Homemade allergy food posters

Like most toddlers and preschoolers, my munchkins think stickers and gloopy glue is the absolute bomb.
Transferring stickers from a sticker sheet to a plain piece of paper is a favorite pass time according to Little miss and my little man simply loves applying glue to anything, weather it be glue in a stick, tube or brushing it onto a object.

Since this morning was a tad windy outside and my munchkins are still winding down from a busy weekend I thought we could take the opportunity to do something crafty while we were inside.

Will loads of junk mail catalogues on the kitchen bench I saw an opportunity to prepare a craft that not only my munchkins would enjoy, but it as a great thing to strengthen their knowledge of their own food allergies.

I sat down and cut different food items out of the catalogues and some magazines we had, making sure I was cutting out items that my children would recognise, clear pictures and nothing too tricky, both safe foods and not safe.

Next I went to the craft cupboard and found the sticky backed foam sheets and cut out the letter's to create 'SAFE'' and 'NOT SAFE'' as well as a big tick and cross. (you can get foam sheets from most cheap shops such as Crazy Clark's, reject shop etc)

Armed with two big white pieces of paper and telling the munchkins we were going to make some super dooper food posters to go next to our play kitchen....the fun began.

I showed them the foam letter stickers and let them help me find the correct letters to create the different poster titles - 'SAFE' and 'NOT SAFE'
This proved a good way to allow them to use letter recognition and the added fun of peeling and sticking each letter on the paper, rather than Mummy just writing the words on the paper.

The munchkins went through the small basket of food pictures, one by one taking turns to apply the glue and stick on the correct poster as to weather the particular food was safe or  not safe for their current allergies.
Each food item that came out of the basket created much conversation between the munchkins and I was surprised as to how much they actually knew about what they could and could not eat. They knew straight away whether most of the foods were safe or not and only had to ask mummy about some of the tricky ones in packets.

They had so much fun even sticking, gluing and being "very clever big boy and big girl" :P
They didn't even notice that they were learning more about their food allergies, they certainly did make mummy proud!

The result is two fantastic looking homemade food poster's with very clear ,simple, accurate and visual messages to stick up in our play kitchen area.

• A silent constant reminder to the munchkins about their allergies,
• a insight to adult visitors that come to our home
• an education tool for little friends into what foods Thalia and Declan can eat
• a display of a art that my munchkins can be proud of and share with others
• creates opportunities for allergy conversations

Here are the finished posters...

I think this activity is a great way for a child to learn about their food allergies, or to non allergic children to learn more about nutrition and what are "all the time foods" (veggies, fruit, bread etc) and "sometimes foods" (cupcakes, lollies, ice cream etc).

The activity can be as simple or complicated as it needs to be, it can easily be adjusted for different ages. For example to make it age appropriate for a young allergy teenager you might cut out food labels (safe and not safe for the particular child's allergies) and allow them to look, read and ascertain whether the product is safe or not. You could also use different recipes with two folders for the child to sort out which recipes are safe for them.

I'm definitely going to revisit this activity when my munchkins get a little older.

Allergies suck!!!!

Most of my readers will probably already now that Declan deals with his life threatening egg and nut allergies in day to day life, as well as his asthma and Eczema.

Friday was his follow up allergy prick test and check up to see how he is doing, also to test Thalia for allergies now that she is old enough for the prick test to be accurate.

D day (Friday) soon turned into dooms day as the results started to unravel :(

Declan's prick test soon showed that his egg and peanut allergy numbers had doubled since June last year and as we thought his dust mite stayed the same at 13. Peanut being the more severe jumping from a 11 grading to a whopping 25 and egg nearly as severe jumping from 11 to 22!!!

Both the allergist, Andy and I were surprised to see the numbers rise and everyone expected a decrease if anything, according to the allergy specialist Declan's home life and food are very safe and what we have been actively doing for him the past year is all good.

The rise in numbers is apparently due to the exposure he gets though other people ......simple things like hugging, kissing, playing and spending time with people who have recently consumed egg and or nuts, who may not realise that even 6 hrs after eating these foods they can pass on egg and/or nut particles to Declan and in turn boost his vulnerability to a very bad reaction.
If his number's continue to rise the epi pen may not work on him in the situation where he needs it to overcome a bad reaction, this is the hardest thing to stomach and it's so hard to even type it.

For the prick test alone he needed more than the usual 'magic spray' to stop the reaction and itching....it wasn't until they had given his oral medicine (equivalent to an epi pen) and a tablet that he started to look like himself again.
It was very scary to see him that way.

To help the situation I am currently trying to find a anaphylaxis playgroup where Declan can have a safe environment to play and socialise, as well as having the bonus of meeting other families who are living a life similar to ours.
We are brainstorming all different ways to possibly lower his numbers....prayer is a big one!

On a positive Thalia's prick test was all clear...YAY!!!!!!
No food allergies, dust mite, animal allergies or grass/tree/mould allergy's :)

Thalia is at risk of getting a dust mite allergy due to her very dry skin gene and bad eczema.
The specialist after seeing Thalia let us know that Thalia and Declan's eczema were both diet related.....grrr more food issues!

So my little munchkins have now been put on the moderate elimination diet (thank goodness it not a strict one). This means that they can have no preservatives, colour's, flavour's, most processed foods, a well as a whole chunk of veggies and fruits and a selection of meats!
They are not allergic to all these foods but are simply intolerant so it's nothing compared to the severe allergy's Declan faces.
There are also not items we have to make flee from our house and Andy and I are welcome to eat them.

it's actually easier to list the items that they can have because the list is soooo much shorter :0

Saturday after the tests proved to be a interesting challenge, doing all the food shopping with the new diet commencing almost took me the whole day...Mrs flanery's, health food shops, coles, Aldi, Woolies and the butcher, thankfuly mum and dad came for the ride and made things a little easier.

I'm also very blessed to have a lovely friend who is the encyclopedia of the elimination diet due to her son's intolerance's, who is helping me get started....THANK YOU!!! you know who you are ox

Both the kids were weighed as part of the check up and are healthy weights, Declan at 14kg and Thalia at 10kg. The allergist always checks Declan's height due to the risk of stinted growth for the steroids in his medication and creams, they don't seem to be affecting his height at all though and he is currently 96.5cm.

So there you have it our D day in a nutshell (for lack of a better word)

Here I am again trying to get a shopping list together and plan menu's ready for the week ahead but I'm feeling much more confident this week about it all and I know we can do it.

God never gives us more than we can deal with!!! I just have to keep reminding myself.