Flashback post: Being aware of food allergies: how to host a child with food allergies

/

by an Ottawa mom I am a mom who has been dealing with multiple severe food allergies now for two years (the anaphylactic-Epipen-ambulance rides to CHEO kind). These two years have been the most stressful period of our lives. It has turned me into a total Mama Grizzly on the topic of food allergies and awareness. I am always protecting my little cub at home and outside – constantly on the lookout for crumbs, suspicious food labels and food wrappers left in the park (and more).

The tricky thing with food allergies is that once you’re outside of your safe zone, you rely on your friends and the people around you to be sympathetic to your needs and demonstrate compassion by taking your child’s medical needs seriously.

Here’s a recent (bad) example. One day last month there was a birthday in my son’s daycare and the children had a surprise treat of ice cream (it was a surprise to me too as we have an agreement about giving notice for birthday treats). Because of my son’s egg, milk and nut allergies, he cannot participate in these special activities. When I collected him at the end of the day shortly after the ice cream had been gobbled up by his classmates, I found my little boy in a high chair eating one of his homemade muffins. He looked miserable. His emotions were on his sleeve and he reached up for a big hug and slung his head on my shoulder. I felt horrible for him. And guilt. Then rage. A birthday party shouldn’t be the worst part of your week.

You might not think it’s a big deal, but it is when it happens repeatedly. This is just an example from last month. Month. Typing this story out is making me cry at my computer screen. Food allergies comes with a lot of emotional baggage.

You can show your respect towards a child with food allergies (and their parents) by creating safe situations for them when you invite them to playdates or birthday parties. Hosting an inclusive get together doesn’t have to be complicated.

Here are some tips :

  1. Ask your guests if there are any food or environmental allergies in advance.
  2. Understand the severity of the allergies. Is it sniffles and red eyes? Or is it “911 epipen hives and can’t breathe ambulance ride to the CHEO” allergies? Does the latter scare you? It should.
  3. Before the party:
    • Talk to the allergy parent about your menu plan. This allows the allergy parent to decide if they can allow their child to eat the same food or whether they will pack similar food to bring along. If you are the “allergy parent” offer to send recipes or even bake/cook something to bring for everyone.
    • Ask is there are any food items that should not be offered at all.
    • Let all of your guests know about any special considerations. Some parents may ask that children not have peanut butter or nuts before arriving or ask that they brush their teeth and wash their hands beforehand. You may also want to ask guests not to bring any food to avoid any awkwardness if their offering is not safe.
  4. Make the party venue allergy-friendly. Give the place a good clean sweep. Wipe down surfaces such as play tables, kitchen tables and countertops with a clean cloth. Inspect any toys that will be shared for food residue and wash them if necessary.
  5. Avoid cross contamination when preparing foods. If you are cooking a separate item for an allergy child, always use clean bowls, utensils and ingredients. Cover any baking sheets with tinfoil if you’ve baked with the allergen on them before.
  6. Confirm any ingredients and food with the “allergy parent”. Allergens can be lurking even in products that don’t have the allergen on the ingredient list. Have you ever seen warnings that read, “This product has been manufactured in a facility the processes peanuts? ” To many (including our family), that warning is THE SAME as having the allergen included in the ingredient list. And here’s the tricky thing, that warning is OPTIONAL. Processed foods, even things like cereal, may not be safe.
  7. Condiments. If you think there is a chance that a knife may have dipped into peanut butter and then into the jelly jar or onto the stick of butter, open a new package or jar. Play it safe.
  8. Hosting a BBQ? Have you ever made a peanut sauce marinade for your meat and cooked it on the grill? Shrimp skewers? Maybe? Then your BBQ may still have that food protein residue on the grill. Cook any food for the allergy sufferer on a piece of tin foil and use separate tongs.

Make it a safe party for everyone. And have fun!

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Enable screen reader

Enhanced by Zemanta

Social Media Monday : Pinterest

/

What is it?

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. ~Pinterest

When you click on a pin it will bring you through to the original place on the web that it was found.

How

There are different ways to use Pinterest

1) Follow lots of people on Pinterest and then see what they are pining. Repin what you find interesting to your own boards for future reference and to share with your friends.

2) Pin things you see online that you like to your pin boards with an easy to use button you can add to your browser's tool bar, to go back to for future reference and to share with your friends.

3) Browse through the most recent and most popular pins without following strangers, but to see the neat and fun things they pin. Repin as above.

Why

Pinterest is mostly fun, but there are actually a lot of great reasons to use it to help with life as a parent.

Imagine if you will that this is a way more organized way of tearing interesting and good ideas out of a magazine and not losing them.  Then imagine that you can go through all of your friends' clipping folders too.

