Allergic to Thanksgiving

The holidays can be stressful when you have a kid with food allergies. Especially life-threatening food allergies. Rylie's allergies seem pretty easy to deal with, compared with Rowan's. She needs to avoid 9 different types of food/ingredients.

I was thinking about what I needed to prepare for the girls to eat at Thanksgiving, and I realized that Rowan is basically allergic to Thanksgiving.

Rylie will be able to eat Turkey (no butter used when baking) and mashed potatoes made with soy milk instead of cow's milk. She can also have stuffing. But Rowan is allergic to turkey! Her choices for protein are always beef or fish. She loves Organic Prairie hot dogs (made from certified organic, pasture-raised beef...also uncured, with no synthetic nitrites or nitrates.) I'll probably pack one of those for her. She can have mashed potatoes made with rice milk, if I have time to make them ahead. Or she can have the sweet potatoes that my mom is making, with no butter. She can't have stuffing (allergic to eggs and wheat) or pumpkin pie (allergic to dairy, eggs and wheat), so I'll have to pack some side items and a safe treat for dessert. Our favorite allergy-free store-bought cookies are Enjoy Life Chewy Chocolate Chip or Enjoy Life Snickerdoodles. I can usually find them at Kroger and Biggs.

The one thing that makes me a little nervous is the pumpkin pie - eggs and milk are REALLY dangerous for Rowan, and if someone touches her after eating it, her skin will break out into welts. We'll just have to remind all of the adults to be very careful when eating it, and wash hands immediately afterward.

I realize that all of this sounds like such a pain in the ass, but I'm used to preparing food for Rowan whenever we eat away from home. And during the holidays and other family get-togethers, my mom is always on top of it. She calls me ahead of time to talk about the menu and figure out how to modify  some of the food to make it safe. Rowan doesn't even know what's she's missing, and the kids probably won't spend more than 15 minutes at the table. The girls will be excited to play with their cousins, and we'll all get to enjoy time with family.

Have a safe and happy thanksgiving!