Dear readers, I do confess, it’s been seven months since my last posting… What can I say, other than a demented 18-month-old, a four-going-on-14-year-old and the paid work I can squeeze into the moments when they are both asleep (ha!) mean I have reluctantly neglected my station?
There’s been so much I’ve wanted to blog about, too. This has been the Year of the Allergy Mama on a Mission. Our grassroots campaign to fight Alpro’s decision to merge nut and soya milk production and slap a ‘may contain nuts’ warning on all their soya products resulted in victory when they backtracked and agreed to keep the lot, bar chilled yoghurts, free from cross contamination.
Then there was the Tesco campaign, started by a group of feisty mothers on Facebook infuriated by the supermarket’s decision to stick ‘may contain nuts’ on everything from fruit juice to potatoes, which resulted in a 20,000-strong petition, a mini media frenzy and an apology from Tesco and commitment to review all of its allergy labels. They’ve been slow in seeing their promise through but, in recent weeks, some of the products we were campaigning about – soda water, ham and juice among them – have been reissued with no nut warning. Huzzah.
On the home front, Sidney has outgrown his chickpea allergy and we’ve been able to introduce a few new foods – mustard, chestnuts, celery and beans, for instance, as well as those nuts that scored low or zero on skin prick tests: walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds. As our wonderful doc said when we last saw him: “I think we are where we’re at with Sidney now.” Feeling that we finally have a comprehensive tally of his allergies has been a huge confidence boost. Previously, I felt like I was flailing around unsure when the next allergy might pop up and nervous to introduce a whole string of potentially allergenic foods.
Now this is where we are:
Eggs
Peanuts
Sesame
Brazil nuts
Cashews
Pistachios
Red lentils
So there we have it. It might sound like a tally and a half but, given that we started off more than three years ago with green peas, bananas, wheat and chickpeas added to that list, it feels like a doddle these days.
Well, all right, not a doddle at all, but I recommend starting off with as many allergies as you can possibly squeeze in – that way, things can surely only get better 🙂
yesnobananas 