Category: food allergies

Ok, that’s a broad statement. Let me rephrase: maybe I’m not being unnecessarily overprotective about MAM’s food allergies. In talking with my mom today, she spilled the beans about an accidental ingestion that happened on Christmas eve. Witness this scenario:

Christmas eve morning my mom makes herself her typical breakfast–some wheat flake cereal of some sort, topped with yogurt. She looks at the clock, realizes she’s going to be late for an appt, and sticks said breakfast in the fridge. Fast forward a few moments, and MAM is in the kitchen with my aunt who’s visiting for the holidays. She follows Aunt J to the fridge, sees Grandma’s breakfast and asks for it. My aunt, not really versed in MAM’s diet, gives it to her, assuming it must be for her, given the way she motions for it, and goes HOG WILD when she gets it and sits down to eat it. My mom returns from the salon, looking for her breakfast. My aunt says that she gave it to MAM, she thought that it was MAM’s. My mom, being the polite hostess, doesn’t make a big deal out of it with my aunt–just mentions that MAM can only have limited cereals and doesn’t do ANY dairy.

Some how this whole thing goes down without me or BgK realizing it–so I’m none the wiser while we are visiting. But my mom, feeling a little paranoid, watches MAM closely.

The next morning MAM woke up with a runny nose. I chalked it up to the little cold/sniffles that were flying around the house during the holidays, but after today’s conversation, now I’m not so sure. And my mom? She’s now convinced it was that delicious breakfast that made MAM sick.

Did I wig out today? No, I didn’t–my mom felt bad enough. And thankfully, MAM’s reactions while not pleasant, aren’t life threatening. But we both learned the lesson that we really must communicate with everyone, at the risk of hurt feelings, PLEASE DON’T FEED THE CHILD without checking with us first. .

Last night was my first foray into allergen free baking. I’m not much of a baker, and I was definitely putting it off for subconscious reasons, I’m sure.

We had overnight munchkin guests (it was our friends 11th wedding anniversary, so we babysat their 8 yr old and 4 yr old), one of whom requested pancakes in the morning. I was all, “gee, see, MAM can’t really eat pancakes right now, because of all of the stuff she’s allergic too”

And he was all, “well, why don’t you find a recipe that doesn’t have the stuff she can’t have?”

So I go, “I’m looking, but I haven’t found one I’d like to try, and I haven’t gotten all of the different ingredients yet”

And he wins the argument by saying, “You could probably find one online if you looked.”

THANK YOU, BOY CHILD! Why hadn’t I thought of that? So I suddenly felt compelled to just pick a recipes and give it a try. I picked the wrong recipe, but will try again next weekend.

But while I was shopping last night, I did pick up a chocolate cake mix, and it was darn yummy. You’d think that for $4.79 a box, it’d come already baked, iced and good to go, but no. It was just a boxed cake mix that was GFCF, AND it didn’t call for any allergen ingredients to be added. And guess what? The cupcakes turned out great. So I’ve frozen them and now we can BYOC to any upcoming birthday parties. All I need to do is to find icing….