Allergic Girl: Adventures In Living Well With Food Allergies

This is my review of Allergic Girl's new book, Allergic Girl: Adventures In Living Well With Food Allergies.

I can't say enough good things about this book or about Sloane (Allergic Girl) herself.

When my son was first diagnosed with food allergies, I had no idea how to keep him safe or what do to. I turned primarily to the internet for information. Back in 2005 there wasn't much information on web about food allergies. I started out on the Baby Center Food Allergy Board and eventually in 2006 I happened upon a blog called Please Don't Pass The Nuts. Although Sloane's blog is geared more toward adults with food allergies, I found many tips and product reviews that were very helpful to me. Even more helpful was reading what a full and healthy life she lived while having food allergies. As a parent, I couldn't see a future for my son with these awful food allergies. But she was living in New York City, eating out, socializing, working, dating and living safely all while having numerous life threatening food allergies just like my son. She taught me how to make sure we could eat out safely with him. She taught me how to be the best advocate for him and how to start teaching him to advocate for himself.

Low and behold a few short years later, she has put all of her food allergy wisdom into an educational, easy to read book. The book takes you from diagnosis, educating friends and family, keeping yourself safe and being your own best advocate, to putting all of your knowledge to use in the real world. The book is geared toward adults with food allergies, but I think that is the BEST part of the book. There are many fantastic books about children with food allergies. But there aren't many (or any!) books designed to help adults navigate the world while living with food allergies.

Sloane is a positive force in the food allergy community. Every aspect of her book looks at food allergies from the positive side or taking the negative and turning it into the positive. She educates others with a firm but calm hand. Everything about Sloane and about the book is a treasure to those with food allergies. I highly recommend this book!

You don't need to have food allergies to read this book. If you know someone with food allergies, or love someone with food allergies, I highly recommend that you read Allergic Girl: Adventures In Living Well With Food Allergies to arm yourself with the information needed to help keep your loved one safe and to help them make living well with food allergies an easier experience.



I received a copy of this book at no charge for review purpose only.

Still Cleaning....

Oh my, this spring cleaning is a slow go. I'm moving along with the downstairs but I haven't even started the upstairs. This could take till June. But I'm plugging along and I'm happy to say that I'm not killing myself by doing it (maybe that's why it's taking so long). Slow and steady wins the race, right? So I'm still hit or miss on the blogging since I'm trying not to take too much time away from real life things. But you can always find me over at WEGO Health and I'll be back this week to review Allergic Girl: Adventures In Living Well With Food Allergies (Get the book! Read It!).

This is the current state of my house. Lovely isn't it? I just have to keep my eye on the prize. And I have to keep in mind all of the yucky dust that is leaving the building, therefore making the house more allergy friendly too:

Enjoy Life New Soft Baked Cookies: A Review

Several weeks ago Enjoy Life Foods sent us some of their new soft baked cookies to try. We received their Snickerdoodle, Double Chocolate Brownie, and Lively Lemon cookies. Let me just say that my food allergy son (Little Man) and I were the one's that tried the cookies. The new version (soft baked) of these cookies really were softer and tastier! We really like the texture and softness of these cookies!

We first tried the Snickerdoodles. These have always been a favorite of ours and they remained our favorites. These have a really great taste. I had 2 cookies and my son forbade me to eat anymore. He finished this box of cookies in 2 days.

We tried the Double Chocolate Brownie next and these were very tasty too. These are a nice chocolate cookie. They contain Enjoy Life chocolate chips which we love and use all the time.

The Lively Lemon cookies were soft and had a nice lemon taste. We aren't lemon cookie fans in our house, so these didn't go over really well. My son wasn't a big fan and said that I could finish this box (as he ran down the all with the Snickerdoodles).

Overall, we are huge fans of Enjoy Life. We love the new softness and texture of the soft baked cookies. We give Enjoy Life 2 thumbs up!!

Head on over to their website for a 55 cent off coupon good on any Enjoy Life product.

Thank you Enjoy Life for sending us these cookies at no charge for review purposes.

Busy With Cleaning?

I totally blew that blog title. I've tried to get some cleaning done, BUT....

