Sweethearts Candy Blog's

You'd think we'd get out of cooking one day a year, but if your child has severe food allergies, forget it. Actually, the traditional Mother's Day brunch, served buffet style, can be hazardous for many types of food allergies. In my family, we've never gone to big Mother's Day meals in a restaurant since so many breakfast foods have some type of tree nuts due to all of the baked goods and cross-contact. For those of you who deal with egg, dairy and/or wheat allergies, you know how difficult it is to locate an allergy-friendly brunch.

For me, this state of affairs means a lot of cooking and/or baking at home. Often, I prefer it--personally it's not relaxing for me to bring my child to high-risk restaurant situations. I'd rather go eat with the family during a "safe" restaurants downtime when they are more likely to pay attention to special food requests.

Last year, I baked a coffee cake and brought it to a brunch. This year I plan to make the same cake because my family loves it and it looks impressive (streaked with two layers of cinnamon/brown sugar filling) even though it is relatively easy to make. I assume I will be cooking throughout the day even though my husband volunteered to grill at night, as he usually does on the weekends.

Somewhere along the line, I just accepted that I would be doing most of the cooking, when possible. That's been OK for the most part. I've had a lot more control over ingredients and my kids have enjoyed a pretty healthy diet. When I cook, I have the added pleasure of knowing that I am providing some love along with the meals. As my favorite food writer M.F.K. Fisher put it: "One of the pleasantest of all emotions is to know that I, I with my brain and my hands, have nourished my beloved few... to sustain them truly against the hungers of the world."

It is in this spirit that I once spent 6 hours making and decorating birthday cakes for my daughter's first big birthday party. She was in kindergarten and had invited every girl in her class plus a few more friends. She wanted a "Groovy Girl" theme -- if you have daughters you've probably seen these colorful, fashionable dolls -- and I needed to create orange, pink, black, purple and yellow frosting. This took me awhile. I also had trouble with the cake writing, since I'm not very good at it and the miniature Groovy Girl dolls I bought for the cake kept sinking into the frosting. Since they were not "true" cake toppers, they were too heavy.

I was exhausted and covered in frosting by the time I finished but I didn't think much about the time it had taken. I shared this story with one of my friends recently and she said "Wow, you must really love your daughter!"

I laughed because a) I guess I do and b) when a 6-hour cake prep doesn't faze you, that's when you know you've got a child with food allergies.

Last week I was reading a newspaper article in advance of Mother's Day that asked authors to chime in with their favorite advice from their mom. My favorite was this quote, taken from Baha'i writings: "When there is love, nothing is too much trouble and there is always time."

That's how I feel about being "forced" to cook on Mother's Day. Kids with food allergies have to be so careful of what they eat, all the time. If I can give my daughter something delicious, something safe so that she can be included with all of us, her happiness makes me happy. It's a gift that keeps on giving, not just on Mother's Day, but all year.

Sometimes it's a good idea to bring your kids to Crate and Barrel. I know, sounds counter intuitive but if I hadn't had my little eagle-eyed 11-year-old with me recently, I never would have seen this awesome doughnut pan! I've been meaning to get one of these for years so that I could make nut allergy-safe doughnuts, but the pans available had always been so expensive at $30 or so that I always saved it for another day. Being unable to visit doughnut shops due to all of the cross-contact risk is an adjustment that we've had to make, so I've always been on the lookout for ways to make our own at home.

This great pan pictured above was $10.95 at Crate and Barrel. You can also order it from www.wilton.com. They also have mini-doughnut pans available, especially nice since Hostess Donettes are not longer an option for our family--they now carry tree nut allergy warnings.

Best of all, the doughnut pan comes with a simple recipe that I altered just a bit. You could also do some variations like adding a few tablespoons of cocoa powder and a little more canola oil for a chocolate cake donut. Or add a nice spring-y touch with some lemon or orange zest to the batter. I also remember some amazing apple doughnuts that we used to buy, pre-nut allergy, at a farm bakery store that were seriously amazing. So you could grate some apple into the batter, add some cinnamon and roll them in cinnamon sugar for apple doughnuts. The possibilities are endless!

