{"id":48651,"date":"2018-02-28T10:58:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T15:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=48651"},"modified":"2018-02-28T14:23:39","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T19:23:39","slug":"10-tips-for-kids-with-food-allergies-diabetes-or-celiac-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=48651","title":{"rendered":"10 Tips for Kids with Food Allergies From an 8 Year Old who Knows"},"content":{"rendered":"

My son, Adam, has a severe nut allergy. He\u2019s 8, and very responsible. He knows not to eat anything unless an adult we trust checks the ingredients. He knows that if a food label says \u2018may contain nuts,\u2019 it\u2019s not safe. He knows to do what we call the epi-check, which means to double check his bag every day before school to make sure the Epipens are in their regular pocket, even if he didn\u2019t take them out. \u2018Better to be safe\u2019 is our motto.<\/p>\n

Since my husband and I both have diabetes, and we adhere to a fairly strict low carb diet, Adam is hyper-aware not only of nuts, but of carbs. There are days in our family when dealing with food is exhausting. The most natural human thing \u2013 eating \u2013 is complicated and restricted, and we can rarely be spontaneous about meals. The upside is that we eat quite healthfully. Unrelated to his food allergy, Adam knows that junk food is bad for his body. He says, \u201cI heard on Youtube that the more you eat junk food, the more you want to eat junk food.\u201d And he hears from his parents that carbs are bad for you, even if you don\u2019t have diabetes.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, there was a Purim<\/a> celebration in Adam\u2019s school. Adam explains, \u201cPurim is the holiday that marks the time the Persian king did not let his advisor massacre Jews.\u201d Somehow, in Israeli schools, Purim has evolved into a day of eating as much junk food as possible. Every year, I kind of lose it when we get assigned to send our kids to school in costumes, with not only the traditional triangle-shaped cookies called hamentaschen<\/a>, but with a bucket of the worst food on the planet, wrapped as a gift, which the kids then exchange. This year\u2019s list included chocolate, gummy candy, a second kind of chocolate, two kinds of salty snacks like potato chips, gum, and a lollipop. At 9:00 in the morning, the kids swapped their boxes of poison, and had a full half-hour to gorge on as much as they could stuff into their mouths. I attended the class party to supervise and make sure Adam didn\u2019t eat anything dangerous, and that no one around him was eating anything that would immediately jeopardize his health. Before the party, Adam and I talked a lot about being careful, and what it feels like when you can\u2019t eat the same things as everyone else. Even though it sometimes makes him feel left out, he\u2019s got strategies that help him cope, and he asked to share them so that other kids might benefit.<\/p>\n

So, here are some tips from Adam for kids who have to say \u2018no\u2019 to candy because of food allergies, diabetes, celiac disease, or any other food-related issues.<\/p>\n

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