We were already looking for a change when my family decided to sell our home and conquer my son’s peanut allergy by my husband moving in with his mom and me moving the kids and dog up to Utah for our son’s oral immunotherapy. None of us knew what that meant yet, but we knew that the treatment would provide us a freedom when we were done we had not had before.
Amy Billington
Fueled by coffee and a passion for helping families living with food allergies.
Author: Amy Billington (page 3 of 6)
It’s Sunday and in my house, that means it’s meal planning day. A necessary evil to keep on track with our budget and our health. If there’s one thing that does the most to save on our grocery bill and my sanity, it’s this. No more panicked pizza ordering to the tune of $25 a pop. Now, the actual planning itself has it’s own issues. I don’t know why this is the one area my family chooses not to have an opinion but suddenly when I ask what they want for dinner, all I hear is crickets. Sure enough, if I come up with something healthy and amazing, they detest it and wonder why I didn’t make something else. Um…..?
For most, Halloween is a fun night of no-so-scary goblins and innocent fun as kids run up and down neighborhood streets asking for treats. For most, the only fear is what mom or dad is going to squirrel away while they sleep. Children with food allergies have many fears on Halloween , however:
Where have I been, you may ask? In my own head and it’s a mess.
Here’s the thing: I’ve set myself up to be a go-to for a mom’s perspective on food allergies, oral immunotherapy and general health and wellness tips. I take this role seriously and as such, I wanted to curb my spur of the moment, passion-filled, hastily written blog posts and present clear, precise and valuable information…every time. So the result is that I’ve been paralyzed by my own expectations and have produced almost no content over the last couple of weeks.
It’s FALL! Well, at least it is in some parts of the country. It’s a warm 104 degrees here in ‘burbs of Phoenix. I actually kind of want to throat punch the next person posting photos of themselves in cute boots and sweaters. Just kidding. Or am I? There are a lot of things I like about living in the desert (um, no frizzy hair is a win!) but “Fall” is not one of them, namely since we don’t get one. Any time of year, you can take a photo and the outdoor spaces will look identical. It’s sort of eery if you think about it. It may seem I’m off topic but I promise I’m getting to the good stuff. Ready?
Fruit can easily become dessert by adding this dairy free, naturally-sweetened whipped cream. It’s also great on a homemade ice cream sundae. It’s healthy and so simple, the kids can easily help.
Oh my hell. I cannot believe what I did today. As a mom who has navigated the murky waters of food allergies for a number of years, I made an unimaginable screw up. Here’s the background: My son no longer has to worry about his previously deadly peanut allergy and he consumes all other nuts safely. Due to his asthma, we eliminated dairy from his diet, which has seemed to help his symptoms. He misses yogurt deeply so after a little trial and error, he picked a blueberry almond milk yogurt as his favorite.
This is the part where I get to turn that pointing finger back on myself. Continue reading
If your child’s school has a ban on a food, whether it be peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, dairy, gluten, WHATEVER, and you send it anyway because you feel “It’s not my job to keep some XYZ allergy kid safe,” not only are you an asshole, but you are a danger to society and need major reform. By that logic, should my child get to bring a loaded gun to school? He knows how to use it, so that should make it safe for everyone else, right? To you, this may not be a true comparison, but to the parent of a child with a life threatening food allergy, it’s exactly the same. Both are just as lethal to our child.
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We usually buy a bunch of nuts and seeds from the bulk bins and add some chocolate chips and call it a day, but sometimes I get suckered in by the fancier mixtures at the Farmer’s Market. My kids sampled a blend full of pecans, walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, pine nuts, flaxseed, raisins, dates and loved it so I happily paid $8 and walked away. When my son graduated OIT, he food challenged all other nuts and was deemed not allergic to them, so I welcome any chance to keep them in his diet. Well, a month later, no one will touch the bag of deliciousness they begged me to buy. Not even a little bit over yogurt. What’s a mom to do? Chuck the whole thing? No way! Here’s what I did today, instead: Continue reading
I know, I know, it’s hard to wrap your mind around. After that white coat comes off, there’s a real human under there. They have families, lives, political beliefs and mother in laws. So, when they put that white coat on and walk into that exam room, do all prejudices fall away and they only analyze the situation at hand with knowledge from past patients and medical books?
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Amy is an advocate and an educator, passionate about food allergies and an innovative new therapy called OIT. She is a fan of an organic & mostly paleo lifestyle.Top Posts & Pages
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