Baking doughnuts does change their taste a little bit. Let's face it, fried foods are the bomb! But baking doughnuts does make them healthier and I found the taste delicious. My kids LOVED them. They couldn't believe it one Saturday morning when they awoke to fresh powdered sugar doughnuts.

This pan makes a great Mother's Day gift, too if you're looking for last-minute ideas.

The following recipe is just an example of the great things cooking next week during the Food Allergy Recipe Swap live chat at The Motherhood. Please join us if you can--May 10, 1 pm EST. Lori Sandler of Divvies will be our host! You can share your own recipes along with pictures of the finished product. I hope you can be there!


Nut-Free Powdered Sugar Cake Donuts
2 cups cake flour, sifted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spray pan with nonstick baking spray (such as Pam). In a large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs and butter. Add vanilla and beat until just combined; do not over beat. Fill each doughnut cup about 2/3 full--any more and you won't end up with that nice doughnut shape.

Bake 7-9 minutes or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched. Color on tops is no indication of doneness-they will be more golden on the bottom.

Let cool in pan for about 5 minutes before removing. Finish doughnuts by placing them, one at a time, in a resealable bag filled with 2/3 of powdered sugar. Close the bag and shake gently to coat.

Makes 12 doughnuts.

Even though I've been dealing with my daughter's food allergies and seasonal allergies for years, I still find myself having to make tough calls about her health vs. socializing. We are fortunate to have so many understanding friends and neighbors but sometimes we just have to say "no" to one thing and find a different solution. And that doesn't have to be tragic.

I want to share a quick story because I sometimes feel that parents beat themselves up over the things their kids have to "miss out on" due to food allergies or other allergies.

My daughter and her really good friend have been trying to arrange a sleepover at the friend's house for several weeks now. This was supposed to take place this coming weekend. Well, right now, seasonal allergies are really taking a toll on my daughter's health. She's on medication but the pollen count is giving her a lot of stuffiness and breathing problems.

Last week, she hung out at her friend's house (the one who wanted to host the sleepover) and when she got home, she was stuffy, wheezing and needed her asthma inhaler. Turns out that the seasonal allergies that already existed were being aggravated even more by an apparent allergy to her friend's pet guinea pigs.

What to do? The date was arranged, the plans had been made, the hosting family couldn't be nicer or more accommodating with our daughter's food allergies.

I decided that we needed to host the sleepover at our house and try again at the friend's home when spring is over and the pollen count subsides. (My daughter is a lot better in the summer than the spring). My daughter has hung out with the guinea pigs in the past and not suffered intense symptoms, so I figured she just couldn't take the pet allergies and seasonal allergies all at once. I worried a little bit about offending the parents of my daughter's friend, but knew I needed to make the call.

Well, when my daughter came home for lunch, she had already taken care of it. She spoke to her friend, explained the problem and they decided the sleepover should be at our house. I didn't even need to sweat this. Obviously, it's no fun for a kid to have an asthma attack, so my daughter advocated for her own situation and it was resolved.

Everyone knows that it is more fun to attend a sleepover at someone else's house, so I did feel a little bit bad that my daughter couldn't do that this time. But you know what? She was OK with it.

I frequently hear from parents who are really sad that their child can't visit an ice cream shop like they, the parent, used to do as as a child. Or they worry that depriving their child of a treat at a birthday party will damage their child's self-esteem. I'm not saying that this can't happen, but kids are smart and resilient. Don't make a big deal about it and there's a good chance they might not, either.

My biggest obstacle now: deciding on an appropriate movie for the girls to watch. That's OK. Sometimes it's nice to be faced with a parenting challenge that's non-allergy related.

Easter will soon be here and so will family celebrations that naturally revolve around food! However, food allergy safe Easter celebrations are possible. I wanted to compile some of my best tips for holiday dining with the family.