If you are the mother of a food allergic child, you know your job is never done (and if you are the room mom of said child... I bow to you because I know your pain).

Son: Allergic to wheat, rye, barley, oat, egg, peanut, tree nut

School: We are celebrating

St. Joseph's Day and this involves making bread in class and giving it an egg wash. "How would you like to handle this?"

My response: (after much stammering and verbalizing of options) "Let's just make the bread in class. What's the worse that can happen? (insert nervous laughter here)" I'll be there the whole time and I'll clean everything and everyone. I'll take care of my son and what he makes, and I'll man the Epi Pen "JIC".
(Yea, no nightmares there....)

So two months later "Bread D-Day" came about and I thought to myself "What the heck were you thinking????". But it was a bit too late.

I made safe bread dough. And I packed a box of safe utensils, foil, parchment paper, olive oil, cleaning supplies, etc... but I was sweating. SWEATING IN A BIG WAY. (My Secret deodorant totally gave out).

The non allergic kids were working with pre-made bread dough (And just so we're clear: no loose wheat flour was used in class. This dough was pre-made/store bought. I have no comfort zone for wheat flour floating around in the air. When corn bread was made in this fashion in the class last year I requested that the bread be made in a room that my son did not use and he was not in attendance). I have no knowledge of that around my son. We do not use wheat flour in our house AND when I make non allergy friendly homemade pizza, I use pre-made dough but my son is no where near our small amount of dough (dedicated pans).

The kids loved working with the dough. And they dug there hands into it and whipped it around like it was play dough (good luck to you wheat eating people because some hit the floor and boogers abounded that day).

So how did it go? FINE. It went fine. Let's just say that I cleaned the crap out of that room after this activity. I brought all of my own cleaning paraphernalia (this room as never been this clean). Then I stayed glued to my cell phone the rest of the day "in case" there was some kind of contact or secondary allergic reaction (and there was NONE).

I would not want to do this every day, but once a year is worth the stress and anxiety to make sure my son is included. He was so happy that he could do what the other kids could do. They baked all the bread together (so we'll throw his out). I made more for him at home, on a dedicate pan and in a dedicated oven last night. He loved it and was happy with how it all came together.

And all of this culminated into this:





Dear St. Joseph, Thank you for a wonderful day. Thank you for hearing my prayers and keeping my son safe.

Life with food allergies is interesting, busy, hectic and rewarding (Yes, really...).

To Busy To Blog

(Microsoft clip art)


Yes, the headline says it all. This blog has been interrupted by spring cleaning. There's much to do and only me to do it (although my mother has been sweet enough to offer to help).

So posting will be sporadic at best. I do have 2-3 reviews left to do and I'm hoping to get those up this week or next.

So I probably won't be posting or visiting very much but I'll be thinking about you. I'd much rather be blogging than cleaning any old day :)

Peanut Allergy Controversy in Florida

In Edgewater, Florida there is a little girl with severe peanut allergies. How severe? Severe enough that her physician has asked the school to implement the following rules:

1. Children must wash hands before entering the class.
2. They need to rinse out their mouths to remove any peanut residue that they have eaten.
3. No outside foods should be brought in for class parties.

These rules came from her PHYSICIAN, not her parents. Luckily this type of severity of reaction to small amounts of residue is rare. But it happens.

And the parents of the other children in her class are so outraged that they have taken to picketing and protesting the school.

They are carrying signs that say "NO TO CLOROX WIPES" (really? What's wrong with wipes?)
"WHERE IS THE HAPPY MEDIAN?" (There's not a happy median when dealing with a medical condition)
"OUR KIDS ARE SPECIAL TOO" (No doubt, but your kids don't have special needs)
WHY ARE WE BEING KEPT IN THE DARK?" (They gave you the rules. Did they hand them to you in a cave? You aren't being kept in the dark.)
"NO DOGS" (A peanut sniffing dog was brought into the school one day for the girls protection. So apparently dogs are bad but peanuts for the girl with the deadly allergy should be OK.)

There's also a lovely little poll on the article that asks (brace yourself for this one):

Should one student’s medical condition impact the entire student body?

