Every year I count on Hershey’s chocolate chips for my holiday baking. Now I am thinking that perhaps I will need to buy them from a safe peanut-free internet site. You see, Hershey’s has decided that Mexico is a wonderful place to manufacture some of their products. I do not know the conditions of these factories and I do not know how well they adhere to the food allergy guidelines.  

If a Hershey product says “Mfd. by The Hershey Co.” on the back near the ingredients, I know that it was made in Hershey, Pa. If it says ”Distributed by The Hershey Co.” it did not come from Hershey. In fact, we don’t know where it came from. They’re tricky like that.  

And if you haven’t figured it out yet, the chocolate chips now say Distributed by. I’m very upset. I will more than likely be buying my baking chips from Vermont Nut Free Chocolates. I am not thrilled about this as I hate that I can’t just buy my chips when they are on sale for $2.00 at the store. I am now paying considerably more plus shipping. Yes, my son will be safe but why did Hershey’s have to sell out and take away jobs from us Americans. It’s disgraceful.

Halloween this year was a crazy mess. We arrived home from Disney around 2:00 in the afternoon. Trick-or-treaters were due to arrive at 6:00.  We came home, unloaded the car and then headed to K-Mart to get some candy for the TOTers and for Alex and Isabelle. Alex was surprisingly happy to dress up as a vampire and hand out candy to the kids. I’m hoping this is the start of something new for us. It was wonderful being able to buy the kids candy (and popcorn) I knew they could have while still giving them that Halloween rush. We had a ton of kids come to the house and at the end of the night Alex informed me that he “sold” a lot of candy. Lol! If only that were true! Ha!

Through TwitterMoms.com I was able to participate in receiving a free bag of Necco wafers. As one of the first 50 people you had to send an email to Necco with your address. When I did so, I asked if the wafers were peanut-allergy friendly. If they weren’t I simply said to disregard my email.

A week or so later I got an email stating that I was one of the first to respond and that the wafers were peanut-allergy safe! Yay!

When we got home from Disney our bag of Necco’s were waiting for us. Neither of my kids liked the Clove flavor but I kind of expected that, the orange and lime however were big hits! We also got a few rolls of the chocolate wafers and they were very tasty!

Pick up a bag the next time you see them, the rolls are small so they fit nicely in a diaper bag or purse. It’s great when you need that quick treat for the kids so you can get through the grocery store!

We just got back from a trip to Disney World and it was wonderful! I wish that I could say that I had tons of fabulous information for you but the truth is that we didn’t eat all that many meals *in* Disney. However, they are very knowledgable of food allergies and cater to those people extremely well. Here are some standout things that Disney does/has for food allergy sufferers:

1. Every Disney theme park has an information center. At this information center you can ask for a stapled packet of papers that lists their restaurant and food vendors in that park. It then is broken down by types of food and what allergens/cross-contamination possibilities exist at certain places to eat. A great little packet to keep with you during your stay at the park.
2. Each restaurant is well versed in the plight of the food allergic patron. However, Chef Mickey’s was an all-star  restaurant to eat at with a peanut allergy. The chef came to our table and took me around the buffet letting me know what was and was not safe. He explained that they are trying to go as peanut-free as possible. They are even trying to become a self-sufficient restaurant so they control everything that goes into the food. There were only a few breakfast items my son could not have that included granola (the only item left with actual peanuts in them), French toast (chance of x-contamination at the bakery it’s made at) and a couple of the desserts such as brownies. The highlight for my son was the Krispy Kreme doughnut which is peanut and x-contamination free.
3. T-Rex Cafe was another great restaurant to work with. Again, the chef came out and told us what was and wasn’t safe and that the only peanut product they had was not used anywhere near the kids meal station. While I realize that a peanut product (a dip I believe?) being in the kitchen could cause x-cont. issues, I felt comfortable with the chef’s knowledge of food products to trust him. My son was fine and even got to have a slushey for a drink.
4. Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Pops. If you’ve ever been to Disney you know what I’m talking about. The popsicle is shaped like Mickey’s head and is vanilla ice cream covered in a hard chocolate shell. Yum-O! These are made by Nestle specifically for Disney and are free of peanut and tree nut allergens. My son had one at each Disney park we went to. He loved it.
5. All (pretty sure that’s what the paper said) Disney restaurants used a Canola oil in their kitchens. No peanut oil used at all.

So there you have it. My top five reasons to spend your next vacation at Disney!!

Halloween has always been a source of worry for me. To trick-or-treat or not to trick-or-treat, that has always been the question.

When Alex was first diagnosed Boscov’s department store would give children with diabetes a $10.00 gift card to their store. I approached them about Alex’s peanut allergy and they let him participate also. All you had to do was give your candy bag to the customer service desk and they give you the card. Awesome! That worked until Alex was about 4. When he turned five he wanted to TOT and not give away his candy. Hmmmm. That’s a problem.

So we tried TOT’ing and denying candy with nuts. That left very few houses to receive candy from. It also got old telling people “he’s allergic to peanuts but thanks anyway”. Several times I got the “but this one doesn’t have peanuts” and then I would have to quickly explain that he still can’t have it.

