Stuff that Bugs Me

Just saw another online "article" (if you can even call it journalism) about how there's too much hype these days about food allergies....(yawn).

Of course, like an idiot, I also read some of the reader comments.

Here's a common one that gets me, personally: the people that criticize parents of food allergic children, basically saying one of two things:
1) all kids need to play outside more, and if they did, then there wouldn't be so many food allergic children; and
2) if only you fed your kid real food and did some cooking instead of filling them up with pop tarts, fruit snacks, and every other processed creation under the sun, then there wouldn't be so many food allergic children.
[Note: both #1 and #2 boil down to, "I have no sympathy for your child's condition, because it's all your fault.]

Thanks.

Okay, I'm not even saying that there's not a shred of truth in either #1 or #2, because maybe there is, at some societal level, over a number of decades. It seems plausible to me that the American lifestyle and abundance of genetically modified, processed foods in our diets might have some connection to food allergies.

But at the individualized level? Well, that just pisses me off. My daughter has food allergies and she's not quite two yet. I'm sorry, was I supposed to send her out on her own to play outside more during the first 6 months of her life? Especially on the snowy days, right? Babies love that.

And as for the food? If anything, I'm the mom that others make fun of for trying too hard to avoid processed crap. (Not that our family succeeds on that front entirely, but I'm just saying, we at least make an effort.) I kind of pride myself on having avoided pretty much all food (or food-like products, as I sometimes like to call them) that are specifically marketed to little kids. Also, we certainly don't do everything organic, but we do buy a lot of organic foods. I try to cook at home as much as possible. We enjoy buying from the farmer's market all summer. And when our daughter was younger, we boiled foods and made a great deal (but admittedly not all) of her pureed baby food from scratch, for Pete's sake. Oh, and p.s., I breastfed for 13 months, another thing that is supposedly linked to a lower risk of allergies. Due to being diagnosed with an egg allergy around age 1, my daughter basically only knows cookies and cupcakes from books, so excuse me if I'm just a *wee* bit sensitive to the idea that it was my stuffing her with pop tarts that gave her food allergies.

Whew! Bitter rant over. Okay, I feel better now.

Stuff that Bugs Me (Installment #1)

1. People that both accept the "hygiene hypothesis" as gospel truth while simultaneously not at all understanding it. I did not give my child food allergies by overusing hand sanitizer, and p.s., I'm not even close to being a germaphobe.

2. People who write inflammatory articles and blog posts making it sound like food allergies are the invention of parents who need to feel like their child is "special." I'm sure there is someone out there that actually fits that profile, but must you diminish everyone else's real concerns by focusing on the outliers? Trust me, no sane person wants their kid to be "special" in this way.

Just a venting post. I realize that both of the above complaints betray my own insecurities as a mom of a food allergic child. It is something that I have struggled with -- trying not to care so much what anyone may think of me as a mother when the subject comes up that Georgia is allergic to certain foods. It's just that food allergies have gotten more and more media attention in recent years, not all of it accurate, and certainly not all of it positive. So, as soon as the subject comes up (which frankly, I usually try to avoid unless necessary - I guess I'm not the best food allergy spokesperson at this point in time), I just assume that the person I'm talking to has a lot of preconceived notions and is judging me left and right. First of all, that may not even be the case, and I'm obviously guilty of prejudgment myself if that's what I'm thinking about this person for no apparent reason. Second, who cares? (That is the part I especially need to work on.) I can't blame myself for whatever caused Georgia to have food allergies, whether it be genetic or environmental, certainly it was nothing that I knew how to prevent otherwise I would have. I can't control whether this person somehow doubts that Georgia's food allergies are "real." On a related note, I need to get over my own embarrassment and shyness about asking questions in restaurants about exactly what is in the food. I know that my child's health may depend on the answer, so I'm ashamed that I have sometimes taken chances rather than risk bugging a waiter with a question that might be annoying. Working on all of this....