What the heck do you feed your kids?

Whenever someone finds about my girls' food allergies, one of the first questions they ask is 'So, what the heck do you feed your kids?'

Rylie has to avoid anything containing milk and peanuts/tree nuts...which also means avoiding anything that could be cross-contaminated with these ingredients. Believe it or not, she's the 'easy' one, and I feel like there are tons of foods she can eat. She can eat pretty safely at restaurants and we make sure to ask all the right questions about food preparation.

Rowan is the challenging one, so I will talk about the foods that she eats. She has to avoid anything containing milk, egg, peanuts/tree nuts, wheat, soy, chicken, turkey, pork, and citrus. She cannot eat anything at a restaurant due to cross contamination. When we eat out, we always bring her food.

So here are the foods she eats ALL the time. There are other foods that I prepare, but these are our regular safe foods:

Teddy Grahams - safe for peanut allergies

I don't usually buy Teddy Grahams, but I bought them this week for Rylie as a special treat. I read the ingredients (Mini Teddy Grahams Snak Sak, Honey) and they seemed safe for her to eat, but I noticed that Kraft/Nabisco also make Nutter Butter bites, in the same size resealable bag.

This made me a little nervous, because cross-contamination warnings are not mandatory in the US. I called Kraft today to ask if Teddy Grahams and Nutter Butter Bites are made in the same plant or on shared equipment. The woman told me that it is Kraft's policy to put a statement on the package when products are made on shared equipment or in a plant that processes peanuts, and the Teddy Grahams bag does not have this statement.

For some reason I still don't fully trust the answers I get when I call these food companies. I feel like they don't quite understand the risk of cross contamination and are reading from a script of answers to common questions.

At this point I feel like I've done all I can do - I read the ingredients and called the company about cross contamination. I feel pretty confident that the Teddy Grahams in the Snak Sak are safe for kids with peanut allergies.

This doesn't mean that all sizes or varieties are safe, because the manufacturing process might differ. Please read ingredients and manufacturing statements on all packages, every time.

Allergy-free candy for Halloween

Saw some more ideas for safe halloween candy on Cool Mom Picks:

I love the Natural Candy Store for their commitment to helping moms like me who have kids with a food allergy or other food sensitivity.
I especially love how easy they make it to search for treats by particular allergen. Their big Natural Candy Mix is free of all eight major food allergens, is gluten-free and has some of great all-natural treats like gummy bears, lollipops and chewing gum.

Yummy Earth's all-organic lollipops have become so popular, I can find them in my local supermarket any time of the year now. If you aren't so lucky, no worries: Kate's Caring Gifts has them in big 60-pop bags, at a great price.

Ideas for safe classroom treats

My friend Lori emailed me this week, with a problem that seems to be pretty common these days. She volunteered to be a room mom for her son's classroom, which mostly entails planning the parties throughout the school year. She received a list of the food allergies in the class. They include: peanut, sesame, dairy, wheat, and green vegetables. (Do you think one of the kids made up the green vegetables allergy?)

Lori's question was 'what the heck kind of snacks can I get with such a limited choice? Here's the kicker, they need to be pre-packaged and individually wrapped!'

Here were a few of my suggestions, that might help some other room moms out there! Please keep in mind, you should still read the ingredient list every time. Ingredients can change without warning and cross-contamination statements are not mandatory. (Bold items below are links to ingredient info)

The following snacks are free of the top 8 allergens:
Dum Dum lollipops
Snack-sized packs of Skittles
Kelloggs Fruit Flavored Snacks
Snack-sized bags of Lays Classic Potato Chips (be careful of other brands that use peanut oil)
Snack-sized bags of Frito's (original flavor)
Snack-sized bags of Tostitos Natural corn/tortilla chips
Popsicles (read ingredients)

Healthier Options:
small boxes of raisins
individual apple-sauce cups
fruit (apples, bananas) if allowed?

Sun Chips (original flavor) and Rold Gold pretzels would be good if none of the kids in the class had a wheat allergy. Do not buy Snyder's pretzels due to cross-contamination issues. They make peanut-butter pretzels in their plant.

There are some great companies that make allergy-free cookies and treats on dedicated equipment.  Home Free is one of those companies, and they make good chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-chocolate chip, and oatmeal cookies that you can buy individually wrapped, in a case of 12.
Surf Sweets makes allergy-free 8 oz snack size packages of jelly beans, sour berry bears, and gummy bears.

I told Lori that even if she provides safe treats, some of the kids with allergies might say no because they are trained not to eat anything that they're unsure of. Our school district requires that parents are given a 3-day advance notice of a classroom treat or party, so the parents of kids with allergies have time to provide an alternative safe treat.

Thanks, Lori – for being so kind and considering safe snacks! There are a lot of people out there that would have blown it off and bought treats without giving it a second thought. In our case, if our girls accidentally ate a treat that wasn't safe, it would likely result in an anaphylactic reaction.
And even if they don't eat the unsafe food, the residue left on other kids hands and desks from these treats can cause their skin to break out in welts or hives. If they touch the food and rub their eyes or face, it can get bad.