When my son was little, I had to be so careful about food.
Having severe allergies myself, I wanted to protect him from the potentially life-threatening result of an exposure to dairy.
It made me so nervous when he started preschool.
After all, dairy was EVERYWHERE! I even contemplated (very briefly) not sending him to Pre-K at all.
I could just imagine a snack-time mishap...
milk coming out of some kid's nose (you remember that happening when you were a kid!) and spraying my son in the face, his eyes swelling shut and his breathing becoming shallow and nobody doing anything to help him.
Oh my God! The thought was almost more than I could bear.
Or, some craft project involving a type of paint that contains a dairy protein.
I don't know of any but, it could happen! Nobody else, even his wonderful, sweet preschool teacher would know that you must read the ingredients on EVERYTHING..
..
EVERYTHING! Even my family couldn't be trusted.
I just KNEW my mother or my in-laws MIGHT accidentally feed him something that would send him into anaphylactic shock, and if I wasn't around to deal with it, nobody else would know how! Oh NO! How emotionally exhausting it is to think about, even now.
Well, somehow my son has survived to the age of 8.
His allergy was no doubt the focus of my extreme anxiety, stress and over-protectiveness.
Before he could read, I made sure he knew to tell people that he was allergic to dairy and to ask them to read the ingredients for him.
He was so good about it.
Very grown-up about it.
Well guess what, there was a day when my worry became a reality.
Funny how that happens, isn't it? He was in kindergarten and it was lunchtime.
Everyone in class knew of Quin's allergy to dairy, and most kids found it fascinating that milk could make him so sick.
So, some little boy tried to put cheese on my son's arm, thinking it would be funny to see what would happen.
Quin dodged the cheese, and only a small amount smeared onto his shirt.
Cheese.
Delicious sandwich accessory, or deadly weapon? ( I feel like I need a sound byte here; dun dun dunnnn) Some other kids told a teacher about the incident and she separated the other little boy from my son.
When I picked him up from school that day, Quin told me about what happened.
He said he was alright and that he and that boy became friends afterward.
His kindergarten teacher spoke to the class about the seriousness of allergies, and that was that.
Looking back, it is hard for me to admit that I was a bit too overprotective at times.
On the other hand, we are talking about a very serious allergy.
I just wish I hadn't worried SO much.
Truth, motherhood and worry seem to go hand-in-hand, allergies or not.
Moms with severely allergic kids HAVE to be a protective advocate for their child when they are young.
Then, we have to teach our child how to protect himself.
He/she should be educated on their allergy and understand how to deal with it.
If I have any advice for other parents, and I do hate to give unwarranted advice...
just kidding, I do it all the time.
Don't freak out too much.
Just make sure to educate yourself, your child, your family, and your child's school.
One of the biggest challenges with the dairy allergy, is convincing people that it is completely different from lactose intolerance.
Trying to get the point across that my son's reaction to milk is far more severe than a tummy-ache, can be difficult.
Some people just don't get it.
But that's OK.
Quin now knows how to read packaging and is comfortable talking to adults and other kids about his allergy.
He knows what ingredients to look for and what to do if he does ingest or even touches dairy products.
So, I don't worry too much anymore.
At least, not about his allergy.