Edamommy’s Vegan Diary: Holy Cow - Food Allergies
One edamommy attempts to cut meat out of her life.
Ok, I know it’s early in the ve-game, but this experience has really made me think about people with food allergies, or worse, parents with allergic kids. I read all the labels, try to make sure there are no animal ingredients and away I go. If I make a mistake, the worse that can happen is that I figure it out later and avoid that product, lie to my readers and doom myself to eternal fire.
In other words, there is absolutely no risk. But any such ingredient can prompt an array of reactions in those with food allergies, from an itchy nose to anaphylactic shock.
Nutritional labels are nearly impossible to read with the tiny type and chemical speak. I took 
my 3-year-old daughter grocery shopping and it was impossible to read every label while simultaneously preventing an avalanche in the produce aisle in Whole Foods. (By the way, that’s a whole separate blog—those stacks of fruits and vegetables are rigged. One wrong orange or apple choice and thewhole thing comes tumbling down.) I didn’t feel the least bit confident that I had purchased only foods without animal products in any form.
When I got home, I had to go on several websites to make sure I had purchased a genuine vegan item. In some cases, I hadn’t. All told, I feel pretty lucky that we don’t have food allergies in my family and that this is a risk-free learning adventure. Except for the eternal fire part.
-”Edamommy” Mary Talalay is a writer for KIWI Magazine
March 28th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
It’s going to be hard to comment, because there are few things as devoid of humor as food allergies…
We just went through a scare with friends.
We have a standing playdate with a child who is allergic to a number of things, including all nuts except peanuts and almonds. On Monday, we played and ate our way through the morning as usual, and in the afternoon I got an understandably frantic call from the mom–her son had hives everywhere, and the adult-dose of Benadryl wasn’t cutting it. Could there have been ANYTHING?–we pored over the food labels: nothing.
How frightening to be this mom–and this child. She was one step away from administering the epi-pen, and the subsequent trip to the ER.
They still aren’t sure–follow-up tests at the allergists, etc. Could it be peanuts, which he was just cleared for? Might there have been cross-contamination of another tree-nut in that jar of “safe” peanut butter? Was it my cats? Something else entirely? Allergies are anything but static.
I consider myself blessed that the only allergies my children appear to have are to coming inside before it gets dark and cold, and thankfully, to that damn Spongebob.
March 28th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Wow. I also feel blessed that my daughter has only aversions to things like the potty and PDA (public displays of affection), rather than allergies.
I have a friend from college who has three children and one has a completely vegan diet because of his food allergies. Another friend just told me the long story of how she discovered her infant is allergic to more than 10 different foods and she now can’t eat them because she’s breastfeeding. Our own dear sweet editor at KIWI just went through an elimination diet which enabled her to only eat pink marshmallow peeps and vodka martinis for 6 weeks (or something like that - she had to give up everything).
I have no recollection of anyone in my surroundings as a child (and I am the youngest of 7 with like 6.2 million cousins) having allergies to things other than pollen and bees. What is going on?
Stay tuned to KIWI Magazine (shameless plug) because we’re planning an article for families who are coping with multiple allergies. And keep those comments coming because it is really interesting to read real-world examples of how this affects families.
Happy Friday!
Edamommy
March 28th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I just started reading a book called Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies last night (by Kenneth Bock, M.D., Ballantine, 2007 in case anyone’s interested) and in reading some of the stories about children with food allergies and asthma - oh my WORD. So far neither of my kids have shown any food allergies, but I personally have a sensitivity to bee stings (instead of a big fat bump I get a big fat LIMB. fun stuff) so I try to watch out. The story of one girl’s ultimate death due to food allergies had me in tears. Always fun at midnight.
I really feel for the families that have to deal with this - and at the same time I’m counting my blessings thus far. However, my son is only just shy of 9 months, so there’s still peanuts and eggs to come…….
I’m glad you put the shameless plug on there about multiple allergies - I will be waiting and anticipating. I’ve got friends whose children and spouses have food allergies and I’d love to know more about how I can help when the kids are in my care or if I’m trying to help out by delivering a meal for the family.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:33 am
As an RN who currently works as a school nurse, I was amazed by the amount of children at my school who have severe food allergies! Of course, you have the common culprits such as nuts and eggs. However, I was surprised to see the number of children with allergies such as kiwi, milk, and fruit. (Did you know that children with kiwi allergies are often allergic to latex as well?)
Even more surprising to me was the number of children with severe abdominal/digestive diseases! I have a handful of children with Crohn’s disease and Celiac disease. These poor children!
I attribute the increase in food allergies and digestive diseases to the increase in “chemicals” used to produce our foods. From pestisides to antibiotics, our food sources continue to be altered. Did you know that 70% of a child’s immune system is found in the digestive tract area? We are overloading ourselves (and our children) with toxic chemicals, in my opinion.
Finally, I’ve read many articles lately about how our desire of be ‘clean’ is really affecting allergies. Several studies suggest that children who live on farms or spend a substantial amount of time outdoors have significantly less allergies than those who don’t.
Back to the vegan topic, however. I found this great chat board of mommies who are vegan or trying to go vegan. Check it out…. http://www.mothering.com/discussions/forumdisplay.php?f=366
April 1st, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Sher makes a great point there at the end of her comment re: allergies in relation to antibacterial soaps, cleansers, etc. I was reading a chapter in Healthy Child, Whole Child (from “way back” in 2001) that brought up this matter. I remember reading in ‘01 when my daughter was born that children raised in homes with dogs and cats as pets had fewer allergies to said animals. It stands to reason, from an incredibly low layman’s perspective of immunity, that a repeated exposure on the child’s part in a somewhat controlled environment (ie you’re letting the dog in the house, but not laying the baby in the dog’s bed) would build immunity and keep allergies from forming - and the same could be said for many other illnesses and such. They were also discussing germs and issues like MRSA (famous in 2007, but already in the book in ‘01 - not as “new” news as the media would have had us think last year) on the same basic concept due to antibiotic overuse.
Scary to think that in the 20th and 21st centuries we consider ourselves so much cleaner than our forefathers - but we may well be killing ourselves with stronger stuff because of our chemicals and hyper-cleanliness.