Easter is tricky because a restaurant Easter Brunch is often part of the festivities. Please be extra careful at a "buffet" brunch. Risk of cross-contact is astronomical and many brunch dishes contain tree nuts. Sometimes bringing some safe foods for your child is the best thing you can do when faced with this issue. Don't take a chance at buffets. If you know you will be going to a brunch, call the restaurant now and see if you can have a "safe" item prepared separately in the kitchen.

Now, onto the at-home celebrations! Last year, I received the FAAN spring newsletter and I want to share a few of their allergy free Easter tips:

1. Instead of decorating real eggs, paint, decoupage or bead wooden eggs available at craft stores or online. Plastic eggs can also be decorated using stickers, ribbons and permanent markers.

2. Fill baskets with small toys, cars, dolls, crayons or mini stuffed animals, instead of putting the focus on food.

3. Organize an Easter egg hunt using plastic eggs. Fill them with coins or stickers or even coupons for activities such as roller skating or movies, instead of candy.

I also want to address family meals because of course, they are part of the fun but you've got to be careful. Here's what works for me:

1. Communicate about the allergy early and often. Whether you plan to attend a dinner outside of your home or you are the host family, you want to put the word out now about your nut allergy concerns. Things to discuss would be safe brands of bread for stuffing, gravy sauces or sauce enhancers or mixes, stuffing recipes in general (many contain pecans, pine nuts or other nuts), desserts and cross-contamination when cooking or baking. You want to give people plenty of notice about the food to help ensure safe choices. Many times people set their menus and decide what they plan to bring to a dinner early, so go on, make that call today!

2. Offer to provide safe alternatives to family favorites. Does someone always want to make pecan pie or peanut butter blossom cookies? See if you can make an alternative pie or offer to make the cookies using SunButter (sunflower seed butter) or soybutter. Or, introduce a new recipe that may become a nut-free family favorite.

3. Be careful at the buffet table. Buffet tables present cross-contact problems, since serving spoons may be used for more than one food. You may ask to serve your child first to prevent cross contact, or prepare a separate plate for your child in the kitchen.

4. Suggest an alternative to "mixed nuts in a bowl" and peanut-laden Chex mix-style snacks from the party. Yes, these are a big hit with many family members, but see if you can bring an alternative snack. These are particularly dangerous because younger allergic children may grab these items and eat them before you can stop them. Also, people spread the nut dust and residue around with these snacks. If your child touches the hands of someone who was recently snacking on this, and then eats something "safe," a reaction can occur because they will then ingest the nut allergen along with the "safe" food. This just happened to the child of a friend of mine, so be careful.

5. You bring (or make) dessert. Desserts are one of the top foods to cause allergic reactions, so don't chance it. You make the dessert. It may seem like a lot of work but honing your dessert-making skills is a must if you're a nut allergy caregiver. Also, everyone loves desserts, so if you make a good one you'll be one of the "heroes" of the dinner! :)

6. If you're really concerned, bring a safe meal for your child. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you may not feel the meal is safe enough for your child to eat. That's OK--it happens. Just bring something extra for them and serve it to them without a lot of fanfare. If anyone asks, use the situation to increase awareness: "Alex can't eat the dinner because of her nut allergy." You never know--this simple statement could result in more cooperation from others for the next celebration.

Happy Easter!!

We're back from Spring Break in Florida, so since I'm fresh from air travel with nut allergies I wanted to share our experience. Many readers and Facebook fans have questions about this topic, so this is for you!

The prospect of air travel can be frightening for families dealing with food allergies for so many reasons. Close, cramped airplane seats, peanuts or tree nuts served to all passengers as snacks, recirculated air, food brought on by other passengers, food left over from previous flights are all of concern.

Here is the most important lesson to learn from air travel: There is absolutely no way you can ever elminate all allergenic foods from your flight. There are many reasons for this; I witnessed several incidences. For one thing, even though some airlines no longer serve peanuts, they sell "snack packs" to people willing to pay for them. These packs often contain a pack of tree nuts. Secondly, airlines in general do not even offer snacks anymore or lunches, dinners, etc. unless you are flying First Class. (And I don't know many families who do that.) What does that mean? Due to the "no snacks" policies, I saw many families bringing on full lunches or buying food at the airport for the plane trip.

