Visit your local grocery store check-out line or public library to read the January issue of Woman’s Day Magazine which features an article about food allergies in America. The article is titled “Rethinking Food Allergies” by Richard Laliberte and can be found on page 101.
The article covers the growing incidence of food allergies in children and adults alike, interesting theories on why more Americans than ever are battling food allergies, and some of the basics that you, as a parent of a child with food allergies, most likely already know.
My favorite part of the article are the first two paragraphs. They are the least informative of the whole article, but they accurately encompass how some parents and relatives feel about food allergies and how their perspectives can change when they are affected on a more personal level. It turns out that food allergies are becoming a part of most children’s lives…directly and indirectly. According to statistics featured in the article, one in every 20 children is likely to have a food allergy, which means the odds are excellent of having one child with a food allergy in every classroom.
As the incidence of food allergies rises and more parents and caregivers begin this journey I think it is our responsibility, as members of that same club, to offer the silver lining. Food allergies is a diagnosis. It cannot define you unless you allow it.
Dr. Robert Wood, M.D., the director of allergy and immunology at The Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, sums it up best in the last paragraph of the article by sharing that he personally has a severe peanut allergy and feels like he is living life normally and safely.
Now, if that’s not a credible endorsement for the silver lining, I don’t know what is!
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: food allergy, food allergy incidence, the food allergy mom 
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