Homemade Peanut Butter Alternative

So grocery prices are going up. And yes, our family spends more trying to eat healthy, natural, organic, etc.

Peanut allergy families who crave a "nut butter," pay a premium for substitutes like SunButter ($3.50/lb on their website). But here's a tip from sillygoat76, who shared this with me over the weekend:

My daughter has peanut allergies, so I go to local store and buy roasted sunflower seeds for about $2/lb and grind them up in a food processor with some olive oil to make sunflower butter. Consistency is somewhere between creamy and crunchy peanut butter. The salted/roasted ones taste best and have the best color. The unsalted/unroasted ones came out pallid gray and failed the daughter taste test. :)

The cool thing is that you can customize this stuff for flavor. Now I'm not sure about cross-contamination though. I was under the impression that all those "bulk nuts" are often processed in common facilities so that there may be tree nut/peanut traces in sunflower seeds too.

Food Allergies in Schools

It's the middle of summer and most parents are probably not thinking about getting ready for schools quite yet. But food allergy parents are... because gearing up takes a lot of effort, whether it's developing a 504 Plan or finding an accommodating school... we have to plan well in advance of the school year.

I am pleased to see that in the few years since food allergies has changed my life, there has been a lot of progress in advocacy and awareness about food allergies. I'm sure that this is simply to to the rising incidences of food allergies (unfortunately). Is there safety in numbers? As far as this issue is concerned, this seems to be the case. More kids with food allergies mean more awareness and more advocacy.

Amazingly, I stumbled on this video of my friend Andy! He addresses his concerns for his son as he enters the New York public school system. I think that this news report was posted in January, and it details that New York public schools do not have a uniform food allergy management plan. Peanut policies are implemented at the discretion of the school principal.



But according to this article from two weeks ago in the Greenwich Time from "only Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee have statewide plans, according to the National Association of State Boards of Education."

There is push to change this. Most recently, country music celebrity Trace Adkins has gotten involved. Adkins is working with his state Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker who are sponsoring federal food allergy guidelines for schools.

As a food allergy mom, I'm hopeful that by the time T is in Kindergarten, food allergy management in schools is just common and accepted practice.

Food Allergies at Summer Camp

My son is attending several day camps this summer. I was so pleased to receive the following letter from the COCA camp administrators:

We wanted to let you know that we will be supplying snacks for your children during this camp due to a camper's serious allergies to multiple food ingredients. It is important that the children come without snacks for the day so that this camper is not in any danger of being exposed to these life-threatening allergens.

Different camps have different levels of accommodations. At the Metro Theater camp he attended last week, I was so pleased to hear his lead counselor talk to some other parents about how they manage food allergies. For this camp, I packed a lunch and snack for him every day so I was a little more concerned that some kids would have nut products in their lunches.

His counselor said that they check everyone's lunches and if they are safe, say to the child, "Okay... you can sit with Tanner today." Then, they make sure everyone washes their hands before AND AFTER lunch.

The session was without incident!

It's great that more and more camp programs are taking a proactive approach to food allergies. It's the way of the future!

Food Allergy Carnival

Just a quick reminder to check out the latest Living with Food Allergy Carnival at allergyware.com. There's quite a range of contributions this week and some recipes too!

My Kid with Nut Allergies

Every time we are at a restaurant or at a party, I am always pleasantly surprised that Tanner is the first one to say, "I am allergic to nuts. I can't have any nuts. Does that have nuts in it?" He says so quite matter-of-factly, without a trace of fear or nervousness in his voice.

And then I feel pride... and gratitude for this wonderful kid, who is like a light in my life. He has peanut and tree nut allergies. But to him, life is still something to be savored and experienced with gusto!

I wanted to share this video because I think it's important to note that using an Epi-pen so simple, that even a person as young as four is capable of doing it AND teaching others how to do it. (Note that he is using the TRAINER and not actually giving himself a shot in this video!)

Food Allergy Drawing Contest

I got a message from Andrea at Food Allergy Talk. She is hosting a drawing contest this month. If your child wants to enter a drawing representing his/her life with food allergies, visit this page on Andrea's website for the rules.

Hmmm... my guy is more of a minimalist/conceptual artist but perhaps he and big sis will enter a "collaborative piece!" :)

Peanut Allergy Aware at Grant's Farm

We had a delightful impromptu excursion at Grant's Farm yesterday. The bonus for me was that all the "lunch ladies" were quite aware and accommodating about my guy's peanut allergy.

If you are not from St. Louis, you may not be familiar with the historical home of Ulysses Grant and the Busch family (as in Anheuser Busch). It's a 281-acre wildlife preserve, with free-ranging buffalo, deer, and cows... not unlike the Harambe Safari ride at Animal Kingdom (but with no dramatic plot twists along the way). But in my children's eyes, the tram ride and even the baby buffalo born that very morning could not beat out the... goats!

Okay, back to my point: I was a little trepidatious about the PB&J sandwiches on the menu at the Brat Haus, but the cashier assured me that the PB&J's are made at a separate facility but still asked someone to especially handle our order who had not been near any peanut butter.

Then for dessert, we had Dippin Dots. Again, I had to make sure that there weren't any nuts and the woman said, "That's why we had to get rid of the Moose Tracks flavor. We didn't want anything with nuts."

Cool!

Grant's Farm ranked as the 7th best family attraction in the country in the Zagat Survey.