Conquering Starbucks

I don't know about you, but for me, one of the saddest parts of being a food-allergy parent is going into a particular food-related establishment and thinking, "My kid will probably never be able to eat/drink anything here." All bakeries and ice cream shops fall within this category. Until recently, so did Starbucks.

Of course, we have always stayed away from the fresh-baked items behind the counter there because all of them contain things (egg, milk) Ainsley can't eat and there are also cross-contamination issues with the nut-containing products. And I would never think of giving her the coffee, not only because she's 5 but also because sometimes the coffee beans have been roasted with nuts. Usually, my friends get their kids little drink boxes of Horizon chocolate milk there, but that's out for us because of Ainsley's dairy allergy. Needless to say, I was always at a loss in terms of what I could order for Ainsley so we usually stayed away from the place (in a pinch I would get her a bottle of fruit juice, but she was never excited by that).

Recently, however, my babysitter took the girls into our local Starbucks to get something for herself and found that it was now stocking packages of Lucy's cookies, which are free of egg, milk, and peanuts/tree nuts (they are also gluten-free). The manager also assured her that it would be safe for Ainsley to have a cup of soy milk (poured straight from the container into a clean cup) with a shot of vanilla flavoring for extra pizzazz.

Ainsley has loved ordering the cookies and the soy milk and now says that Starbucks is "one of her favorite restaurants." It would quickly jump to the top if it gave out toys with its food like McDonalds.

If you have a child with the same allergies as Ainsley, you might want to give Starbucks another look - it seems that it is making an effort to reach out to food-allergic individuals.

Bathing in almonds

So Ainsley loves almond milk, and she has also started eating honey-nut cheerios (made with just almonds) without a problem! What a new world for us - now I can say my daughter is allergic to "most tree nuts" instead of "all tree nuts." The problem, of course, is acquiring almond products that haven't been processed with other nuts. All of the almonds I've seen in stores have a warning that they were processed with other nuts. Thankfully, however, I found an online almond supplier that ships directly from the farm and guarantees that its almonds have not mixed with any other nuts. I just ordered a 5-lb bag of almonds and a 5-lb bag of almond meal - I am so excited to start cooking with these things!

I also ordered a 3-jar supply of Barney Butter (almond butter made in a nut-free facility) from Amazon. I found that Amazon deeply discounts this product if you sign up to have it shipped to you on a regular basis. I signed up for an every-two-month supply of 3 jars and it reduced the price from $23.08 + shipping to $19 with no shipping cost.

Unfortunately, we received the results of Ainsley's allergy tests and they showed that her numbers to all of the other allergens are about the same. The allergist did give me the green light to incorporate very tiny amounts of milk and/or egg into baked goods, however, to see if Ainsley can tolerate it (a long time ago she used to eat things with egg and milk baked in so I'm not worried about a severe allergic reaction with this sort of thing). He feels that now that she is 5 and can tell me quickly if her mouth is feeling itchy or she otherwise feels funny that it is an appropriate time to see if we can incorporate some of this food into her diet in a way that is unlikely to cause a serious allergic reaction. It is going to be so weird to start cooking with those things again!

New recommendation on whether to get a flu shot if you're egg-allergic

Food Allergy Initiative just issued this statement recommending that egg-allergic individuals talk to their allergists about getting the regular and H1N1 flu vaccines this Fall. Apparently the current versions of the flu vaccines contain little to no egg protein and are safe for many egg-allergic individuals.

For the last two years, Ainsley has gotten the flu shot (this year she got the regular & H1N1). we go to her allergist's office and he does a skin test with the vaccine to make sure she doesn't react, then injects her with it. Given that both of my kids are highly susceptible to respiratory viruses (we've had a nebulizer in the house since Ainsley was itty bitty), I make sure they're vaccinated every year.

She can eat almonds! And (some) Chick-Fil-A!

My dad is doing well and is almost out of the hospital, so my attention has turned to other things - including Ainsley's annual allergist appt., which was yesterday. She had blood drawn, of course, and we won't get the results on that until next week. But we have already been able to introduce a couple of new things into her diet. During her appt., the doctor suggested that I take her to Chick-Fil-A for the first time and give her some waffle fries. He emphasized that almost all of his peanut-allergic patients have no problem at all with the kind of peanut oil Chick-Fil-A uses so she should be fine, and it would open up another restaurant to us. I took her there and ordered a kids' meal with waffle fries and the "grilled chicken nuggets" - an off-menu item I had heard that they make for kids allergic to the egg, milk, and/or wheat in the batter used on their regular nuggets.

She had no reaction either to the nuggets (which tasted great!) or the waffle fries, so we can now add Chick-Fil-A into our rotation of Ainsley-approved restaurants (already on the list are McD's, Burger King, and Wendy's).

The doctor also emphasized that I should try Ainsley on almonds. He said that her number to almonds was so low last year that he was sure she wouldn't have a reaction. He offered that if I was really concerned about an allergic reaction, I could give her some almond milk in the lobby of his office.

You might recall that I chickened out on giving her almond milk to drink last year after I put some on her arm and it caused her skin to itch and look a little irritated. I told him about this and he reminded me that some things can cause a very mild skin reaction even if the child actually isn't allergic to them.

