Multiple Food Allergies in Children

Multiple food allergies in children pose a unique challenge to parents, caregivers, daycare centers and schools. Parents of children with life-threatening food allergies are often looked at as neurotic or some how unglued, and may view such a parent as being too “over protective.” I fall into that category with my grand baby Simone (Simmi). Simmi is highly allergic to peanuts, milk, soy, wheat and eggs. We need to get her tested for other foods as well. My hope is that she will outgrow these allergies, but if she doesn’t where does that leave her in her young life? She is at the point where she is curious about other children and she has actually made progress in approaching little ones while we were shopping last week. Simmi is starting to seek other children out and is now making eye contact and smiling at them if we see them while we are out and about. My heart breaks just a little right now because she needs to have that social interaction with other children her age and yet I can’t bring myself to set up a play date for her. Why? Well, I would turn into some sort of neurotic freak and that isn’t the way to build good relationships with other mothers. No matter where we go, we are always bombarded with food. I couldn’t take her to Chucky Cheese or Peter Piper Pizza because she can’t eat a single thing there, and god forbid I did take her there just to play and she picked up a piece of bread or pizza and decided to eat it…disastrous! Then there are those fun play groups where moms get together and have their kids play. They bring all their children’s nutritious snacks of Cheerios, Kix, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, nutter butters, cookies, Gold Fish, crackers, cheese bites, nuts and fruit, yogurt, macaroni and cheese…Simmi can’t eat any of these things. You would think that wouldn’t be a problem, but what if I turn around and some cute little kid decides to offer such things to Simmi and she gladly accepts it and eats it? And we know that little ones aren’t the most careful when it comes to eating, meaning that a lot of food ends up on the ground. Can you see me walking around like some sort of food police and janitor making sure that the perimeter is safe for my little girl? It isn’t other peoples responsibility to keep my girl safe and to put such unrealistic expectations on them would be wrong.

Simmi has never tasted a cookie, pasta, regular bread (she has tried rice bread), cake, candy, kids cereals other than Rice Chex, milk or cheese. There are lots of books on gluten free cooking but they end up containing eggs or milk in the ingredients. It is a daunting task at best.

So what should I do about this road block in our lives? We don’t ever bring peanuts or eggs into the house, and if we do eat something that she is allergic to, we do so when she is napping or in another room, making sure that afterwards we clean up our area well so that not even a crumb can be found that could cause a reaction in her. Is that too extreme of us? Not if you consider that if we are not careful we could cause her extreme pain or even death. So I ask the question again…is that too extreme? For the first time in Simmi’s young life she has been eczema free for two weeks. Ripping out the carpets to cut down on her allergy to dust mites has helped her to be more comfortable. Over the last three or four days she has also started to eat regularly for the first time in her life. To see her sitting at the table in her little booster chair eating blueberries, pears and Rice Chex in the morning brings tears to my eyes. Watching her eat carrots and asparagus and potatoes in the afternoon is a major accomplishment and witnessing her eat broccoli, cauliflower and sweet potatoes at dinner fills my heart with pride. Every few days we are adding new foods to her diet and she is finally interested in eating again. For the first time on Saturday she drank grape juice from a sippy cup. After 13 months of struggling to get her to eat anything at all, and with the trouble she had swallowing and even forgetting how to chew, it is a celebration every time she takes a bite to eat.

Where do I go from here? I have been considering taking on the task of being a specialized child care provider. I know there are other parents out there that need to work and have similar problems with their little ones. I want Simmi to have some playmates and build good social interaction skills and I think this could be the solution to our dilemma. I know that she would enjoy having children in our home everyday to play with and it would make me feel good knowing that I am providing an environment that is safe for other children like her to grow and flourish.

My husband and I are seriously considering this option and as we look at how to structure our home to make it suitable for more little children to be here during the day, we are finding ourselves getting more and more excited about all the possibilities.