The Teal Pumpkin Project

Halloween is coming up soon.  I know I have posted in the past about Halloween and the challenges that food allergies present, so I won’t dwell on that too much.  We aren’t planning to go trick-or-treating ourselves, but I did want to share some information about a fun initiative we will be taking part in.

A good friend brought to my attention the Teal Pumpkin Project, a food allergy awareness campaign sponsored by FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education).  This campaign encourages people to raise awareness of food allergies at Halloween by providing non-food treats for trick-or-treaters.  Participants are also encouraged to paint a pumpkin teal - the color of food allergy awareness - to place in front of their houses along with a free printable sign from FARE to indicate they have non-food treats available. 

I think this is such a fantastic idea!  Like I said, we won’t be trick-or-treating ourselves, but I definitely want to be able to provide for anyone who might come to our house with a food allergy.  All of the candy we have is Bryan-safe, but I wouldn’t necessarily know if it would be safe for other food allergies.  (Although I did just check- safe for wheat & soy allergies, but it does contain corn…)  Trick-or-treating can be scary and frustrating for kids with food allergies (and for their parents).  If we can help with that and make the experience a little more fun with just a small gesture, I am all in.  Come on by- we’ll be the house with the glowsticks and bouncy balls.  :)

3 years later

So, it has been a while since I have posted here…  My last post was in anticipation of Bryan's food challenge, which didn’t exactly go as hoped.  An oral food challenge is done in small steps.  A very small, precise amount of the food is consumed, and the child is observed for an hour to monitor for any reactions.  Then a second, slightly larger amount of food is consumed, another hour of observation, and then a third, larger measured bite with another hour of observation.  If the three bites are consumed without any adverse affects, you pass the food challenge.

Bryan’s first bite actually went okay.  A few small spots appeared around his mouth, but he said he felt fine.  After the hour of observation had passed, the nurse measured the second bite and brought it in.  That one didn’t go very well.  So not well, in fact, the nurse later commented that she hadn’t ever seen a reaction that bad to such a small amount of egg protein.  The reaction started almost immediately.  Bryan was chewing, but he slowed down and got a look on his face.  He said his stomach kind of hurt and that his throat was itchy.  I looked at him carefully and could see that his face and arms were starting to turn red. Then he vomited. Again and again.

Of course, the whole reason the food challenge is completed in the allergist’s office is so that they can address any reactions quickly, so luckily the doctor and nurse team were able to take care of Bryan immediately.  They administered the Epi-Pen, which Bryan really didn’t want, but we told him it he needed it to stop the reaction.  It helped, but after an hour of close observation, he was still very red and very itchy, so they actually followed up with an intravenous course of steroids.  We ended up spending the full day in the allergist’s office- not exactly what we were hoping for, but obviously thankful for the amazing doctors and nurses who took care of us all day.

While not our favorite experience, there were some positive things to come out of the food challenge.  First, Bryan knows what a reaction feels like now.  He knows how it feels, he knows how it progresses- and he knows he doesn’t want it to happen again, so he is going to be extremely careful to avoid his allergens.  Also, my husband  knows what a reaction looks like now.  He also knows the signs to look for and he knows how serious it can be.  I know he knew anaphylaxis was serious, but not having seen it, he didn’t really have a sense of what to expect. 

Needless to say, I wasn’t super-excited about sharing that experience right away, so I stepped away from this blog for a little bit.  But for the most part since then, things have pretty much been “the usual”, at least as far as allergies go.  There was an incident in 2^nd grade where kids were going around talking about the “cheese touch”, but I found out that had more to do with a movie (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) than directly making fun of Bryan.  We moved just before the 3^rd grade, so we had to start from scratch again, but Bryan’s teachers and the school nurses have all been really great.  There was also a boy who, during the first few weeks of 3^rd grade, kept trying to give Bryan Cheetos.  First Bryan just told him no thank you, then told him he couldn’t because of his food allergies, and then one day Bryan came home and said the boy had put some Cheetos in his snack bag.  I was upset at first, but after talking it over with Bryan, realized the boy probably honestly didn’t mean any harm- he just really wanted to share with Bryan and didn’t quite get it.  As it turned out, the boy accompanied Bryan to the nurse’s office after the snack bag incident and she made sure he understood why Bryan couldn’t have his Cheetos (Bryan was fine- the teacher just sent him to the nurse as a precaution).  

So here we are, still allergic, but with a pretty good sense of how to handle things.  And for now, we are absolutely okay with that.