Punky Mama

I often read a blog called, “Please Don’t Pass The Nuts”.  I like to read what it is like to have food allergies from an adult point of view since my food allergic kid is only 3.5 years old and cannot always express what he thinks or feels about being allergic.  She posted a link to an op-ed piece in the LA Times about food allergies being a “yuppie invention”.

After reading the article I thought how I wished I was just an overbearing yuppie parent whose child had a psychogenic illness.  Mr Stein, may I please invite you over to watch the vomit fly, the hives appear, and the misery and fear in his eyes when my child gets even one sip of milk.  I wish he could of accompanied me when I carried my unconcious child into the hospital.  I wish it was just my neurosis bringing this sickness on. I wish you could of been there as he threw up his meals daily before we discovered all the allergies.  The issues he had with “failure to thrive” because he lost so many calories vomiting.  If it were just neurosis I could then think about going to dinner with my family or actually take a day off from cooking occasionally.  Before my youngest son was born I also thought food allergies were something fabricated by neurotic mothers.  I admit here that I was more than wrong.  I do not wish this life on anyone especially my child.  My food allergic kid and I never asked for this.  I hate hovering over him at a party or worrying about him at school.  I am not that kind of parent but after all this time it is the parent I have had to become. I wish for a world where it is not out of the ordinary for a food allergic person to be accommodated safely not ridiculed.