I have heard, many times, that parents of children with food allergies are over-reacting. That food allergies are not real and that modern parents are overreacting. That’s total nonsense.
Our 10 ½ year old daughter has life threatening food allergies to milk and peanuts. We learned she had food allergies when she was less than a year old. It has been a life altering diagnosis for us. It is very stressful to live with the knowledge that your child, your heart and soul, could potentially die from accidentally ingesting the wrong food.
Because I have a goal of helping to find a cure for food allergies before our little girl goes away to college, I am Co-Chairing the 2009 FAAN Food Allergy Walk in Atlanta (September 26th, Brook Run Park/Dunwoody, Registration at 9AM, Walk at 10AM.) For the most part, working on the Atlanta Food Allergy Walk has been incredibly rewarding. It has also been very frustrating.
Some of our biggest struggles have been raising awareness and getting media coverage. It seems that food allergies are not really “newsworthy. “ My husband, in an attempt to help us in our quest for media coverage asked me if there’s a story in any of this. This question made me come to a very sad realization- our beloved allergy children become newsworthy if they die from an allergic reaction- that’s when the media becomes interested. The steps we all take every minute of every day to keep our children safe is not newsworthy. The stress that we live with on a daily basis is not newsworthy. The fact that the very food that most of us eat without a thought could kill our children is not newsworthy.
Whenever there is an e-coli or salmonella outbreak, the public outcry is HUGE. These stories, of course, are always “newsworthy.” We all agree that our food supply should be safe. Well, folks, welcome to our world. For those of us dealing with food allergies, this is our daily life- there are hidden dangers potentially everywhere.
I am disappointed but I am not disheartened. This Saturday, September 26th, I will walk with an amazing group of people (approximately 700 of them) who have come to support my daughter, my family and the entire food allergy community.
I continue to hope that someone from the Atlanta news media will deem our walk “newsworthy” and will recognize that the story here is that we, the food allergy community, go to extreme measures to keep our loved ones safe. It is a story of love and of strength.
Please join us Saturday, September 26th at Brook Run Park in Dunwoody at the FAAN Food Allergy Walk for a Cure. Go to www.foodallergywalk.org to find a Walk in your area or support a team.
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My son shares the same allergies (same age, diagnosed at 3 months and born in Atlanta) — keep going and working. Hope the walk goes well. I always tell people that the probability IS low that something will happen but the possibility is VERY real — and this is a child we are talking about. He failed a dairy challenge at 1/200th of a teaspoon of milk (this was for a study, his numbers are way too high to be challenged normally). Made me realize how little milk it takes him to react.
When I started my business (www.sweetalexis.com) I asked the owner of a small change of local papers to do a story on us. It turns out that the owners son has been in Alexis’ class for the past three years. They told me that my story, starting an allergen conscious bakery due to my daughters life-threatening food allergies, was not newsworthy. Fortunately, not all feel this way and we’ve had some press but honestly it’s been a struggle. Good luck and keep up the good work…you are helping so many!
We found out our daughter had food allergies just after her first birthday and did our best to avoid everything on the list (wheat, soy, eggs, nuts, shellfish). When I arrived at her daycare one afternoon to pick her up they said someone had accidentally given her saltine crackers for snack. I was naive to think a little Benadryl would fix her right up. It wasn’t until 25 minutes later when I handed her limp unconscious little body over to a paramedic did I realize how much work we had ahead of us. It wasn’t enough that we were careful. It wasn’t enough she carried epi-pens. It wasn’t enough that we had emergency plans in her daycare. None of it was enough. We had to find away to make sure that EVERY person who came in contact with her understood that one mistake could take her life. We will be there to walk. Hoping that one day we finally did enough.
Good post! I have a number of food allergies but so far none have been life-threatening. The new labeling standards have been helpful but do not apply to restaurants, so eating out feels like walking through a minefield.
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