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

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

When I was growing up, I was told: If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. My young daughter's food allergies are a pretty sour lemon in our life right now. Every event we go to is darkened by the looming fear of an anaphylactic reaction, by the planning for a reaction, and by the preventative steps we must take to keep her safe and included. It can be exhausting, stressful, and emotional at times. If you don't live this life, it can be hard to understand, but another food a