The holidays are upon is! And the holidays are full of food allergy pit falls. It seems that food is a part of every holiday celebration and even a part of the decorations themselves. If you have food allergies and celebrate during this season it is an issue for you. You can't ignore it. I've done two blog posts on the subject and you can find them here:
Surviving the holidays with food allergies and…
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Added by Janeen on December 3, 2009 at 4:30pm —
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Back in October I wrote a post about
Type 1 Diabetes from a child's perspective. As parents, we want to make everything better. We certainly don't set out to make it worse. But sometimes we do and we don't even realize that we are doing it. A few days ago
Super Nanny visited a family with a child that has Type 1 diabetes…
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Added by Janeen on December 1, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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My son was diagnosed with his food allergies at 10 months of age. When the allergist told me that he was allergic to wheat, rye, barley, oat, eggs, dairy, peanuts and tree nuts my first thought was "What am I going to feed this child"? I was so lost and so scared and I had no idea what to do. No one else I knew had a food allergy child and I didn't know where to turn. Unfortunately, as wonderful as our allergist is, he is not very helpful in this area. He showed me pamphlets from…
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Added by Janeen on November 30, 2009 at 9:00am —
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This particular article that I read today applied to Facebook, but it got me thinking about my blog. Do we really know who is reading it and what they are actually doing with the information that we are putting out there?
In this article a Canadian woman had her long term sick leave for depression revoked because her insurance company found photos of her on Facebook that showed her "having…
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Added by Janeen on November 23, 2009 at 10:30am —
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Yesterday I wrote a post about
traveling safely with asthma during this holiday season. But asthma and allergies aren't the only concerns that people have during this season. What about type 1 diabetes? Traveling and the holidays don't need to be stressful and no ones health needs to suffer. With some careful planning everyone can have a happy, healthy holiday.
So what can you do to travel safely with type 1…
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Added by Janeen on November 19, 2009 at 7:30pm —
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Over the river and through the woods can be a wonderful adventure, unless you suffer from asthma. Once you leave your safe, comfortable environment, triggers may lurk all around you.
Last year I wrote
Surviving the holidays with allergies. Many of these suggestions also apply to asthma sufferers.
1. Know your triggers and try to avoid. If pets are your trigger, you may need to avoid a home that has pets.…
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Added by Janeen on November 18, 2009 at 7:11pm —
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My
blog has already suffered. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to get EVERYTHING done. With Thanksgiving next week and Christmas (or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Kwanza) right around the corner, I'm busy and my blog is the first thing that suffers. Something's got to give, right? Or does it....
This time of year is stressful for most people. And if you are suffering from an illness or disease or love someone that…
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Added by Janeen on November 17, 2009 at 12:29pm —
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November 14, 2009 is World Diabetes Day. What is World Diabetes Day? It's celebrated in over 160 countries and this years theme is "prevention and education".
What can you do to support those with diabetes and get the word out?:
1.
Go blue. This suggestion may be a bit extreme, but you can wear blue tomorrow (as little or as much as you want) to support those with diabetes.
2.…
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Added by Janeen on November 13, 2009 at 4:30pm —
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While reading
this article by Medical News Today today I came across an interesting statement and one that holds very true for my son:
"'Allergic rhinitis has been shown to increase the risk of asthma three-fold, and investigators found that when rhinitis began in the first year of life, the development of asthma by age 6 was twice as high as when it started after the first year,' Dr. Pawankar said".
