Hello and welcome to No Eggs, No Nuts!
I’m Nicole, and I’m so glad you are
here! If you are reading this, there is
a good chance you are a fellow family member of someone with a food
allergy. Maybe it is a recent diagnosis
and you are feeling overwhelmed. I can
totally relate to that! When my son, Mac,
was first diagnosed with his Egg and Nut allergies I was totally overwhelmed. I didn’t know how to navigate grocery
shopping, cooking, eating at restaurants and trusting my son would be safe when
I wasn’t with him. It was a lot to
figure out!
We discovered Mac’s allergies when he was around 10 months
old. I was feeding him and his twin
sister, Johnny, some scrambled eggs for the first time. Johnny did fine with them. Mac, however, immediately turned bright red
and started coughing and eventually vomited.
I had no idea what was happening, but I made him an appointment with his
pediatrician for that afternoon. Since
we knew it was his first time having eggs, his doctor suggested we try a blood
test to measure the IgE antibodies to eggs and the other top food allergens. As it would turn out, Mac was allergic to
Eggs, Dairy, Peanuts and Tree Nuts.
Whoa.
My first thought was, ‘dairy, he drinks milk based formula?’ The
dairy was causing him to have a rash and eczema on his cheeks and other parts
of his body. As a first-time mom, I had
no idea a dairy allergy could be causing that.
Our first steps were to switch him to a soy based formula,
because thankfully he was not allergic to soy as well. Then I had to figure out how to continue to
introduce him to first foods as he grew, while also not feeding him anything
with eggs, nuts or dairy as an ingredient.
I remember my head spinning in the grocery store trying to read labels.
As time went on, around 3 years old, Mac thankfully outgrew his
dairy allergy. He was and is still
allergic to eggs and pretty much every nut out there. Mac will be 8 years old this summer and he is
a healthy, happy 2nd grader.
In these 7 years, we have learned a lot as a family when it
comes to life with food allergies. I am
excited to share what works for us, challenges we face, products we love,
recipe adjustments and more with you in hopes that it makes your life easier,
too. This blog isn’t just for people
with a family member with egg and nut or other food allergies. It can be beneficial to everyone. You never know when a family member, friend,
coworker or fellow student will come into your life with an allergy.
Please note that none of this is medical
advice, but rather me sharing what worked for us.
Talk to you soon,
Nicole
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