A few months ago, my children and I went to the supermarket to pick up a few things. As we walked the aisles and stocked our shopping cart, we discussed the different items we passed. My son, who is severely allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, looked at a large plastic container on the shelf and said, “What are those?” I was surprised that he didn’t recognize the peanuts in the box. Sure, he had seen drawings of peanuts in books, but he had never seen them up close and personal. I immediately realized a major flaw in my plan to keep him safe…by keeping him away from peanuts, he was unable to recognize the food that he must avoid!

He then asked, “What’s in that bag?” I answered, “Those are almonds.” His answer? “Oh, I can eat those. They aren’t nuts.” Again…I was forced to face the fact that in my focused desire to keep him safe, I had not given him the tools to protect himself. Sure, I taught him the words “peanut” and “tree nut”, but cashew, pecan, almond…how could I expect my 4-year old to avoid foods he didn’t recognize as a danger? Unlike walnut and hazelnut, there is nothing about the word “pistachio” that would alert him to the risk.

My lesson: As much as I want to keep my son away from the foods that put his health and safety at risk, it is also my job to teach him to protect himself. Though at 4, he has teachers, counselors, siblings and, of course, his parents keeping an eye on him, he must begin taking on some responsibility to advocate for himself. Knowledge is power…and I want my son to have as much power as possible. Because the day will come when he doesn’t have his mother or his teacher looking over his shoulder, and the responsibility to make decisions about what he will and will not eat will rest solely on his shoulders.

So, to empower my son, I picked up every bag of nuts on the shelf: from peanuts to pine nuts, walnuts to pistachios. We talked about almond butter and Cracker Jacks; we looked at bags of trail mix and dried fruit; we discussed how some popcorn might be popped in peanut oil and how some brownies have walnuts in them. Not the most fascinating of conversations for a child, but educational nonetheless…and quite necessary. I know it will take more conversations such as these to alert him to all of the potential dangers out there, and the likelihood is that we won’t ever cover then all. But every talk we have will further prepare him to navigate the food maze on his own. And though I will always want to protect him, I know it is my job to make sure he can protect himself. Fingers crossed…

Written by Robin Davison, MPH, JD
Founder of STAT KIDS (www.statkids.com)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 8:38 am and is filed under Allergy Awareness with Robin, Foodwise, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.