Here are a few of the innumerable good ideas that I've found on pinterest

Organizational

Source: pbjstories.blogspot.com via Lara on Pinterest

Source: unplggd.com via Lara on Pinterest

Food

Source: family.go.com via Lara on Pinterest

Crafts

Pinterest is by invitation only but there are lots of invitations to be had. Let me know if you want an invitation and I'll send you one! But beware... looking at all those beautiful things is kind of addictive! :)

Lara Wellman is mom to 4 year old Kiernan and 2 year old twins Quinn and Juliette. You can read her personal blog at Gliding Through Motherhood, about her weight loss journey at Losing it in Ottawa, and her social media blog at Larawellman.com

Summer of Awesome - Canada Science and Technology Museum

/

by Lynn Ever since the Museum of Nature reopened last year, it's been getting the love. I've read more than one post here at KITC about how great it is, and we're certainly believers - we had an annual pass this year, went many times, loved it every time, can't say enough good things about it.

As a result, the Museum of Science and Tech kind of got pushed into the background. We'd gone there so many times when our kids were younger that we kind of had a been-there, done-that attitude towards it. It just didn't seem as shiny and new.

This week my eight-year-old son asked to go back to the "train museum," and since we hadn't been in ages, I said yes. And it's true that there are a lot of displays that are getting older, and areas that are in need of an update.

But the thing I didn't realize is that they have so many cool outdoor activities there in the summertime. We barely spent any time inside during this visit. Instead, we explored the grounds and did a TON of super cool stuff. It was well worth the visit.

First of all, we rode the steam train:

Steam Train

It's a real steam train from the early 1900s, and with the Wakefield steamer out of commission, it's your best bet for a train-loving child this summer. It's a short ride but still a lot of fun, especially if you make pronouncements in Sir Topham Hat's voice for the entire ride. The train costs $2 extra per person, but if your kid likes trains, it's worth it. Oh, I should mention that the train only runs on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Then we took a tour of the lighthouse:

The lighthouse

I looooooooove lighthouses. And I love this one best of all, because it's in my very own home town. Did you know it was moved from Cape Breton Island in over 1000 pieces? It used to be that you had to go to the museum on special "lighthouse days" to see the inside. Now there are a few tours a day. AWESOME.

The light fixture is so fascinating (I won't spoil it, but you'll be surprised at what is making the light), the spiral staircase gives you quite the thrill (but was easily handled by my four-year-old), and the view from the top is charming:

View from the top

There's also daily tours of the observatory for those of you who are into astronomy, and on the days when the train isn't running, you can take a tour of their storage area featuring all kinds of goodies that didn't make it out onto the main floor - we'll be going back to see that, for sure (think we'll find a secret pirate treasure back there?).

We did go inside for a little bit, because the kids love the Crazy Kitchen, and the light tunnel system never gets old (even if it is in need of repairs in a few areas):

Light tunnel

We also checked out their current special exhibit, which is a history of cars in Canada, featuring several unusual models that were manufactured or designed in Canada. Nothing makes you feel old like seeing the first ever Chrysler minivan - man, I remember when those came out, for heaven's sake. Now they look like your grandfather's car. SHEESH.

The kids had a really good time at this exhibit playing with some funky interchangeable cars that were out - in fact, they liked them so much that my oldest two decided to spend some of their own piggy bank money to buy themselves a small car to take home from the gift shop.

Cars

Then it was back outside because it was time for WATER ROCKETS. AWESOME.

water rockets water rockets

You put a little water in a bottle and screw a special adapter on the end. Then you pump it up and watch it rocket hundreds of meters in the air. SO COOL.

Plus, the water rocket experiments took place at the foot of an actual Atlas rocket that is on the grounds, which is on loan from NASA. Did you know that if the rocket wasn't kept under constant internal pressure, it would crumble like a pop can under its own weight? Now that is awesome science.

We were there for almost five hours, and we didn't even get a chance to check out the internal presentations (on lasers, physics, and deep freezing, all of which we have seen before but the kids still want to see every time), see the big engines inside, hear the talk about the Titanic, visit the space station, or even see their brand new exhibit which is on eco-power - renewable and safe energy sources. And there's also a simulator ride which we have never been on, because I always assumed it was for bigger kids, but now my kids actually are bigger, so I think we are ready.

Good thing we bought a membership, because we'll be back again, soon.

If you get a chance in the next couple of weeks, it's worth a trip out to the Science Museum. Turns out the old lady still has a lot of life left in her.

(But not on Mondays. It's closed Mondays.)

Lynn is mom to three tombliboos, age 8, 6, and 4, and blogs over at Turtlehead.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Summer of Awesome - Saunders Farm

/

by Lynn

A few days ago we spent the day at Saunders Farm. I wasn't going to bother to write about it, even though it totally won the Most Awesome Award for the Summer of Awesome last year. I'd already written gobs about it, I'd gushed even, and it would all be more of the same.

In fact, we almost didn't go at all, because I thought to myself, sure, it's awesome, but how can it be as good as last year? And we've seen it all, and done it all, so is it just going to be boring this year?

And the answer to that is NO. No, not boring at all.

In fact, EVEN MORE AWESOME.

