Food Allergy Awareness Week: Loose Ends

So there are still several questions about food allergies, or Harper's allergy, that I haven't answered and Food Allergy Awareness Week was technically over yesterday.

Instead of posting another marathon post tonight, I'm thinking I'll just pick a day here and there to be an allergy day and pull out some of the unanswered questions then. They are all worth discussing!

Incidentally if you have a pressing question that you really want answered, don't be afraid to email me and I can get back to you pretty quickly (despite what my email track record might suggest).

Things that I hope to cover in the future:

• what we think/do about other nuts (tree nuts) and seeds
• our experience with other people "getting it" and cooperating (or not) with our requests
• theories on avoidance vs. early exposure to highly allergenic foods
• research being done and current hopes for treatment of food allergies

I'm so thankful for the positive response I've had to these posts. Of course I'm not technically an expert, but I have spent so much time reading/thinking/talking about handling Harper's food allergy that I believe my experience definitely counts for something.

I'm also really encouraged by those of you who say you've learned something here. I don't ever think the world will (or should) be nut free, but I do hope we can help each other be more sensitive to the special needs of all our kids and find some small ways to make the world just a little bit safer.

By the way, guess what they found under the seats when they were detailing our new (old) van...

Peanut shells!

How glad am I that we didn't let Harper get in to take a look before having it cleaned?