I am feeling very bad for a friend of mine that just found out the hard way that her little girl is allergic to peanuts, and even after that when they conducted more allergy tests, they found out her little girl is also lactose intolerant. They had to get her daughter a Rx for an Epi-Pen to have with them at all times.
As a result of this news , it has turned this family's world upside down. My friend is the kind who doesn't handle stress very well (kind of like me) and didn't even know where to start when it came to grocery shopping for her daughter. I know from my own experience that there are things out there like soy milk (I drink it by choice), soy yogurt, soy ice cream etc. Luckily for her in this day and age many food labels have warnings that they contain things such as nuts, gluten (for celiacs), peanuts etc. Too bad for me, all nutrition labels say how much sugar they have but I STILL eat them. Anyway, I was talking to my husband that said my friend has taken the extreme approach that applies to the WHOLE family: no one is allowed to eat or drink normal dairy products anymore. They can't have ice cream, yogurt, or anything. I can definitely understand the shock and stress of being told your child can't eat certain things, and that you would take the most obvious and drastic approach when your knowledge is limited. I understand that my friend wants to make things "fair" for her little girl, but what about her older siblings that aren't allergic to the same things? Do you think it's not being fair to them? What would you do in this situation?
4 comments:
Our youngest, Tyson, has food allergies. He's allergic to dairy, eggs, and shellfish. We have to carry around an epi-pen too. At first it takes a lot of mental power to make sure that they're not eating anything that they're not supposed to- but now it's second nature, and even the other two kids know not to give him any dairy or eggs. ....By the way, our two older kids and I are dairy addicts! There is absolutely no way that we could do a family restriction on dairy!!
I definitely would not punish the whole family. I mean NO Ice cream. I would die!!! But it has to be hard, but it is doable. There are so many good food out there that they could all eat and many substitutes. But give up my Ice Cream, I think not!
I agree, they shouldn't restrict the entire family. People who are lactose intolerant kinda don't want to eat dairy and don't feel like they're missing out on ice cream or any of that other stuff. It makes them feel bad, so they won't crave it. In time, that will happen with this girl too. A lot of people are given "illnesses" as their trial in life. Some people struggle with worse things, but they are their own. Why would you make one person's challenges someone else's as well?? Her other kids will have their own challenges in life that might be worse than having food allergies! Just seems like more stress for everyone, instead of just for one person. I dunno...seems pretty drastic to me. Glad I don't have to make that same decision...
I have two siblings who were allegric to dairy so my mom usually make dinner that everyone can eat but she lets other kids to eat dairy when they want to... I could imagine that it took time to balance emotion and logic. I am sure your friend will realize that it is okay to let other kids to eat what they can eat and explain to their daughter that she can't eat those things.
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