We get there, and once we get past the awesome climbing structure at the entrance, and take an awesome wagon ride, we enter the main part of the park and we see this:

Jumping things

Those are huge pillow jumpers. They are like enormous trampolines, and oh my lands, are they ever fun. Adults can go on them too, and I got some serious air. Kids can jump, or just sit and go along for the ride. They are AWESOME.

Then we climbed up the big tower to look out over the mazes and saw these:

Pedal cars

Pedal cars! New this year! And they were fun. So much fun. And we didn't even have to wait. And we got to ride them as long as we wanted. AWESOME.

And! Then!

There's another new display area, the Saunders Mine. You can buy a bag of dirt with semi-precious stones in it, then use a constantly running stream to actually sift for your stones. Now, it did cost extra, which always is annoying. And usually I would have said no. But I thought to myself, I can either spend the rest of the day listing to three kids whine the light fantastic about how they totally missed out on the best event ever, or I can just cough up the moola now and become the Best Mom Ever.

Easy choice.

My kids could not get enough of the mine. They love, love, loved finding their own rocks. Then they spent another hour just watching other kids sift, and playing in the stream, and checking other pans for pay dirt. It was AWESOME.

And there's still the mazes, ten in all:

spiral maze
mazes

And the splash pad:

splash pad

And the myriad play structures:

Pirate play structure

And the giant slide, and the discovery barn, and the ice cream, and did I mention the jumping things?

Jump!

My kids declared it to be the Best Day Ever (although truth be told, I've heard that a LOT this summer, which I must say is very gratifying). We were there for five full hours, and we didn't even do everything that was available - not to mention that the kids could have easily spent another hour just jumping. The thing about Saunders Farm is that it's really different from other attractions - and not just different from stuff in Ottawa, but unique in the world. And that's pretty cool.

I do believe that Saunders Farm is going to win the Second Annual Summer Of Awesome, as well.

Lynn is mom to three tombliboos, age 8, 6, and 4, and blogs over at Turtlehead.

What is a doula?

/

by Misty When you make the decision to get pregnant, you know that at some point, you’re going to be pushing a little human being out of your body. The realization of this fact often hits home late in pregnancy:

“At around 8 months pregnant, I started to become anxious about the labour and birth process. What had I gotten myself into? Everywhere I turned there were horror stories about labour – all you needed to do was watch TLC for an afternoon, and you’d soon be thinking that every birth story is an emergency.”

Sound familiar? What if there were women out there who could tell you that birth can be exciting, magical, and really, not that bad!?  Good news! They exist, and they’re called doulas!

What’s a doula? I know, it’s a funny word. It essentially means “womanly servant.” A doula is someone who guides a woman and her partner through the birth of their child. In addition, doulas provide essential prenatal support and education, as well as postpartum wisdom to get you through those first hectic weeks.

Well, I have a midwife, so do I really need a doula? Midwives care for the medical aspect of your pregnancy and birth. Doulas have no medical role, and are entirely devoted to supporting, reassuring and comforting you and your partner. Midwives find doulas to be extremely helpful for their clients, as they are often busy with paperwork and monitoring.

But what can a doula do for me? Picture this: it’s 2am, and you’ve been woken up with mild cramping, which you’re timing at about 10min apart. It’s too early to call your midwife or go to the hospital, but you’re anxious and have a lot of questions. So you call your doula! She’ll chat with you over the phone and make suggestions, or come right over to your house if you need her. As contractions become more intense, a doula will give you a massage, do relaxation exercises with you, suggest position changes, and get you water and food if you so desire. She stays with you for your entire labour (even if it’s 24 hours!) and ensures you are comfortable and resting before she leaves.

I want an epidural, so I don’t need a doula Doulas can be supportive, regardless of whether you are planning to labour naturally or with the use of pharmaceuticals. You generally need to reach 4cm dilation before a hospital will administer an epidural, so there are quite a few hours where you will need to use alternative coping strategies for your pain. As well, doulas can reduce the increased risk of vacuum/forceps delivery or caesarean section by helping you change positions in bed.

My husband is going to be my birth coach A doula never replaces the role of a husband or partner. Even though you get to know and trust your doula, your hubby will help you to relax and feel safe. However, your partner is only human, and he will need to take breaks! A doula is there to provide some relief for Dad, and to help comfort and reassure him that things are progressing normally.

As long as women have been giving birth, doulas have been around to provide support – often they were a relative or good friend who had experienced childbirth themselves. Nowadays, we tend to live far away from our families, and fee-for-service doulas have taken their place. If the cost is prohibitive, consider creating a “doula fund” for your baby shower, find a doula-in-training or one that offers their services on a sliding scale.

If you’re pregnant and feeling anxious, turn off the TV and give a doula a call! Before you know it, you’ll be holding a little babe in your arms and saying “that wasn’t so bad!”

Misty is a local doula who lives in Orleans with her husband and 2yo daughter. She claims that birth is “not that bad.” You can find out more about her at www.chickadeechildbirth.com

Enhanced by Zemanta