This year we are getting home from Disney the night of TOT’ing. I’m hoping that is my saving grace. I have explained to Alex that he can dress up and give out candy while enjoying candy that is safe for him. Then the following night they can dress up and go to our parents’ homes and TOT there. As of now he seems ok with this. Whether that still holds true on the 30th remains to be seen. Fingers crossed!

Wow, I had no idea it was this long since I last posted. We are now into a new school year. The one where he eats at school. And everything is fine!

We have an action plan in place and he sits at a separate table in the lunchroom. By separate I mean it is his table only. No other children sit there, not even during other lunch periods. Then each day the teacher asks if anyone has a peanut-free lunch and if they do then they can sit with Alex. The only problem is that it only sits four kids and usually more want to sit with him! He loves it.

The school is not peanut-free but the two first-grade classrooms are. I made a list of safe snacks the teacher can use to buy snacks for the classroom. At the beginning of the year they asked for a $10.00 donation to buy snacks for the year. That way everyone is eating the same thing and it is safe to eat.

Other than that things have been uneventful. We leave for DisneyWorld in 10 days and I have been hearing wonderful things about their food allergy awareness. Hopefully that holds true. I’ll have a full report when we get back.

Hope everyone out there is having a wonderful fall!

The kindergarten journey is almost over. We have had a good year and I am very much looking forward to next year. However, next year brings a whole new set of issues to the table. For instance:

1. How far away will the first-grade classroom be from the nurse’s office?
2. Will the epi-pens be allowed in the classroom?
3. How is lunch going to be handled?
4. Will there be a peanut-free table or a peanut-free section of a table?
5. Will there be snacktime?
6. What in the world am I going to make this child for lunch every day????

Hopefully we can get most of these questions answered a few weeks before school starts on August 30. Looking forward to having my boy home for the summer!!

This was a great idea for a birthday treat. It was cute and as peanut-free as I could make it while still buying mainstream ingredients.

Nilla Wafer Hamburgers

Two Nilla Wafers
One Snack Size Peppermint Patty
Vanilla Icing tinted red and some tinted yellow
Sesame Seeds

No need for a description, I’ll just show the picture:

February 2. Groundhog’s Day. Alex’s birthday.

I am trying to come up with a cute birthday treat for Alex’s kindergarten class that is peanut-free, not boring and still utilizes the snack sheet that I gave at the beginning of the year.

I haven’t come up with anything yet. I thought about buying the Keebler fudge stripe cookies and putting a little icing face on them but that seems kind of dumb. Baked goods are out. Although cookies aren’t exactly healthy, they would be quicker to eat than say a box of Nerds. Alex first requested Lucky Charms cereal. I was trying to figure out if I could make little pots of gold to put the cereal in but I haven’t spent enough time searching the net for ideas.

I guess if all else fails, I’ll just send in a couple boxes of Lucky Charms and they can enjoy that snack for several days. We shall see. I’ll update when I come to a decision.

Sounds like a book. Lol.

Our first allergist appointment went well. I was told things I already knew and we also found out some things we were 99% sure we knew and I found out something that made me feel very, I can’t find the right word, I’ll go with deflated.

First, the peanut allergy. When the nurse at the allergist’s office asked if he had any allergies, I said he was allergic to peanuts. She grimaced and said, “oh that’s a big one”, thank you I’m very aware of that. I know I sound snide but I’m well aware of how bad a peanut allergy is. Anyway, the doctor came in and asked about his past reactions and what prompted us to see her today. I told her that we had never seen an allergist and I just wanted to get her opinions on some things. She was very nice and we talked a lot about Alex’s history.

Second, other allergies. Although he was never formally diagnosed with cat, dog, seasonal allergies, we were pretty sure he had them. He can’t go to anyone’s house with a cat or dog without having an allergic reaction and come March, he is one miserable little man. So, you probably know how we find this stuff out. Skin test it is. Alex had 23 tests done on his back. The worst part of this whole thing was not having him touch his back for 15 minutes. He kept saying it itched. It was a loooooong 15 minutes.

Other allergies include cat, dog, grass pollen and lambs quarter. The latter is apparently a fall weed. Who knew. What the allergist found interesting is that he tested negative for tree pollen. So we aren’t sure what is causing his spring allergies. She said it could be a tree they don’t test for. Interesting.

Now for the biggie. The one that has left me deflated. Prior to this appointment, from what I have read, Alex had about a 50-75% chance of reacting to peanuts based on his RAST. However, today his wheal was 15mm and left me with the grave knowledge that he has a 95% chance of reacting to a peanut ingestion. It would be 100% but the allergist said that with a RAST as low as his it puts him in a very grey area.

She did say that she would not say he will never outgrow this. She has some patients where she tells the family point blank that there is no chance they will outgrow it based on wheal size and RAST. Again, Alex is in that grey area based on his own RAST, wheal and past reaction history. She told me it’s not futile to hold onto hope. So that’s what I’m doing. Hoping, praying, wishing.