Surprisingly Bryan-Safe

As much as I would love to say that I carefully and lovingly prepare every morsel of food that my entire family eats, I am definitely a member of the Convenience Food Fan Club. Now, convenience foods are definitely more of a challenge for the food-allergic child. Beyond the simple fact that milk, eggs, and/or peanuts are used in a lot of basic cooking (cookies, cakes, breads, pastas and sauces, etc.), you also have to worry about cross-contamination. Just how carefully did they clean those machines between the peanut-butter crackers and the regular crackers? And while food labels have gotten much easier to read (all food products manufactured in the US are now required to use the "simple" words for allergens somewhere on the package), there isn't a lot of consistency as far as what "Manufactured on equipment that also processes..." versus "Manufactured in a plant that also processes..." means.

That said, I have managed to find a number of convenience foods that are, in fact, Bryan-safe. In this case, I am not referring to the wonderful specialty items that are designed specifically to be milk-, egg-, and peanut-free. (Thank you Divvies Bakery!) I'm talking about regular snack foods that you find at the grocery store. Pretzels are generally safe, as well as saltine crackers. The list below, however, has foods that are "Surprisingly Bryan-Safe"- you don't expect them to be safe because, well, they taste too good. =) Based on e-mails and conversations with the manufacturers, I have found that Pillsbury, Kraft, and Nabisco are very good about their labeling procedures. As always, please check ingredient labels before eating- manufacturers do change their formulas from time to time!

• Frosted Strawberry (and Blueberry and Cherry) Pop-Tarts
• Barnum's Animal Crackers
• Honey-Maid Graham Crackers
• Oreo Thin Crisps (100 Calorie Packs)
• Lorna Doone Shortbread (Cookies and 100 Calorie Packs)
• Cinnamon and/or Honey Teddy Grahams
• Ritz Crackers (that's right, I said Ritz Crackers)
• Wheat Thins
• Pillsbury Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls (the kind from the can)
• Pillsbury French Bread (again, from a can)
• Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts
• Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows (NOT Creme)
• Bisquick mix (of course, use soymilk and/or other substitutes in recipes!)

Happy eating!

An unwanted anniversary

It was 3 years ago today that Bryan had his first (and hopefully, only) anaphylactic reaction. I certainly don't want to or try to re-live the experience, but seeing this date on the calendar makes everything rush back. (I'm not going to recount it here, though- I already did that in a previous post.) I suspect it will always be kind of an "unwanted anniversary" for me- very important in my life, even though I wish it hadn't happened. Luckily, Bryan was young enough that he probably won't remember what the reaction felt like. And I would be perfectly happy if he could go through life without ever having to find that out.

Pre-School Prep School

We decided that it was time to let Bryan out of his little bubble this fall and start Pre-School. Sort of like with the airlines, I did a LOT of research before making our decision. First, I narrowed it down to schools/centers that were accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). My reasoning for this was twofold. First, NAEYC accreditation is an indicator of high quality among early childhood centers. The voluntary accreditation process is fairly rigorous. They look at many different factors, from curriculum to communication with families, from the physical environment to staff preparation. As a former early childhood teacher, I put NAEYC accreditation high on my priority list. Additionally, I reasoned that because the accreditation process is so meticulous, if a center were willing to go through the accreditation process and maintain those high standards, hopefully that would indicate they would be committed to working with us on Bryan's food allergies.

After I narrowed down the list of centers, I spent a lot of time on the phone. I spoke with the director of each center, first discussing the severity of Bryan's allergies, then covering their policies and procedures for working with children with food allergies. Among the topics I asked about were:

• Previous experience working with food-allergic children
• Food preparation (some centers provide food; others require children to bring their lunches) and mealtime procedures (where would he sit, how closely would he be supervised)
• Medical procedures, including where an Epi-Pen and/or Benadryl would be kept, who would administer it, what training teachers and staff had, emergency procedures, and what kind of discretion teachers had to administer medication on an "as needed" basis

After my marathon telephone sessions were done, I ended up with one center that seemed to be a good fit. I made an appointment to tour the center and meet the director. During the tour, we discussed much of the same information that we had covered over the phone, but this time I was able to see everything in person. It also allowed me to start establishing the relationship with the staff that will be a big component of keeping Bryan safe at school. After the visit, my husband and I talked about everything for several days, and we finally decided that this school would be a good option for Bryan. We went ahead and enrolled him to start in the middle of September.

Note to parents of food-allergic children- In addition to the usual medical forms that needed to be completed by the pediatrician, I asked our allergist for a Food Allergy Action Plan. This form has a complete list of Bryan's food allergies, as well as the steps that should be taken if a reaction were to occur. Ours describes each of the possible symptoms of a reaction, and indicates whether Benadryl or Epi-Pen should be administered. I will try to scan ours and post it so that you can see an example.

I still plan to meet with Bryan's teacher in person before he starts (she wasn't there when I visited). Otherwise, I think that we are prepared to take this next big step. Now whether or not I'm actually READY is a completely different question...