You can't blame people. Both of our flights got delayed and in one case, re-routed due to bad weather and we ended up on one flight several hours longer than had been anticipated. People get hungry and want to eat.

That said, this does not have to be a big problem. You can take proactive measures. Here are some things we did/considered before flying.

The airline. We chose an airline, Continental, that never serves peanuts as snacks. They are now merging with United, so we bought our tickets through United. That airline also does not serve peanuts. They DO serve tree nuts in the snack pack available for purchase, but that is costly and very few customers bought that. Does the snack pack potentially still pose a small risk? Yes, but it's much better than 270 people being served peanuts at one time. By choosing an airline that does not serve peanuts/tree nuts as the in-flight snack given to all passengers, we eliminated a lot of risk right there.

Take your inhaler/EpiPen/Benadryl in your carry-on. Luckily not one person questioned our daughter's EpiPens or other medications. In fact, they announced at the airport security that these items were allowed. Having important meds close at hand is crucial, so don't put them in your bag that will go in the cargo hold; carry those with you at all times.

The time of day. We were unable to get the earliest flights of the day, so we did fly on planes that had been previously vacated by a previous flight's passengers. Many times the early flights are "cleaner" i.e. other passengers have not had a chance to leave food residue.

Board early. We asked the attendants at the check-in desk if we could board with the young children/needs special assistance group so that we could clean our seating area before others boarded the plane. This was a huge help and we were able to do this on both flights. I cleaned the arm rests, looked at the seats and immediate floor area and the tray tables. I wiped off the surfaces my daughter would touch with wipes (not too strong-smelling, since some people react to fragrances esp. in a plane's close quarters) and we were good to go.

Bring safe snacks/hand wipes. My daughter had food for the flight so the food on offer wasn't an issue. We also served her a bottled or canned drink during the beverage service. Some airlines use a communal bottle and cups for water and juice. It's possible for snack items to get into these vessels so we chose sealed containers. Before eating her own snack, my daughter used a hand wipe (her suggestion, her choice. I liked it. :))

Seating. We strove to get seating in a row just with our family. On the way home, our family had split seating so I put my daughter next to the window with me in between. That way, there was a person between her and the other passenger not in our group. As it turned out, this passenger ate and drank nothing at all during the flight! This is not always the case, so placing a body between the allergic person can help create a barrier. Still, if you have enough people in your party, claiming an entire row is a nice way to reduce the food exposure.

These were relatively simple measures and we did well on the flight. My daughter was a little sneezy afterwards but I think it had more to do with her seasonal allergies kicking in. Though we were surrounded by people and food, we were happily able to enjoy our flight. In fact, she enjoyed it way more than I did--I'm a white-knuckle flier especially with the recent 737 issues with regard to the plane's safety and structural problems!!!

The main point I want to make is that you can travel by airplane with kids who have severe nut allergies if you take some precautions and are careful. Allergic Living magazine has a great airline info sheet that compares airlines and their food/peanut policies so please check out that great, well-researched resource.

I will have more posts about our recent travel experiences, so please check back soon!

I had another post planned for today but the tsunami in Japan got me thinking about so many things. My heart goes out to everyone who has been touched by this tragedy, including those in the affected U.S. regions who must now wait out the oncoming storm. I hope they are all safe.

This incident reminded me of a post I did when we were hit with severe weather that caused lengthy power outages here in Chicago. Luckily, this was nothing like what they are facing in Japan or in other places where earthquakes have occured, thank goodness. However, when you've got food allergies in your family, more common weather emergencies like hurricanes, flooding, blizzards and tornadoes require a bit more preparation.

Weather disasters and other emergencies aren't pleasant to think about but since they don't happen when you expect them, it's best to be ready.

Here's a few tips for keeping on top of food allergies in an emergency:

1. Have a good stock of "safe," non-perishable food items that can be eaten by the entire family. Soy milk (if you can have it) doesn't require refrigeration and bottled water is always good to have on hand in case you can't use your tap water for any reason. I like to have cereal, crackers, pretzels and slow-spoiling fruits like apples and bananas on hand in case of a blackout. SunButter, if you can eat it, is also good to have as is non-refrigerated cheese and crackers (if you aren't allergic to dairy). Anything from Enjoy Life like trail mix and granola is safe for the Top 8 food allergens, gluten and sesame. These foods will keep well and give you much-needed energy if you are low on food and stressed.