So I took the plunge and bought some Silk almond milk at the store and gave her a drop right before we drove home, thinking that if she showed the slightest reaction I could head to the doctor's office instead of my house since the office is very close to where I live (and, of course, I carry her medicine pack with us everywhere so also had an Epi-Pen on hand in case of emergency).

Thankfully, she had no reaction and loved the taste of the almond milk, so I gave her more when we got home.

I am quite excited about this and am all ready to order Barney Butter for us to use at the house. I have also had fun thinking of all the yummy baked goods I can make with it.

I am undecided as to whether I'll give her whole almonds yet. My concern is that I can't imagine I'll be able to find any that are processed in an otherwise nut-free facility. I thought about washing them first to remove residue that might have gotten on them during processing. Opinions? I will ask the allergist about this when I talk to him next week.

She can eat shrimp!

I have been forced to take a hiatus from the blog because I've been under the weather for several weeks and my dad has also been having health issues - in fact, he will be having major heart surgery this Friday. But I did want to let you all know about an exciting development that I have mentally filed away in the "See, Ainsley isn't allergic to everything!" folder.

Last night we went to my in-laws' house for dinner and they decided to grill shrimp. I had never given Ainsley shrimp even though (based on her skin and blood tests) her allergist said he didn't think she was allergic to it. The biggest reason I avoided it was that, when we did the skin test for it a long time ago, she had a tiny hive to it, and even though her blood test showed no allergic reaction, I was scared to have her try it because shellfish are a common cause of deadly reactions. It has taken me years to get to the point when I was ready to have her try any shellfish.

I decided that last night was THE NIGHT. To see if she could tolerate it, I first rubbed a piece of shrimp on her arm to see if it caused a skin reaction. After we waited 20 minutes and there was no reaction, I let her eat a microscopically small piece of it. After another 20 minutes of no reaction, she ate an eraser-tip's worth of it. After another 20 minutes of no reaction, I let her eat a whole shrimp.

She loved it! She will be eating more for dinner tonight. I am very excited to add this food to our repertoire and we can tell she is happy to be able to eat something different.

Honestly, the biggest part of the experience for me was just confirming that, although she is allergic to several things, she isn't allergic to every major allergen. Now I'm going to make her eat shrimp on a regular basis so hopefully she'll never develop an allergy to it.

First 504 Plan meeting

Today Dave and I went to the public elementary school Ainsley is set to attend in August to meet with the staff about formulating a Section 504 plan that will list the specific accommodations the school will make for her food allergies. I was not that nervous about the meeting because the school has already made accommodations for a severely peanut-allergic first grader and I have already talked with his mom several times and Dave and I had agreed that almost all of those accommodations would work for Ainsley.

We met with the nurse, counselor, principal, and the teacher who had the peanut-allergic child in her class last year, and who will be Ainsley's teacher this coming year (it is great to know in advance who her teacher will be). They were all very nice and wanted to know all about Ainsley - what her personality was like, where she had any other issues (allowing me to tell them she was in occupational therapy for slight motor skills delays), and how we first learned about Ainsley's food allergies.

We then talked about the accommodations the school is currently making for the peanut-allergic first grader. I told them that I wanted all of the same ones implemented for Ainsley except that I wanted to discuss "the peanut-free table issue." Currently, the school has a peanut-free table that the first-grader sits at. He can have a couple of friends sit with him if the teacher checks their lunch and determines that it's peanut-free. I was worried about that because Ainsley is a very shy kid and it's hard for her to warm up to other children. I felt that any social isolation like that would be detrimental to her developing social skills.

Prior to the meeting, I expressed my concerns to family and friends knowledgeable of school procedures (I am lucky that my sister-in-law is an elementary school counselor in the same district and that my mother-in-law is a retired third grade teacher) and came up with an alternative that I felt good about: having Ainsley sit at the same table as the other kids but in a designated spot at the end of a row. The cafeteria staff will clean off her spot before she sits down (this will be easy in kindergarten because the tables will have all been cleaned before they sit down) and her teacher will check the lunches of the two kids who sit closest to her to ensure they don't have any peanut/treenut products.

Everyone in the room this morning seemed happy with this plan. I am sure that, in practice, there will be hiccups. I guess I am comfortable with it because Ainsley's been eating at the same table as her preschool classmates for the last three years and she has never had an allergic reaction because of it. Of course, her preschool is peanut and treenut-free, but she's still been surrounded by kids eating dairy and egg products and hasn't had a problem. Because of this experience I have determined that she seems far more likely to have an allergic reaction if she accidentally ingests a food she thinks is safe rather than if her skin comes into contact with residue of an offending food. Therefore, my highest priority is making sure no one gives her a food to eat that isn't safe - I am less concerned about residue issues.

Thoughts? Ideas? Once I receive a written copy of the 504 plan I will post it here. I am still in shock that my baby is old enough to be getting ready for kindergarten!

Fall/winter babies more prone to food allergies

A recent study found that children born in the fall or wintertime were much more likely to have food allergies. Ainsley was born in late November so she certainly falls into the higher-risk group. She was also born by c-section, which raises the risk that a child will have food allergies. My second daughter, Leighton, was born in the spring and I avoided a c-section that time - she has no food allergies. Can you guess who will try her best not to have another fall/winter c-section baby?