Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, one of the festive time of gathering around food, has often not been one of the most allergy friendly events for me and my 6 year old son. However, now I look at it as a perfect chance to bring up the topic. It's because, we all come together agreeing that we all want to enjoy food - food is such a center of the occasion, not an additional cake etc. But yes, if you have other cooks, planning and communication is always important. For now, I would like to remind everyone that at times things might seem tough, but it will get better. I am thankful for the fact that I am making progress, and so let me share a little bit about that.

Here is my journey:

1. Just learning about food allergy
   --> Totally at loss, don't know what to do, feel resentful that we won't be able to join parties, because there is probably going to be no food that's safe.
2. Slowly getting a better grasp of food allergy and allergens
   --> If we have good relationship with someone who cooks and enjoys cooking, feels encouraged to open up the topic about what could be eaten and what not. Still taking chance of accidents, and when nothing happens, falls asleep so fast with relief. Or, when something does, beats herself up for allowing this to happen.
3. Having more information and control of the FA(=food allergies)
   Feeling more and more confident, ready to deal with accidents should they happen, but optimistic that they won't 99.99% of the time. Still aware and is keeping eyes open.
   
4. Feeling more relaxed and believe that things are going to be fine~
   (My goal is to get here.)
   

I am sure others have a lot of experiences and great ideas on how to continue our journey from stage 1 and up, and make special occasions more survivable & enjoyable. If you have anything to share, please feel free to leave a comment.

Personal Chef (from local collage student)

I wanted to share something that has worked out very well for our family in the past.

We had a local CSU student be our personal chef - plus my cooking teacher.

You can post an ad on the student emplyoment site (http://ses.colostate.edu/) and here's what I did. I put a bit of information on
- my son's allergy,
- how we are needing someone who is aware and can accomodate food allergies,
- my needs of wanting someone who can teach me how to cook
- take care of the cleanup part as well.

My kids were small enough that they'd rather have me be with them and having someone else do the cooking, rather than a babysitter watch them while I cook - well, cooking is NOT my strength, and perhaps having an international background was a helpful excuse to say TEACH ME!. I got at least 9 responses, and have settled to one guy for now. He loves cooking (a business major), loves experimenting with food, etc. Some other reponses were from students who has celiac or food allergies themselves, or who have a friend/family who has them, or some studying to become dietician, saying this will be great learning experience for them.

Here's a flow of what happens:
- J (the guy's initial) would send me in a couple of recipi ideas in advance,
- I get to choose which ones to cook,
- he then sends back ingredients list,
- either I or he picks up the needed stuff from grocery stores (if we don't have them at home),
- the cooking day, he comes over later in the afternoon, does cooking demonstration while I assist (like chopping, cleaning),
- when it's all done he packs his own portion to take back,
- the rest would be served on a plate or kept wrapped in foils etc till we eat,
- we clean up the kitchen, and
- then he gets paid ($15 first hour, $10 for the next, plus grocery), and takes off.

He would often stay up to 2 hours, we pay him $25, which is in our case $5/person (with some left overs for the next day). If I am to do this again, I'd certainly make doublt batch so we could store up the rest for later days.

Halloween Ideas (2)

A friend shared her Halloween tricks, and here it goes (thanks E.P.!)
-----------------------------

Hello, all. We have a technique for dealing with Halloween that has
worked well for us in the past. We make an offering to the Great
Pumpkin (or you could call it whatever you want). My kids
trick-or-treat. Then we sort the candy leaving just a few pieces that
we know are safe. The rest we leave out on the front porch for the
Great Pumpkin to take away (translation: mom waits until the kids are
asleep then throws all the remaining candy in the trash). In the
morning the Great Pumpkin will have left a gift for each child on the
front step in place of the candy. (Again, this involves me leaving a
gift on the front step very early in the morning for the children to
find.) It's fun since the kids get to anticipate a present and it
saves having to explain repeatedly that "no, that one has peanuts in it
so it's not safe for you to eat." You can have the kids keep as much
or little candy as it appropriate and safe for them. Maybe they don't
keep any but the Great Pumpkin offers some safe candy or treat for them
in return for their "offering." I hope this idea helps. It has really
been a life-saver for us. Good luck.

Halloween Ideas (1)

I just wanted to share something we did this year and I thought it turned out pretty well.

We had a Pumpkin Bank offer free accounts to all customers (with a free tattoo as an incentive).
The children would deposit whatever amount of candies they'd like, and for each candy they drop off, they will get 5 cents.
For example, child A brings 5 candies, he gets 25 cents.
Instead of giving out actual coins though, they were given a little bank check, where we fill in the following information
1. their name
2. the number of candy they deposited
3. the amount of money the Bank owes
They'd bring the little slip back home (along with a note to the parent, explaining how this system works),
and hopefully the parent will let the child withdraw the amounted stated (from their wallet).

No upfront cash needed to get the bank started. My food allergic son was so ready to exchange his Yummy into Money, and so were (some) other children - not all. A quick report of what I sent out to neighbors to follow.

------------------------------------------
NOTE to PARENTS:

Dear Parents,
Your child has deposited some goodies (to be donated to the food bank) and is thus given a "Check" from the Pumpkin Bank.If you could support the bank by allowing your child to withdraw the noted amount (from your pocket), that will be greatly appreciated! If you would rather not, your child could still withdraw his/her money from one of our branches. Please instruct them to visit Mitsuko. Thank you.

-------------------------------------------

PUMPKIN BANK REPORT sent out this morning

Some informal reports from the banker:
Angelica was the very first bank visitor. And a very good repeater.
Liana is the one-time drop off champion - 9 candies at one time.
Leslie is the most candy drop off champion - 11 candies total (after adding more and more cady to deposit)
Thomas was pthe very curious, and yet very determined not to deposit any candies. In order to solve his internal conflict, he came up with a brilliant idea - to deposit his brother's candies - but then gave up when the banker told him, the coins too will have to be his brother's.
Jade wanted to deposit the gummy bears that was once in his mouth - the banker had to decline the yummy offer this year. We'll see how it will be handled next year.
Mali C. was the oldest depositor - thanks for coming!
Olivia was the last to deposit as we were cleaning up - a nice surprise.

We had many other visitors, too many to list, and the total deposit last night was 71 candies! These will be handed over to Katharine and she'll take care of the rest (donate it to food bank?).

Thanks everyone, and please come back again next year!

A New Allergies Blog

Here is a new born blog in town dedicated for issues related to food allergies, asthma and the like. Feel free to utilize this space to send announcements etc.

For now, I will post a couple great resources in the area when you're dealing with allergies etc.

• Inspiring Children with Allergies Network (I-CAN)
  Contact person: Catherine
  

• Dr. John James
  1136 E Stuart St # 3-3200
  Fort Collins, CO 80525, United States
  +1 970-221-1681
  

• National Jewish Hospital in Denver
  
  

• Children's Hospital in Denver
  1056 E 19th Ave # B251
  Denver, CO 80218, United States
  +1 303-861-6888