16% say YES
84% say NO

So are they just talking about food allergies or are they also talking about:
paralysis
diabetes
autism
Downs Syndrome
learning disabilities
cancer
Multiple Sclerosis
Muscular Dystrophy
blindness
deafness
or any other number of conditions?????????

Are these people saying that only healthy, perfect children are allowed a public education? I think they are. Everyone else should be "home schooled" (and I have NOTHING against home schooling but not everyone can do it i.e. working parents)

I understand that anytime something is different it takes time to get used to. But these "adults" are teaching their children that they should have NO COMPASSION FOR ANYONE ELSE. It's all about ME, ME, ME!!! The girl has an illness. She's not asking to bring her pony to school because she can't live without it.
They are asking for hand washing and no treats so she doesn't get sick or die.

I'm deeply disturbed that parents would protest a first grade child with food allergies.

SHAME ON YOU!!

How about the old adage "Walk a mile in another man's shoes"?

I hope one day if you people need compassion, someone shows you much more than you showed this small child.

Edited to add:
Since I posted this (like 10 minutes ago) there was a twitter movement chastising CH13 about the wording on the poll. They have since changed the wording to:
Do you agree with the school district’s response to the student’s peanut allergy? I guess they saw the error of their way and didn't want to ostracize every family with a child with a medical condition.

Spotlight Interview: Sloane Miller (Allergic Girl)

(copyright John Wiley & Sons)

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing one of the dearest, brightest, and most genuine people that I have "met" on line, Sloane Miller - also known around the blogosphere as Allergic Girl. Please Don't Pass The Nuts was one of the first (and at the time ONLY) food allergy blogs that I found on line. Allergic Girl gave me hope that my son would be able to live a normal, happy life with food allergies. I feel hope because she lives such a happy, vibrant life and she teaches us that those of us with food allergies can too. Hands down she is one of the top food allergy advocates around.

Today, Sloane's book Allergic Girl: Adventures In Living Well With Food Allergies has been released. I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy and have been reading it for a few days now. A full review will follow, but I can tell you that it is fantastic! If you have food allergies or love someone who does GET THIS BOOK (and I'm not just saying that because she mentioned me in the book either - lol).

Please click here to see my interview with her on WEGO Health and to find out more about the book and Allergic Girl.

More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow Cookbook

Ah, this review is sorely over due. I feel very behind so prepare yourself for "review week".

The good news about this review being so long over due is that I've used the cookbook many, many times and can give you a really accurate review.

More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: 200 Brand New, Budget Friendly Slow Cooker Recipes by Stephanie O'Dea is the follow up to her first fantastic cookbook, Make It Fast Cook It Slow.

All of the recipes are gluten free and can be modified to be dairy free and nut free. We also avoid eggs so there are a few recipes that I just can't modify (like an egg and sausage breakfast dish, some of the cakes require too many eggs to substitute, etc.). But for the most part, I can successfully use or modify almost every recipe for our food allergy needs.

Some of the recipes from this book that I've made so far:

Honey Garlic Chicken
Scalloped Potatoes
Beer Cheese Soup
Root Beer Pulled Pork
Sweet and Savory Pot Roast

All of them have been big hits with my personal favorite as the Beer Cheese Soup (a big bowl of yum, but very rich so you only need one bowl).

I have several more recipes in the wings waiting to go.

My slow cooker is my life line for busy days when I'm just not home to cook. I can fire that thing up in the morning and not have to think about it again until everything is done at dinner time. More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow gives me so many new and delicious recipes to add to my repertoire. And they truly are budget friendly. You can take a not so great piece of meat, put it in the slow cooker and a few hours later the meat is tender and Stephanie's sauces are family friendly so the kids will eat them right up. Stephanie also gives tips on pantry staples, menu planning, and choosing the right slow cooker for you.
There's really something here for everyone. If you use your slow cooker or are thinking about it I highly recommend this cookbook, even if you don't have allergies in your family.

For more on Stephanie O'Dea, More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow, or her other book Make It Fast, Cook It Slow you can check out her blog A Year Of Slow Cooking.

And to try out Stephanie's Sweet and Savory Pot Roast recipe go here.

This cookbook was sent to me at no charge for review purposes.