Another peanut butter ban rant

Dear Roy Robertson,
I understand your frustration regarding the banning of peanut products at your granddaughters school. And I understand the frustration that the peanut farmers feel due to the increase in peanut allergies and the demonizing of the peanut. But the way you're using some of the information in your "article" is a bit off.

When I read this next part, I thought "I think Roy thinks he's found the peanut allergy cure"!

"Further research, released earlier this year, indicates most children can overcome the threat to peanut allergies. The study was conducted by Cambridge University hospitals in the UK.

Researchers took a group of 23 children allergic to peanuts and gave them small amounts of peanuts to eat daily, usually starting with 1 mg. The peanut quantity was increased carefully every two weeks, until the children could eat about five peanuts.

They took this dose daily for at least six weeks, mostly tolerating it well except for some temporary mouth itching or abdominal pain, the report says. The results showed that 21 of the 23 children, or 91 percent, can safely eat at least five peanuts every day without any reaction. One of the children can get two peanuts a day, and one dropped out of the study. After six months, 19 of them could tolerate 12 peanuts at a time, and after one year, 15 participants could tolerate 32 peanuts. Participants said they didn't have to carefully read food labels or fear the allergy anymore.

"This is very exciting, clearly, because here we have somebody who can have anaphylaxis and deadly reaction from trace amounts, and you're converting this person into somebody who can tolerate a significant amount of the food," said Dr. Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, associate professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York".

Are you suggesting that allowing trace amounts of peanuts or peanut butter to come into daily contact with a peanut allergic child will "cure" them somehow? Are you saying that the "peanut butter ban" will somehow keep these peanut allergy kids allergic and you're just trying help cure them by lifting the ban? The study you sited was just that, "a controlled study". This was not some random, daily exposure to peanuts that magically cured the peanut allergies of children. You, Roy Robertson, are letting your frustration color your thinking and not using the your God Given Brain to go about this logically. If you have a problem with the ban then take it up with your school board. Don't go spewing garbage in the newspaper or on the Internet.

And for your statement "Ultimately, safety of the student in question is the responsibility of the parent, with the assistance of the school. Nowhere can I find a policy that removes peanut butter sandwiches from a school to be in place. It’s not a solution, it’s not enforceable, and it’s blatantly unfair to kids who love peanut butter sandwiches".

Um, what if it were your granddaughter that needed special assistance to keep her safe? Let me bet that you'd be the biggest mouthpiece shouting from the roof top that your tax money should be used to do whatever it took to do that. I agree that bans are extreme. And I agree that the parents, the student and the school should all work together to keep the student safe. But did the student and their family ask for the ban? Did the school take it on themselves to do this? And maybe this was the best option for all involved. We don't know because we're only getting one side here.
And guess what Roy? There is a law that protects peanut allergy children or any food allergic children. It's in the Americans With Disabilities Act. Shocking, I know.

Thank you for putting your granddaughters love of the peanut butter sandwich over the health and safety of a child. I'm sure your thoughtfulness is appreciated by the nine year child that you refer to in the article.

And just for the record Roy, I don't take issue with the fact that you're angry about the ban. I take issue with your attitude toward it. Frankly, it drives me nuts.

You can go HERE to read the complete article "School’s plan to ban PBJ sandwiches absurd".

For Gabi

I posted on Facebook the other day that I made some shirts on
Cafe Press for our up coming Food Allergy Walk (see the button on the side to donate to our team PLEASE!!). Gabi asked me to post a link to my shop so that she could see what they looked like. I don't really have a shop. I used the "custom up-loader" and apparently (after 2 days of trying) you can not upload those images to your shop. OY! The shirts came out great but I'm not that tech savvy so the whole thing wasn't without issue. But here's what we're wearing:



Yes, this is a bag, but the front of the T-Shirt looks just like this



And here is the back of the shirt.

The shirts came in today and although the picture is a tad "reddish", I think they look pretty good for my first attempt at making T-Shirts.

Now I just have to make signs....

(pssst... PLEASE GO HERE to donate to our walk team. If money is tight, we'll take prayers too!!) And yes, we started out as Team JaceyBear but he's since decided that particular name is not working for him now that he's 6 years old. We are (as the shirts say) Team Zum. It's all for him. He gets to call the shots :)

The kids are back in school

The kids first day of school was yesterday! I'll be back now. I promise :)

Preparing for school with asthma: The September Epidemic

Originally posted on my blog at WEGO Health:

We only have one and a half weeks before the kids go back to school. School has already resumed in some communities. I'm sad that the boys are going back. Not only does it mean that the care free days of summer are essentially over for us but it also means that the stress of dealing with a child with food allergies and asthma back at school flares up again (flares... yes the "pun" was intended).

