It’s probably the most frustating thing that can happen to a child. Having an allergy of any discription means constant vigilance and denial of things that other children take for granted.
Bubba has two allergies. Peanuts and Kiwi Fruit. While the latter is not too much of a problem (store bought fruit salads and pavlovas are out of the question), the former is a huge problem.
These days it’s easy to know what products not to buy, they all have allergen information on the packets, but that’s half the problem. I went to buy a cake for Bubba’s 6th birthday. There were about 8 different cakes in the local supermarket. 7 out of the 8 had “may contain traces of nuts” or “processed on machinary that also processes nuts” or variations on that general theme. This meant I had a choice of 1 cake. Not much choice at all.
What made it harder was that the 1 cake that I could buy was very plain and very adult. It was a chocolate mudcake with ganache decoration. The other 7 were covered in sprinkles and pictures of Cartoon characters and clowns. If you were a 6 year old, what would you rather? The compromise was that I bought some coloured icing and let him choose how I was going to decorate the cake. It worked out slightly more expensive (though a bit more fun) simply because there was no choice.
There were other options I could have gone with. I could have made a cake from scratch (well, from a packet at any rate) but after attempting that last year it’s probably better that I don’t. I could have gone to a cake shop that specialises in allergen free cakes but they are usually more expensive than what I ended up doing.
But it’s not just cakes though. Everything is the same. Museli bars and chocolates are prime examples. I know it’s just companies covering their backs so they don’t get sued. I can understand their thinking. It’s just something that Bubba and I have to live with and be thankful that he’s not anaphalactic.
Bubba has learnt he needs to ask if food has nuts in it, and he learnt it from an early age. I think it's important for children to take responsibility for their own medical issues. The thought that always went through my mind was, "what if he's at a friend's place and he has a reaction?" I am now confident in his ability to ask about what's in the food and to be able to check packaging for allergen information.
Luckily for me, Bubba's allergy is only activated after injesting peanuts or kiwi fruit. This means I can still enjoy peanut butter and thai food, though I still have to be careful about sharing cutlery. Hopefully he will grow out of his allergies but even if he doesn't at least I know he's on top of it.
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