Food allergies and free samples

 

 

 With a family of 5, we find it helpful to shop at the warehouse store and buy in bulk. 

I managed to pry Kitty and Son #2 off the computer to go with me. Lucky them, it was free sample day. I glanced at all the samples, none of them seemed a problem. 

But I turned around to say something to one of the kids, and noticed Son #2 was about to put a piece of a granola bar/power bar in his mouth. 

Picture me in slow motion waving my arms and running towards him, fixated on the sample nearing his mouth, yelling 'nooooooooooo!' 

He was a little shocked, and quickly pulled the sample down from his mouth. I panted, 'did you check for tree nuts?' 

We examined the bar, but couldn't tell if it had tree nuts. We went back to the vender, but she didn't know what was in the sample. How could she not know what she was serving?!

I snatched the box to read the label, and sure enough - there was a tree nut allergy warning.

That was a close call, Son #2 is usually good at checking for tree nuts. It's surprising how many places they show up.

That's the one scary thing about allergies and asthma, you can never let your guard down. I haven't had to use the Epi Pen yet, the time one of the kids had an anaphylactic reaction, we were only a block away from Asthma Doctor.

People laugh when I say my goal in life is to keep my kids alive, but if you have kids with food and other allergies, and asthma, you know what it's like. 

12 hospitalizations for asthma have been 12 too many. 

No wonder I have gray hairs....