Families and Food Allergies :: No Nuts Here {Series}

Every 3 minutes, someone in the U.S. is admitted to the Emergency Department for an allergic reaction to food. Increased numbers of children are diagnosed every year, which means that you probably know at least one family with allergies – it may even be your own! Here at WMB, we have contributors in various stages of learning how to cope with what Allergy Life looks like in their homes. In this series, we hope to give support, insight, and helpful tips for those who are struggling to find what “normal” means after receiving a food allergy/intolerance/sensitivity diagnosis.


familiesandfoodallergies

Disclaimer: What I’m sharing today is my experience and what works with my son and for our family. I am in no way a medical professional so please don’t take my post as “medical advice” but just a mama sharing her story.

No Nuts Here {Our Allergy Experience}May is National Asthma and Allergies Awareness month, and before I became a mom to a child with a life threatening allergy (peanuts), I thought nothing of this. I rolled my eyes at “allergy” parents – I naively thought they were paranoid and annoying. Then I became one; story of my life, seriously.

Although tree nuts are okay, we have to be very careful with regards to cross-contact with peanuts. It’s not as simple as “so you can eat pecan pie and walnut banana sundaes at the diner” because tree nuts are frequently processed with peanuts. Boo.

How We Deal

We mostly eat at home or safe restaurants to calm fears of cross contact and accidental exposure. Plus it’s healthier and friendlier to my budget! We treat eating out as a special thing and enjoy it more because of that. Mommy-son dates out to eat are pretty fun!

When we do go out to eat, I always check with the manager of a restaurant and if nothing else, call ahead to speak with them if I am planning ahead. We have familiar restaurants that we have gone to and they are either very accommodating or don’t have much cross-contact risk.

At home, we are completely peanut-free. I don’t expect this of his grandparents who watch him while I go to work (meaning, I don’t expect every item in their home to be peanut free), and I certainly know the world is full of nuts (ha!). But at home, I want that to be a safe zone for him. He will always be around peanut-dangers in life and it will be important for him to navigate that as he gets older.

Some fun replacements for a peanut-free kiddo:

  • Sunflower Seed Butters – you can buy Sunbutter or other sunflower-based “peanut butter” and I think it is a great replacement for peanuts. I use it with the same measurement as peanut butter.

No Nuts Here {Our Allergy Experience}(Sunbutter Muffins)

  • Tree Nut Butters – If you can go with tree nuts, almond butter is great. And of course Nutella which is cocoa hazelnut butter and is the best food ever created, in my humble opinion. I have not tried any other nut butter besides those but they are out there. Make sure to watch out for production with peanuts which is very common.
  • Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Vegetable Oil, etc. – Oils are pretty easy to replace for me, as I have never used peanut oil in my life. Not much to cut out there for me.
  • Ground Sunflower Seeds – Great for those recipes that call for chopped peanuts or tree nuts. I made a Mexican Wedding Cake recipe that called for ground almonds and I used ground sunflower seeds instead and it was delicious!

Nu Nuts Here {Our Allergy Exprience}(Grinding Sunflower Seeds)

  • Pumpkin Seeds – I have not personally tried this yet, but I hear this is a great replacement as well. You could have a bowl of toasted and flavored pumpkin seeds instead of a bowl of peanuts at a party! You can ground them or use them whole in trail mix.

When I get so nervous or upset about his allergy, I try to reassure myself that for months before I got him officially tested, we just made sure he didn’t physically eat a peanut or tree nut. Cross-contact and other common allergy concerns weren’t really considered until he was officially diagnosed.

One important thing is for everyone that cares for your child with an allergy to be on the same page. If they don’t take your child’s safety as a concern of theirs, they have no business caring for your child. I’m not talking about people that are around your child, as people will never fully understand the seriousness of an allergy until they have to, but for people that are directly caring for them. It’s not a “silly” annoyance. I praise God I have not had to use his Epipen for a severe reaction and I hope he never has to use it.

When all else fails, smile – everyone keeps telling me a cure is on the way! 😉

[box style=”rounded”]This post is part of our Families and Food Allergies Series. Read more posts from this series…[/box]

Nicole Beard
Nicole Beard is the mother of a fun and energetic toddler, Thomas. She has been a Kansan for almost 6 years, relocating from her native Florida shortly after graduating with her degree in Psychology from Florida State University. Besides being a mama, she works in Wichita at a local hospital helping patients apply for public benefits and loves the mix of serving others, meeting people and paperwork! Their home is a cute little apartment home on the outskirts of town. She is a planner and organized woman by nature, and although her life looks nothing like “planned,” she trusts God’s promises for her future and knows that He is there with her every step of the way. Besides spending time with her son, Nicole enjoys a good cup of coffee, crocheting, reading, taking walks when the weather is nice and investing in things that bring her joy and honor the Lord. She loves setting goals and reading up on topics that interest her. Her future plans include gardening on her front patio, getting healthier and focusing on the blessings in each day.