Did you know there is such a thing as exercise induced anaphylaxis? Where one can potentially die after eating an allergen when they exercise soon after ingesting it? Crazy right!
Seasoned allergy parents are accepting and knowledgeable, the kind of people that have the
investigative skills of an undercover agent after googling the night away and doing elimination diets over the lifetime of the child and reading every packet of food, knowing the E numbers and the different names of each allergen. They have the allergy knowledge of 10 doctors combined after spending days in and out of hospitals, talking to every nurse and doctor calling nutritionists and reading articles for hours about oral allergy syndrome.
An allergy parent is paranoid, sometimes guarded and can seem obsessed at times and sceptical and distrustful of others.
There are so many people who have some type of food issue, and it is easy to judge.
A person who dislikes certain foods is labelled as picky by a person with IBS who has to avoid a number of foods otherwise a lengthy stay in a bathroom toilet is the result.
A person with IBS who avoids wheat is often poo pooed by the coeliac community as being a fraud and not truly gluten free.
A person who has an allergy to wheat and has to carry an epi pen often looks at someone with coeliac disease ass a drama queen, “at least they won’t DIE if they have wheat” they might think.
When it comes to food, we all have a different set of views, self-imposed rules or rules that keep us from getting sick or even dying. We might just prefer certain foods, we might be trying to loose weight, get healthy or prefer not to eat animal products in varying degrees also.
So it is important to try and keep an open mind and understand that when someone says that their son or daughter can’t have a certain food they are just trying to keep their kid from harm… whatever that harm may be.
The old walk a mile in their shoes is a good metaphor to remember… although just keep in mind, there are some people that can’t wear shoes… they are allergic to their own sweat.
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