March 28, 2013 Living with Food Allergies Blog Carnival

Welcome to the March 28, 2013 edition of Living with Food Allergies blog carnival. Blog posts from all food allergy friends are welcome each month. It's a chance for members of the online food allergy community--new and old--a chance to virtually rub elbows. If you are a food allergy friend with a blog and would like to join our group and network with other food allergy bloggers, please let me know by requesting an invitation. I am working on adding other, different opportunities for food allergy bloggers in addition to participating in the blog carnival.  Please be sure to let me know the url for your blog and your email address when you request your invitation! 

Now onto the blog posts! Thank you to everyone who participated in the March edition!

Eating with Food Allergies

It is difficult to read a blog post on Colette Martin's Learning to Eat Allergy Free - Multiple Food Allergies without feeling hungry. Colette asks "Are you ready for spring? I sure am! This tart is perfect for a spring lunch." In her post, Learning to Eat Allergy-Free: Butternut Squash Luncheon Tart, she shares a recipe for a scrumptious looking Butternut Squash Tart.

Ilana Eck (aka the Hip Hostess) presents a Balsamic Beet Vinaigrette posted at The Hip Hostess, saying, "This vinaigrette is a nice way to serve an impressive salad to those with food allergies. A single beet adds color and sweetness to the salad. The vinaigrette is all you need to dress up simple mesclun greens, though you can add toppings, such as goat cheese or toasted nuts (for those who can tolerate them), to up the wow factor." The salad looks lovely. When we are overwhelmed by an abundance of greens this summer at our local farm, I'm going to give this a try!

Margaret Greanias of Plate It Safe offers some great ideas for get-togethers with food allergies in her post Allergy-Friendly March Madness Party saying, "allergy-friendly ideas for a March Madness party."

Do you have a gluten-free dairy-free diet? Rachel Kokosenski of Go GFCF offers some helpful tips on How to Eat Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Chinese Food.

Commentary and Thoughts

Following the recent death of a 19 year old college student with peanut allergy from a fatal allergic reaction to a cookie, Rachel M. presents C is for Cookie, P is for Peanut. Rachel M. blogs at When Did I Join the Circus?. She offers the following summary of her post: "A mom of a child with a peanut allergy reflects on the recent news story of a college student's death from the same allergy."

I have to admit I learned something new in Stacy Molter's post, Hidden Food Allergies: What is Amylase? I had absolutely no idea what amylase was. Stacy noted "We gave Colton a corn tortilla which appeared to be safe for him to eat even with his multiple food allergies, and he began to have all the symptoms he had when we believed he failed his baked egg challenge; his legs flared with eczema and he started having difficulty breathing. What could he be allergic to?" You can read more from Stacy at her blog,  Stacy Molter.

In her post, Allergist Reflects on Food Allergy Deaths, Caroline Moassessi of www.gratefulfoodie.com offers some more thoughts about the recent food allergy deaths in the news.

Do you remember looking into pre-schools or are you about to do so? It is hard enough to select a pre-school for a child who has no medical conditions, but it is especially hard to find the right place for a child with multiple food allergies and Eosinophilic Esophagitis, and that's only part of the story. Jenny of Multiple Food Allergy Help shares her experience in her post, Examining Educational Options [part 1].

Jennifer Roberge shares the story of her son's recent first anaphylactic reaction in her post, It’s Just Not Worth the Risk: Our Anaphylactic Experience posted at It's an Itchy Little World. Jennifer notes "A history of eczema and negative results with allergy testing leads us to a very unexpected, severe reaction."

Here is an Open Letter to Oreo I wrote about the lack of clear information about risk of cross-contamination for non-peanut butter flavored Oreos.  I am sorry to say I still have not received an answer from Oreo but I can see they visit the post often and look for comments, so if you would like clearer information on risks for cross-contamination, please comment on the post itself!

Tips and Advice

Selena Bluntzer, of Amazing and Atopic, recently used an epinephrine injector on her daughter and wrote Take the Fear out of Epinephrine about the experience. Selena says "I feel that it's very important that nobody be afraid of administering epinephrine. It's a life-saving medication that should be given without hesitation, when the need arises."

Stacy Molter shares some tips on how to keep small children with food allergies safe in her post, Labeling A Child With Food Allergies. She says "There are many ways to label a child with food allergies. Here's how we label our son to keep him safe and alive."

Peanut Free Zone provides some tips for caregivers and babysitters in Babysitters And Food Allergies – How You Can Be Prepared.

Ana Phylaxis "wrote this blog to help out others with food allergies; specifically, how to put Google Translate's tool to use for them when traveling internationally." Check out Ana’s Tip: When Traveling Internationally, Take Google Translate With You posted at Kate Hufnagel.

Joanne of Food Allergy Assistant shares some interesting information about epinephrine injector use in her post, Consider Body Weight When Using an Epinephrine Injector.

From Australia, Sonya Beisler shares Parenting a child with Multiple Food Allergies: How do you put a price on a child’s life? regarding the possibility of severe cuts in Australian government funding for the protection of children with food allergies. Sonya blogs at Parenting a child with Multiple Food Allergies.

courtney j, of the The Random Ramblings of a Stay at Home Mom, writes about carefully and responsibly eating peanut butter in her post The Random Ramblings of a Stay at Home Mom: Loose Nuts. Her child is allergic to 23 foods and the only food on that list Courtney J does enjoy from time to time is peanut butter--wow! 

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of living with food allergies carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.