Really…
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Added by Janeen on November 10, 2009 at 10:00am —
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The holidays are coming! There are many tell-tale signs: Commercials are on TV showing families sitting around the table enjoying holiday festivities, Christmas music is playing over the speakers in stores to inspire shoppers, holiday decorations and displays are set up in stores, and recipes are spread out all over my kitchen counters. My counters are a disaster and will probably stay that way until the first of the year. I am trying to put together safe, allergen friendly menus for Thanksgivin…
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Added by Janeen on November 9, 2009 at 9:30am —
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This article from Yahoo News talks about a study done at Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland that shows that some people with stubborn asthma aren't using their medication as prescribed by their doctors. I don't think this study is earth shattering, but I think that it sheds a light on an important issue. Your doctor prescribes your medication for a reason and it can't help you if you don't tak…
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Added by Janeen on November 4, 2009 at 10:00am —
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Our Halloween with food allergies was not the best. In fact, my son ended up in the ER. We tried to be as careful as we possibly could be. But there are no guarantees.
This morning while perusing a few blogs I came across
this post from Barb. It's mostly a sweet post from a mom and grandma talking about her…
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Added by Janeen on November 3, 2009 at 11:30am —
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I've always struggled with my weight. I was the chubby kid, chubby teen, and then in college, the weight just magically came off. I was so happy. Then in my 20's the struggle was back on but I had a better handle on it. When I got married at age 30 I looked like this:
…
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Added by Janeen on October 29, 2009 at 10:00am —
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My son has asthma. I do not. So if you ask me to describe asthma I can only do it with an outsiders eyes. I can only tell you about the body retching coughing, the whistling intake of air that should be breathing but hardly resembles the deep influx of air that normal lungs accept. I
can describe to you the pale listless boy that lays in my arms at 3 am while we listen to the drone of the nebulizer and watch the puffs of the albutrol steam hoping that it all brings relief. But I can't tel…
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Added by Janeen on October 27, 2009 at 7:00pm —
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Someone said to me last week "There are too many bloggers and too many opinions. Everyone has a voice and a place to put it. It's just causing too much confusion". The comment caught me off guard because A. This person is someone that I'm very close to and they obviously know that I'm a blogger and B. Could they right? (Ok, even if it's just a little right).
I have not blogged about my opinion on H1N1or the H1N1 vaccine on
my blog.…
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Added by Janeen on October 26, 2009 at 5:30pm —
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Brenda started a discussion last year about discrimination against diabetics in the work place. But what about discrimination against kids with diabetes? Is this something that you or your children have experienced? Apparently it is a big problem.
Diabetes.org.uk released this video titled “Setting the record…
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Added by Janeen on October 26, 2009 at 10:00am —
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As a food allergy parent you try to make sure that your child is kept safe. That is your number one goal. But your other goal is to make sure that they aren't left out or feeling different because of their food allergies. One of the most difficult things at school can be snack time. The other children eat snacks like gold fish, teddy grahams, Oreo's, cupcakes, etc. and depending on their food allergies, our children just can't do that.
I try to send my sons favorite snacks to school. But every…
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Added by Janeen on October 23, 2009 at 10:15am —
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I have to tell you that as a mother and especially as the mother of an asthmatic, I'm concerned. I'm also a bit ticked off.
No matter who you talk to, everyone has a different opinion as to how severe this flu actually is, and whether or not you and your children should get the vaccine and who is actually at the greatest risk.
I know two people in the medical field (one is a surgical nurse and one is studying to be a doctor) and both have opposite opinions. The media says one thing, the governm…
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Added by Janeen on October 20, 2009 at 7:00pm —
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I was giving my son his asthma medication last night and I thought to myself "Am I doing this right"? We've been doing this for years but every once in a while I feel like a need a refresher. Is it just me or does anyone else feel that way? Sometimes I feel like we get into some bad habits or like I skip a step. In the event that I am not alone, I decided to do a little research today on the aerochamber.
ICYou has a great instructional video on how to use the aerochamber (and I think I've poste…
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Added by Janeen on October 16, 2009 at 1:06pm —
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Most health bloggers either blog about a disease that a loved one suffers from or one that they themselves suffer from. My main
blog is about my family life and my youngest sons food allergies. Then I have another
blog (much less frequently updated) with food allergy recipes. On the sidebar of my main blog I felt it was important to link to…
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Added by Janeen on October 14, 2009 at 1:30pm —
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