I was reading an article on the National Jewish web-page titled the September Epidemic. It seems that emergency room visits for asthmatic children spike during the month of September due to the incidence of respiratory infections. Basically, thanks to the common cold our children get ill and their asthma attacks increase and can become severe.

The article states that because of the close environment of the classroom that the children are now back into, these colds get easily passed around. The solution? Frequent and thorough hand washing. Children need to wash hands several times throughout the day, especially before eating and they need to "wash" hands for a period of time as long as it takes them to sing "Happy Birthday". I know my boys throw on some soap, run their hands under water for three seconds if their lucky and dab them on a towel to dry them off. We'll be working on perfecting our hand washing before their return to school.

Another reason the article states that our children with asthma are more likely to return to the ER during September is because a child's asthma is usually fairly under control during the summer months and parents have gotten lax about administering preventative asthma medication. Controller medications should be given per the doctors instructions and if need be, see your doctor for a review of all instructions and a renewed asthma action plan before the new school year starts.

I have not heard of the "September Epidemic" before I found the National Jewish article today. But I have experienced it.

Have you heard of the September Epidemic? Does your asthmatic child experience more colds in September? My son is also a fall allergy sufferer. Do you think that fall allergies play a part in the September Epidemic too?

For more on the September Epidemic see:

The September epidemic of asthma exacerbations in children: a search for etiology from NIH

The September epidemic of asthma hospitalization: School children as disease vectors from the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Going back to school action plan from National Jewish

Helping Kids with Asthma Prepare for School from American Lung Association

Acknowledging, Accepting and Empathy (my response the Joel Stein and Food Allergies)

I originally wrote this on WEGO Health:

The three words in the title of my post are sometimes the hardest words for us as humans to act out. When it comes to the way we treat other people with health conditions (or let's face it, just in general) these are three words that we need to remember and put into practice in our daily lives.

The title of my post almost was "A part of me still wants to run Joel Stein over with my car". But that probably wouldn't be very accepting of him as a human being now would it? And I wouldn't be acknowledging that he is a person with feelings too. But in January 2009 he didn't acknowledge the feelings of anyone in the food allergy community. He wrote a funny little Op Ed piece titled Nut Allergies: A Yuppie Invention. And he opened it with "Your kid doesn't have an allergy to nuts. Your kid has a parent who needs to feel special". As if it isn't hard enough to get people to take our children's food allergies seriously, Mr. Stein ripped us apart in the L.A. Times, and numerous others jumped on the bandwagon after him. Good times.

I was angry. I know spewed some food allergy rage on twitter, in comments on various articles touting what a genius Mr. Stein was for bringing this issue to the attention of the non food allergy masses, and maybe in a blog post or two. I did manage to keep it civil here on WEGO Health. But never once did I wish that Joel Stein had a child with food allergies. Never once did I wish he had to go through what we went through. I would never wish that on another parent nor would I EVER wish that on an innocent child.

But it seems that food allergies struck the Stein household and Joel's 15 month old son has nut allergies. He was recently diagnosed after a severe reaction and Joel has now been thrown into the role of allergy parent himself. He wrote another little article about it in the August 9th issue of Time Magazine. The article uses humor, and doesn't apologize for his original remarks, but does point to the irony of it all. What's the saying? "Before criticizing someone, walk a mile in their shoes" (or something like that). This is a good saying to remember. For all of us.

How many times have we judged someone due to a health issue that we have no experience with?

"How much pain could he possibly be in"?

"I don't understand why she can't work. How bad can it be"?

"They act like their illness is the end of the world. Get over it already".

"A little wheat/egg/peanut never hurt anybody. What's the big deal"?

Even if we don't or can't understand what a person is going through, it is better to acknowledge that they are ill. Just acknowledging the illness let's the person know that you understand that they are going through SOMETHING.

And accept that life is going to be different now for that person. He may not be able to do the same things that he did before. And in turn, it may affect you. If it affects you and you're bothered by it, imagine how he feels?

And even if you can't do anything about it, try having a little empathy.

