Dairy Queen! Yay!

Sorry bring a little snide.  Just got an email from Owen's soccer coach announcing an end of the season celebration at Dairy Queen!  Yay!  I know I have mentioned (in person and email) that Owen is allergic to  dairy (maybe he doesn't know this means ice cream too?) but this apparently has been forgotten.  My first reply email was "Hey!  We won't be able to make it to Dairy Queen.  Owen is allergic to milk (and eggs and sunflower seeds).  But feel free to go on with the festivities without us.  I won't mention it to Owen so he will be none the wiser."  My husband felt this was putting the coach in an awkward spot as then he would be watching what he says at practice and would feel bad if he slipped up.  Well, okay sometimes I don't like wearing others shoes as I don't always think they even try to wear mine so my reply was "So what."


In my heat of the moment angry phase, I will say "Why do I have to spare his feelings?"  Or the feelings of the Mom-who-brings-snacks-my-son-can't-have-and-then-acts-the-martyr as she "discreetly" says to her friend "Well, goldfish are what every Mom brings".  All I said is "Thank you for letting me read the label.  No, he can't have those."  At this point I have to say, your feelings about this situation are YOUR feelings.  I'm sorry he has food allergies and it is inconvenient to you in some way.  Though I have to wonder WHAT exactly is the inconvenience.  That he has them?  That he can't have what you proposed? I'm sorry.  I HAVE NOT asked you to change anything.  ALL I have said is he can't have those or he can't come to that.  It is not a judgement on you IT IS A FACT OF OUR LIVES.  That is it.  It is what we do everyday. Avoid.  Everyday.  Despite soccer games or end of the season celebrations.  Sorry I made you feel something.


So my real email read "Owen is allergic to dairy (and eggs and sunflower seeds).  So we won't be at the Dairy Queen festivities.  You've been a great coach this season.  Thanks for keeping the little guys motivated."


*Breathe out* I had forgotten how therapeutic my blog is for me.  Just had to get that little vent out.

She Might Grow On Me

The allergist that is.  We have been to see her every week for the past four weeks.  History for both the kids and then full skin and RAST testing.  We've spent a lot of quality time with our new allergist.  And, grumble, grumble, she's okay.  I will grudgingly like her.  Mainly because she has managed to tell me somethings I don't know and she wants to challenge a number of things on both kids to perhaps open up our diet a little.

The main thing she explained was conformational versus linear allergy in children with cow's milk allergy.  Apparently, studies have been done regarding children who can tolerate highly heated cow's milk products such as those in baked goods.  It has to do with espitopes attaching to proteins.  And though I understood her explanation at the time I'm not going to be able to explain it in plain English.  The gist of it is that they have discovered that those allergic to milk can be split into two groups; those with conformational allergy (able to tolerate highly heated milk) and those with linear allergy (those who can't) AND at sometime in the not so far future they hope to be able to TEST people to see which they are.

I had wondered what the shift in allergists' views had been as it seemed suddenly that not only was Max given the go-ahead on trying baked milk products but so were a number of food allergy families that I know of.  It seems to me with this study it isn't just that our children are now tolerant, it may be that they always were and we just didn't know it.

Food allergy research still has a long way to go.  But maybe we are making some head way.

Here's the only online info I could find on this study.