Teaching A Child About Food Allergies.

Food Allergy Education. It takes parents a long time to learn how to handle their food-allergic child's needs, so how on earth do you teach a child about food allergies?

Bryce was only 7 months old when we discovered his first food allergy-wheat. He was 9 months old when we discovered he was allergic to dairy. By 15 months we knew he was allergic to wheat, dairy, egg, rye, peanut, tree nut and broccoli. How on earth do you teach a baby about food allergies? It turns out there are many ways to teach babies and toddlers about food allergies and really, each family has to sort out what will and won't work for them.

I had joined a group called Kids With Food Allergies and on their message board were parents of food-allergic kids. They all shared how they taught their child about their food allergies. We figured out right away that some of the strategies wouldn't work for us. Some families choose to tell their child that food x will make them sick or food y will give them an owie or food z is bad for them. We don't beat around the bush here-and we don't use cutesy phrases for things like body parts or farm animals (I would cringe when Bryce's teachers at Early On would refer to a horse as "horsey" or a cat as "kitty".  Ick.)

I talked to a few parents locally who have older children with food allergies to see what they did.  They basically trained their kids from a very young age that if they eat "x", they will get hives, they will get a scratchy throat, they will have trouble breathing. Bravo! Tell the child exactly what will happen. Don't pussyfoot around! Plus, if a 5 year old says to someone, "I can't eat wheat, it will give me hives." then that adult will know EXACTLY what is up with that child. But if a child says, "I can't eat wheat because it's bad for me"--what the heck does that mean?

Since hives are easy to see and Bryce seems to get hives with every food reaction he has, we started teaching him that if he eats "x" he will get hives.  We've also started teaching him what his Epi-pen is for.  Here's where it gets cute. He's starting to look at red bumps on people and ask if they are hives. I had a few mosquito bites on my leg and Bryce said, "Mama, you have hives!".

The other day Brad was changing Bryce. Bryce pulled his Epi-pen out of the basket and told Brad, "This is my Epi-pen."  Brad asking him what the Epi-pen was for, and Bryce responded, "Brycie hives." This was the first time Bryce has offered up this knowledge without prompting. While I admit we have a long way to go with education Bryce about his food allergies, he knows a few of the foods he's allergic to AND he knows what hives are and what his Epi-pen is used for. These are huge strides in the training up of a food allergic child.

Is our way the "right" way? It's the right way for our family.

UPDATE  July 23, 2012-- Bryce is now 4 years old. He can properly identify most things that he is allergic to and he can tell us WHY he can't eat those things. He now wears his Epi-Pens & Benadryl in a cute little bag and is getting good at remembering to grab it when we leave the house. He also manipulates a little by telling us he can't try a new food "because it will give me hives."  I've been told that this kind of manipulation is normal for any child with some sort of disability. Bryce is also getting better at asking if he can eat certain foods when we are at someone's house or at the store. YAY for progress!!!