NUT ALLERGIES AND CANDIES

Dear Weeb,

You told me yesterday that one of the teachers took your group upstairs and you got a candy. I asked if it was nut safe and you shrugged.

This horrified me.

We've been talking to you about your nut allergy for two years now! You KNOW that you cannot have whatever food that you fancy. You KNOW that you must see the nut safe sign on foods and read the ingredients. You KNOW that not all parents, teachers or friends understand about nut allergies and how dangerous they can be. You know that sometimes people just forget and it's SO very important to make sure you KNOW that what you are putting in your mouth is safe!

I just cannot believe that you took candy from a teacher and didn't even think of your allergy. I just can't believe it.

You said that you took the candy because it keeps your class quiet.

I told you that you'd be VERY quiet if your tongue and mouth were so swollen that you couldn't get air to breath and even quieter still if you were dead.

I'm sorry I made you cry, baby, but you HAVE to understand how important this is.

It breaks my heart that you have this stupid allergy and I would take it and suffer it myself instead of you, if I could. And though I know better, I will forever blame myself for your having these allergies.

I think I will make up little cards for you to pass out to teachers, friends and parents of friends. It will say:

Hello, I have a tree nut / peanut allergy.

Do you know why peanut allergy is more dangerous than any other allergy? It is because it takes a very small amount of peanut protein to cause a potentially dangerous allergic reaction. Most other foods require a lot of food protein to cause a dangerous reaction. Even food not containing peanuts can be dangerous if it was made on a machine that previously processed a food containing peanuts. Hand lotions and shampoos containing nut oils can be dangerous, too.

I carry an Epi Pen with me at all times. If you think I have gone into Anaphylactic shock, please call 911 and use the Epi Pen.

Maybe MedicAlert has cards that I can order. A card on how to use an Epi Pen would be good too, as I'm sure many people wouldn't have any idea.

Ironically, yesterday we had a 2 year repeat allergy test set up for you. I'd canceled it before Christmas, feeling that since the odds were so unlikely that you would outgrow the allergy (your main allergy is to hazelnut, but you have a mild peanut allergy as well) and since you haven't had any reactions to the foods we eat, it wasn't worth the stress of you doing the test. Scratch tests are not fun and you were more than a little bit upset with the testing two years ago. And even if you have improved a bit, we likely wouldn't change how we're eating. I told you that, provided you don't start reacting to things we eat now, when you are old enough to make the choice to get tested again, we will take you.

Has it really been two years already? Has it ONLY been two years? I'm so sorry you have nut allergies, baby. Please don't eat anything unless you are absolutely CERTAIN that it is safe. Hopefully by the time you want to be tested again, you will have outgrown it. Hopefully they will learn more about these allergies and be closer to 'curing' them! Fingers crossed!