Sometimes your kids are so much smarter than you give them
credit for.
In my job, I am lucky enough to receive hundreds of books
(mainly kids’ books) to review. This means that I am fairly picky when it comes
to children’s books and I thought I could have a pretty good guess at which
ones my kids would like, love and which they would want to read over and over
again.
Recently I have been stumped by my daughter’s choice of regular
reader. She has chosen a nicely illustrated book about food allergies. The
story is simple and the message is clear. It is the story of a 2 year old boy
with severe food allergies who goes to a party. For those of you who read my
posts regularly you will know my daughter has type 1 diabetes, but this does
not stop her from being able to eat any foods. After reading the book for about
the 25th time, I asked her why she liked it. She explained to me
that she loves how Thai (the boy in the book) doesn’t have to miss out on
anything at the party (his mum has pre-prepared everything that is needed) and
that because everyone looks out for him he can be normal too. My daughter is only
3 years old.
This had me reflecting on how poor I can be about respecting
food allergies. On a recent visit to our hospital for my daughter’s quarterly
review I asked her if she wanted a peanut butter sandwich that day (as I always
take a complete day of meals to save any issues with carb counting or lack of
healthy choices at the hospital). She didn’t want peanut butter, but it didn’t
occur to me until I got home that night and was on the internet that I could
have put children’s lives at risk. Another mother who had been at the hospital
that day complained on Facebook about the types of foods parents had with their
kids, and only then did I realise that I could have been endangering any number
of kids.
Since then I have been making more of an effort to try and
understand more about intolerances and allergies, but boy it is confusing and
there is so much conflicting (and frankly, in some cases patronising for those
with allergies) information.
So for those parents out there with kids with food
allergies, I would love to hear your story. How can I and other parents help to
make the lives of your kids easier? What would you like us to do or not do? And
what would you like us not to say to you or your kids?