2. Make sure all your prescriptions are up-to-date and well-stocked. Check to make sure that you have several EpiPens, a bottle of Benadryl and whatever asthma or seasonal allergies your child needs well before a crisis hits. In the event of extreme bad weather, you may not be able to renew these prescriptions in a timely manner, so get them now. Keep them in a plastic resealable bag so they don't get wet.

3. Keep a nice supply of Clorox wipes and antibacterial hand wipes. If the worst happens and you have to leave your home for any reason, you'll be able to remove allergenic residue from surfaces. In addition, hand and face wipes will come in handy for personal use.

4. Get the "Go Bag" ready. At a FAAN Conference I attended a couple of years ago (sign up now for the 2011 FAAN conferences coming up soon!), a dad who used to work with NYC on Emergency Preparedness discussed the need for a "Go Bag" that you have ready for your child in a convenient area of your home. This bag would contain up-to-date medications like EpiPens, inhalers and Benaydryl in addition to safe, unperishable foods and drinks.

One of my Facebook page readers asked me about the safety of temporary tattoos with regard to food allergies (they are generally not a problem unless your child has allergies to colored dyes and inks) and I remembered these safety tattoos. If you're looking for a fun way to keep your child safe, this is nice in addition to a kids food allergy bracelet. These tattoos are perfect for camp or other events where your child may not be as well known. Here's my original post:

If ever I needed proof that nut allergies are on the rise and that nut-allergic consumers are on companies' radar screens, this is it. I just received a One Step Ahead catalog that contains "Safety Tattoos with a Purpose" for young children. In addition to tattoos that can be personalized to include kids phone numbers, they also sell tattoos that say "No Nuts, Please!" The tattoo has a peanut in a red circle with a line through it--the universal symbol for "not allowed."

What a great product for those of us with very young children who can't always communicate their allergy needs when out and about. I can envision using these on field trips or special outings with preschoolers or toddlers. The temporary tattoos then wipe off when they're no longer needed.

No one wants to single their kids out in a negative way, but products like this seem almost as fun for kids to use as they are useful. I don't know about you but my kids have always loved temporary tattoos.

The customer service number is: 1-800-279-8440. They are a busy company, so you may need to call a few times before you reach a live person! :)

Yesterday I got a post that said I was "tagged" on a cool food allergy site, The Allergic Kid. So now I'm officially "it." The Allergic Kid is a great blog dealing with multiple food allergies and it offers some yummy recipes, too. Try it, you'll like it.

According to the rules of engagement, if I agree to being "tagged," I have to list 6 random things about myself as well as listing 6 other food allergy bloggers I enjoy.

So to start off, here are my 6 random facts:

1. I have teenage girl-style celebrity crush on British actor Colin Firth--I even have a Colin Firth mousepad.

2. I am the tallest girl in the class--almost 6 feet in ballet flats!

3. I love to read/buy old cookbooks in used bookstores.

4. I actually like the Jonas Brothers' music (side effect of having an 8-year-old or in the middle of my second youth???)

5. I'm an aspiring author.

6. I've been to Graceland in Memphis, TN four times.

Here are 6 nut allergy/food allergy blogs that you should know about:

The Allergic Kid
Food Allergy Buzz
Peanut Allergy Kid
Allergy Life in Loudoun
Modern Allergy Mom
Kids Food Allergies Blog

Now, for those of you I "tagged," if you'd like to go along with this imposition, here are the rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Write 6 random things about yourself.
• Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
• Let each person know you tagged them by leaving an entry on their blog.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is up on your blog.

Thanks to Libby on The Allergic Kid for tagging me. It was fun!

P.S. I got another e-mail from the "gourmet retailer." I'm so much trouble that they transferred me to PR. I'm supposed to hear back from their PR people any day now! :)