A Message to the World from A Food Allergy Kid

Another school year, almost gone past! This year has been amazing, and I'm a little sad that it's actually ending, but also relieved because no more work! Because of my CRAZY schedule I've had this spring: track, drama club, after school band rehearsals, not to mention the HOMEWORK and the PROJECTS!... I haven't had a chance to write many blog posts, but here I am today, back from the 8th grade rush! I had a great school year and am now ready for summer to start!!
Today's post is inspired by something my parents showed me. My mom originally found in on FARE, and then she posted in on Facebook. She thought she had to show me, and I'm glad she did, because it inspired me to write this post! The article from FARE was about things that allergy moms have always wanted the world to know. I myself, even though I'm not an allergy mom, could relate to a couple, so I thought I would make my own list. So, here is a message to the world about my input on how we allergy kids feel about the rest of the world treats us. Enjoy!

1. "I appreciate the offer, but no thanks." "No, I'm good with my food." "Sorry, I have to say no."
Ughh, do you know how many times I've had to say that this year?? I feel like Meagan Trainor in her new song "NO". Anyways, the first thing that I need to say is sometimes I have to say no! Saying no to a food someone has brought in makes me feel terrible and want to melt and dissolve into the floor because I feel bad when I tell someone that I'm allergic to the food they're offering me. Just so you know, I hate turning an offer down...it sometimes makes me feel impolite, but I know that I'm doing it for my safety.
I've also had people feel bad for me and ask me if I want them to make me a special safe food. Like I said before, I have to say no...unless you have food allergies yourself or you have a close family member that does, I'm worried that you will slip up and cross contaminate foods or misread a label. I'm much better off bringing something for myself.
2. I AM NOT ALLERGIC TO PEANUTS!!!
Did you know that most people mistake tree nuts for peanuts? And did you know that most teens my age think that I'm allergic to peanuts? Let me make something clear: tree nuts come from trees (hence the name tree nuts) and peanuts come from the ground. They are very different foods. Trust me, I live off of peanut butter (it's one of my favorite foods!) but if I ate a tree nut, I would have an anaphylactic reaction. Peanuts aren't the only allergen out there! There are seven more of the most common allergens!
3. I bring my own food. Yes, it's different from your food and everyone's food. 
Me bringing my own food from home is one of the ways I protect myself...I am my own superhero a lot, and I keep myself safe. I carry my Epi-pen at all times, and I bring my own food. That's just the way it is for me.
4. By the way, staring isn't really going to make me or my food allergies disappear.
Okay, so maybe I'm not a superhero all the time, but you get the idea. I know staring at me and other people with food allergies can be fun, but it's not something that really should entertain you. Go find something else to stare at all day.
5. Just because I have an Epi-pen doesn't mean I should eat unsafe foods.
Don't make me test out my Epi-pen...why go through the trouble? I don't eat unsafe foods even when I have an Epi-pen in my back pocket or my purse because I want to have as little trips to the emergency room as possible in my life.
6. Kids with food allergies aren't bully targets.
This one doesn't just come from me, it comes from all kids with food allergies: We aren't bully targets. Don't shoot at us with your arrows, because we won't have any arrows with us to shoot back. Having food allergies is out of our hands. We didn't decide on a lifestyle where we have to watch what we eat 24-7 and carry a shot full of epinephrine everywhere we go. I don't know who gave me this lifestyle, but whether it was my family history, science, the way I was raised in my mother's stomach, God, the doctors in the delivery room...I'm not blaming anyone. I didn't control this and I believe that no one controlled this. I might as well accept it, and the bullies out there should learn to accept it too, because there's no way we can change who we are. After all, why change who you are when you're so unique and when you're helping the world become more educated about food allergies?

And that was the top 6 things I want the world to know about us food allergy kids. Thank you for reading My Food Allergy Life. Talk to you in my next post!

How to Read a Label (Part 2)

Hello everyone, I hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day!

I thought the best way to kick off the first post in the new year was to finally finish the second half of a post that I wrote previously about reading a product's label. To view that post, click here. The first post was an introduction to reading labels on foods and other products. I provided an example of me reading a random label. I give a couple of tips and tricks, and more will be given today! Let's get started!

I have a January birthday which just recently passed, and I spent the special day with some of my friends at a rock climbing gym. It was a great day, and since I had such a good time I thought that I would share some of the memories with you. The night before the party, my mom and I baked the cake for my party. At the beginning of the week, I had gone on Pinterest with my sister and mom to look for rock climbing cake ideas, and in the end we came up with a delicious and cool cake: yellow cupcakes with chocolate chunks in the batter, frosted with chocolate frosting and decorated with irregular shaped jelly beans and white frosting "ropes", pull apart style! The cake was designed to look like a rock climbing wall, and it turned out amazing! Below I've put some pictures of the cake :) and of the ingredients of the jelly beans. Check them out!

If you look closely at the ingredients on the jelly beans (the bottom picture), in the end of the 5th line and the beginning of the 6th line, you will see that one of the ingredients in these jelly beans is lactic acid. In part one of this post, I told you that lactic acid can sometimes contain dairy, which is one of my allergens! My mom and I didn't want to go searching for another package of irregular jelly beans because they were difficult to find, but we didn't know what to do because of the lactic acid. If you run across this problem, it's the safest to call the manufacturer (their contact information is usually under the ingredient label or somewhere on the back or side of the package) and ask them! If you plan on eating that food out somewhere, like I planned on eating it on my cake at the rock climbing gym, you might want to eat a small portion of the product to make sure you are 100% not allergic to that food.


Thanks you for reading My Food Allergy Life. Talk to you in my next post!