What Food Allergies Can Teach Our Kids
Every now and again, I like to write about my personal experience as a mom managing food allergies. Parenting is no easy feat, but it’s especially tough when you're raising a child that could stop breathing if accidentally exposed to certain foods.
Although peanut and tree nut allergies are not something I would have chosen for my daughter, there has been an upside to her having food allergies. For one, our family has to look more carefully at the ingredients we put into our bodies, which has made us healthier eaters. The greatest gifts, however, have come in the form of life skills and values my daughter has learned at a young age.
Below are a few that immediately come to mind.
Diligence. Now that my daughter is entering kindergarten, she’s starting to take charge of carrying emergency medicines to and from activities and storing them appropriately. Increasingly, she’s having to brave the world without me. Whether at school, summer camp, or a birthday party, she knows it’s her responsibility to ask if a food is safe when I’m not there to help her read the label.
What has she learned? To be detail oriented and persistent—qualities that will help her in countless facets of life.
Compassion. We talk to our daughter often about things that make her unique, like food allergies and wearing glasses. I find these talks help her relate to the differences between people both physically and situationally. Last year we saw a homeless family outside of a local store asking for money. After she asked me a few questions to better understand the situation, she decided we should give them the snacks we brought in the car so that they wouldn’t be hungry. Cue my proud mama heart swelling!
Compassion is one of those life skills that will serve her well as a child AND as an adult.
Time Management. It takes time managing food allergies! Label reading and meal planning take a lot longer when you have to think about a food allergy. Our daughter completed OIT for her nut allergies in 2017, and while it’s now been a year since we finished, she still has a daily maintenance dose of several nuts and a mandatory hour-long rest period afterward. It can be hard to find time to squeeze in her maintenance dose and rest time each day (today it was sandwiched between summer school and a T-ball game!).
Showing her how we map out each day and carve out time to manage her food allergies has been a great lesson in time management that will serve her well as she enters “big kid school” this fall.
Bravery. It can be hard to stand up for yourself, let alone when you’re a small child! Food allergies have nudged her to become her own self-advocate (and a food allergy advocate!). I’d like to think we’ve led by example as her champion and guardians all these years and I’m proud to see her now standing up for herself (and her health).
I hope her bravery goes beyond self-advocacy. I hope her newfound courage leads her to try new things, persevere through adversity, and stand up for others in need.
We all have moments when food allergies feel defeating, inconvenient, and stressful. But for all the woes allergies bring, they can also be a gift. It all boils down to perspective. Adversity breeds strength, and I see that strength in my daughter more and more each day.
- Meg and the Allergy Amulet Team