Acknowledging, Accepting, and Empathy may not cure someones health condition, but it may certainly go a long way in making them feel better psychologically and at least you aren't kicking someone when their down (Joel Stein). And just remember, illness won't pass you up just because you think you're too smart or witty for it. You can't run or hide. One day you may be walking in those shoes. And you'll hope someone will do the same for you.

OK, I know I left the vacation story hanging...

but, I SWEAR I'll get back to it soon. But for now I'm getting ready for back to school (with food allergies). These are two posts that wrote for WEGO Health this week. Take some tips. Leave some tips. And what are your thoughts on the Allergy Network. Do you have one in your area? Do they charge you to come to your school? Inquiring minds want to know (not because I'm doing this, but we had something like this starting and they charged so I'm just asking...)

Original post on WEGO Health:
Back to school with food allergies

It's that time again. I'm getting both my sons ready to go back to school. Not only do I have to make sure that they have back to school supplies and clothing, but I also have to make sure that my food allergy son is all set with an updated food allergy action plan and that all of his medication is up to date.

This year I have it kind of easy. His teacher for this year was the director at his preschool. She knows him and is aware of his food allergies. I'll only have to do a review with her instead of a full blown lesson. I still have to start getting all of my EPI pen prescriptions refilled. Our insurance company will only let me fill one, two pack every 10 days. I need six 2 packs for the school. I need to start now.

What other things do I usually do?

1. Get an updated Emergency Action Plan for the school .

2. Reprint the list of safe art supplies and have it ready to give to the teacher and request that she go through the classroom and remove any pasta and play dough that was used the previous year.

3. Refill the safe snack box that we keep in the classroom in case I forget to send a snack or in case there is a surprise birthday at school.

4. Bake some cupcakes that will be kept in the freezer at school for any surprise treats or parties that come up.

5. Update and reprint a list of expectations that I have for my son's care (requesting to be notified of birthday parties in advance, requesting to attend any and all field trips, requesting that no food be used in classroom projects without prior authorization, and I believe there is a "Thanksgiving Dinner" that will need to be addressed this year).

6. Sit down and review with my son his role in protecting himself and what he needs to do to keep himself safe (no sharing food, etc.)

7. Call the school and set up an advanced meeting with the teacher to discuss anything new with her and to review all of the procedures that need to be put in place to keep my son safe.

It may sound like a lot but we have this down to a science so it really isn't. And because the teacher already knows him, I expect this year to be even smoother than it has been.

We do not have a 504 Plan in place (we are at a private school), but if you are in a public school and you have a 504 plan this would be a good time to review it and to see if there are any changes that need to be made.

Starting a new school year can be stressful for any student, but it can be extra stressful for students who have a special need like a food allergy. But with advance preparation, the amount of stress due to food allergies can be lessened for all.

What do you do to get your food allergy child ready for a new school year? How do you prep a new teacher to deal with your child's food allergies? Do you have a child that is actually moving to a new school this year? Has that added an extra amount of stress to the new school year?

Share your tips for getting through the new school year jitters with food allergies!!

Original post found here:
Starting a New School Year With Food Allergies

The other day I wrote a post with tips for starting the school year with food allergies. Some of the question in the comments asked if we as food allergy parents thought that it would be beneficial if we put a "group" together in our school system (similar to what was done with the Loudoun Allergy Network to educate our school system and other non food allergy parents about what is necessary to keep our children safe. Loudoun Allergy Network is the only one of it's kind that I'm aware of. We do not have a similar organization in our area. Have you ever thought of starting a network like this in your area or are you in the process of organizing a similar network? Do you think it would help educate the school and other non food allergy individuals about your child's food allergies?

What other suggestions do you have for parents who may be sending their food allergy child to school for the first time? Have you ever met with resistance from a teacher or school to keeping your child safe? How did you handle it?

I know I've asked a lot of questions. Feel free to answer them here or to just share a link to an external blog post that you may have already done that answers any of these questions. Beginning a new school year can be a scary time for those with food allergies. Anything you can add that can help lessen that fear would be much appreciated.

Oh and because I've been eating and gardening too and I love good stuff, I made these last night. And if you haven't tried them. You should. They're addicting. I wish I had more. My stomach doesn't wish it. But I do. I'm just sayin.

Mobile blogging

This is my first attempt at mobile blogging. How do people type with this tiny keyboard? I'll be back soon with a real post. Hopefully I can continue the vacation story.