'Just avoid peanuts!'

The first time my son had a smidgen of peanut butter (age 3), he went into severe respiratory distress, after running around inarticulately screaming in agony. We immediately rushed him to the ER, but he was barely conscious by the time we arrived. The doctors immediately pumped him full of epinephrine. Afterwards when the doctors tell you that your child has to avoid eating peanuts, it seems relatively obvious, and you cant believe thats all their going to say or do. I dont know what I expected, but I couldnt believe how little support we received. I thought we deserved at least a hug. We were just sent home in complete shock, with a perscription for an epipen. Then, all of a sudden its like your eyes are opened for the first time, and you see just how much peanuts and nuts there are all over. What seems like a simple task (how hard can not eating something be?), all of a sudden feels like walking through a field of landmines blindfolded. Then you realize just what a nutty society we North Americans have. Avoiding being around peanuts and nuts alienates your child from all kinds of 'North American' childhood experiences like baseball games, circuses, and eating a nonplanned meal at a food court. Birthday cakes, popsicles and popcorn become loaded guns. Although my child doesnt have a terminal illness, he plays Russian roullette everytime he eats. People who dont know someone who has anaphylaxis, just dont understand what this means. A mother at my sons school asked me once if it was okay to send 'honey nut' cereal to our 'nutfree' school. I tried to hide my shock at her misunderstanding of the words 'deadly allergy' and 'nutfree'. Anyway, I wanted my son not to see what he was missing by being allergic to nuts, I wanted him to see the bonuses. His mother wouldnt buy him stale supermarket baked goods. No way! I learned to make him everything from crackers and pizza (that didnt last too long), to brownies, cornbread, birthday cake, candy popcorn and fudge! His friends started to look at his snacks with envy! Although I'm not a techie, I figured I would learn how to create this blog so I could share recipes, ideas, and experiences with other parents of anaphylactic children. So please be patient with my blog, as I'm sure it wont be elegantly written and layed out for a while. Also, since I usually only have time to write at night, I'm usually sleepy and perhaps not as concise as I think I'm being.

Thanks
Arda