Coeliacs and the Summer!

Hello lovely people,

So sorry that it's been a while....again! We have been busy with lots going on.

Zach had review allergy tests and all levels were the same and he has also been diagnosed with coeliacs.  I know! How lucky can one little boy be??!!

So, how have we dealt with it?  This time I have gone easy on myself, rather than feeling wholly responsible for all of Zach's nutritional and social needs.  I have relaxed and let it sink in.  I've had a cry and done some baking, but other than that, not a lot.  I've allowed myself to say no to people and also to tell people that I don't know the answer.  I don't know what contains gluten apart from the obvious...bread! As well as not knowing, I am taking my time to find out.  I've stood in three different supermarkets looking at the freefrom aisles searching for eggless and gluten free products and felt fairly sad at the very poor display, but slowly I am learning to replace the gluten and bake again!! Actually its pretty similar to replacing egg, so most of the ingredients (or one of them, albeit an important one....xanthum gum), we already have.

I have been bought a BBC gluten free recipe book by my mum which has some good recipes and have borrowed the Intolerant Gourmet by Pippa Kendrick - a fabulous book and have already cracked flatbreads - quite an achievement!  I am spending a lot of time being slow and thinking a lot about meals (not helped by the fact that I'm pregnant) but I think that's natural and it will all become second nature.

The hayfever season is also in full swing and its taken me a while to remember all the helpful tips to lend Zach a hand.  As well as dosing him up daily with antihistamines, I try to remember vaseline for his nose (funny, but it really does help), daily hair washing and not to hang his bedding on the line, not a great deal to remember but a challenge for me at the moment!

We also decided to give him fromage frais deciding adamantly that, if he has to avoid gluten, he will be able to have dairy (hilarious - like we have a say in it!).  However, two days of that and he was covered in itchy eczema and we abandoned that for now....not to be defeated.

The amazing thing about Coeliacs is the support.  We had a dieticians appointment within 4 days and were given a bag full of leaflets, free food, information and even a recipe book (as we have one of the more 'challenging diets', as the dietician put it!).  Coeliacs UK, the main charity is free to join for 6 months and have sent a food and drink directory, full of information about brands, where to shop... the list goes on.  We have a gastroenterology appointment in two months.

So, it got me thinking, how different life could be when diagnosed with food allergies.  Imagine for a minute if your child was diagnosed, then seen within DAYS by the dietician who was knowledgeable, helpful and full of nutritional and recipes ideas.  Then you saw the allergist within two months and there was a directory of food in a book form and online where you could put in brands of food, the shop you buy at and it would tell you the allergens in the product!  Imagine if everyone was that knowledgeable and helpful and the system just worked! 

I think it can become reality.  Maybe starting with baby's red books to flag up food allergies so they are identified and diagnosed earlier, working with the allergy charities and educating health care professionals about food allergies and their management.  Anyway, we can wake up now, but maybe we could work towards that as a community of parents of children with food allergies? Who's in?!

The final few thing to say is, yes I'm worried about our next baby in terms of allergies and coeliacs, but that's life and I am very grateful to be pregnant and there many worse diagnoses.

And finally, we have a book deal!!!!!! Random house have signed The allergy-Free Baby and Toddler Book by myself and Dr Adam Fox.  It's due to be published and launched for Allergy week 2014.  I am so excited I could pop.

Keep in touch and let me know your thoughts about how to change the world of allergy!

Love
Charlotte

World Allergy Week

It's World Allergy Week, the focus of the week being 'Food Allergy - A rising global health problem'.  It is a particular worry as 'the condition disproportionally burdens children, negatively impacting nutrition, healthy development and anxiety levels' (The Anaphylaxis Campaign, 2013).

I want to use this week to highlight to any readers how important support, friendship and trust are to the parents and children who have food allergies.  Everyday and everywhere allergic children go, they either carry their medication for themselves or their parents carry it.  Each situation carries its own anxieties - the party of a new friend, going out for lunch, going to a farm to feed animals, the list goes on, and for parents who want a babysitter to go out for a night, that's a whole new world of questions.  Should I teach the babysitter how to use the epipen??...but they are in bed asleep, not eating eggs,...but what if...& what if.....The ultimate plan for the parent is to be prepared and never ever be a position where you are forced to regret your actions or lack of them.

In the last fortnight, I have heard a little girl tell my son his skin is bumpy and funny and a mum outside nursery has asked him (not me, him) if he has teenage pimples.  He looks in the mirror and tells me he wants the spots off.  I've even considered using concealer on him.  The allergist he is under finally reviewed him after his anaphylactic episode in hospital, 7, yes that's right, 7 months later.  The GP refused to refer him to the dermatologist for a review and better allergy management because 'dermatologists laugh at GPs' - I'm not even joking and, to top the fortnight off, he has had me running at him across a large table of friends and family shouting 'no Zach' because I thought he was about to drink milk, when in fact he showed me, it was water.  All in all, he is remarkable and unfazed by what he can and can't have, but sometimes I am astounded by people's lack of judgement, knowledge and sensitivity.

There are many parents out there who have it a whole lot worse than we do and with allergies on the rise and with no cure on the horizon, what do we do?

Well, this week, how about we all just increase the support we offer our friend or the family we know who is affected by food allergies?  If you are the friend, teacher, grandparent or even neighbour of a child with food allergies, please take the time to ask the parents if they are OK this week and ask them how it's going.  When you are out, ask them where they keep their epipen, ask if they can show you how to use it, just discuss it.  Just for this week, try to think, as if it is your child who has food allergies and make your plans, in order to make their life fun, free and fabulous.  I am lucky to have a great family and friendship network, but we still have many days where I just want to take it all away from Zach, who is the one who ultimately has to cope with it.


While there is great research going on and many trials, there is no solution for food allergies except avoidance of that food.  In the meantime, use this week to support anyone you know and to learn for yourself what life is really like.  Every parent that I have met who has a child with food allergies has fears and anxieties that they are trying not to let influence their child.  Sharing those anxieties would be appreciated by many, I'm sure.

Charlotte x

Lunchboxes

Happy new year!!

Having helped with 'The Allergy Free Baby and Toddler Book' that I have written (hopefully soon to be published), the informed, brilliant and supportive Michelle Berriedale-Johnson at Free From Foods asked me to suggest some yummy and allergy free lunchbox ideas for the website.  You don't have to be intolerant or allergic to enjoy them (although they are all egg, dairy and mainly gluten free), so check them out and try a few in your children's next packed lunches.  Here's the link:

http://www.freefromrecipesmatter.com/recipes/guests/articles/charlotte-muquit-01-13.html

Enjoy! 

Charlotte x

By the way, in the bit at the start about me, it says that I'm a keen runner (yes, I did say that!).  Just to clarify, I am a runner but I think keen is a bit of an exaggeration-wouldn't want to confuse the people who know me now would I?!