookies or tart tasting chemical cupcakes. I'll give it to you straight: There are a lot of BAD allergy sensitive recipes out there claiming to be "delicious", when in reality, they resemble chalk, mixed with bug spray, with the texture of grainy stale bread. Yum! (Sarcasm.) Hey, I get it! Baking is hard when you have to substitute EVERYTHING! But, I am a baker by hobby and an allergy mom who doesn't give up. I am convi
Finding My Village and My Voice After Anaphylaxis
I still remember all the details from that fateful day; the heaving, the crying, my baby calling out to me from the back seat of my car, which was filled with that thick sour smell. I could feel my pulse pounding in my ears, and my poor little girl was petrified, sick, and unsteady, as we sat at a rest stop on our way home from vacation. I had already driven nearly 4 hours without much sleep the night before, when I realized my two year old daughter was going into anaphylaxis
