Some 5 year old girls love Barbie, mine loves Bret Michaels

May 27, 2010

Some 5 year old girls love Barbie, mine loves Bret Michaels

A few weeks ago I caught my 5 year old daughter flipping through the pages of People Magazine.

"Mom, that's the guy from your show", she said - referring to Celebrity Apprentice. "You know, Bret, the boy with the long blonde hair - because he's a rocker.".

Ah, yes, my daughter first noticed Bret when I was catching up on my DVR backlog and I thought she was playing with her gazillion barbie dolls. At the time she had commented that she liked his hair even if he had hair 'like a girl'. I explained that he was a rock star and that I had listened to him when I was younger.

I watched her as she sat flipping through the pages of People looking at the pictures and pretending to read. When she saw the picture of him lying in a hospital bed she became very concerned. She asked me if he was going to go to heaven like Grandpa did after he went to the hospital. With every attempt to keep it age appropriate we had a very good conversation about how he was recovering and that he had been very sick.

She took it all in and went on to tell me, "I like his blue eyes, Mama, but I think he's wearing eye make-up.. and he's a boy". Not sure what to make of it, I decided to just let it be and used the rocker explanation again.

That day Bret was on Oprah, so I DVR'd it to show her. I did the same with Celebrity Apprentice where Bret Michaels went head to head with Holly Robinson Peete. As we watched she announced that she wanted Michaels to win "because she likes his hair" even if Peete "has on a sparkly silver dress". In an attempt to take it beyond the superficial I explained that both celebrities were in a contest to win money to help charities. I talked to her about Diabetes and Autism - both being things that affect our family. With family members who are Diabetic and her old brother who has Autism, I shared that I would be happy with the outcome regardless. When Snapple gave $250,000 to both charities it was a winning situation all around. Michaels went on to win the Celebrity Apprentice, the ultimate victory - which she attributed of course to his hair.

I was glad that my DVR was running to catch Bret Michaels performing Every Rose Has Its Thorn on the American Idol finale. This morning, when other kids were watching Disney Channel or Nick cartoons - I played back the performance segment for my preschooler. I watched as my daughter tried to sing along (even though it was the first time she had heard the song).

"Mom, I love Bret Michaels because he sings a song about my favorite flower", she proclaimed. ".. and, he has pretty hair. I think his hair is even prettier than Barbie's!"

Indeed, Hair is clearly a priority here at the Jersey Shore.

New Jersey Moms Blog post by MaryTara. MT blogs her adventures in parenting two beautiful children on the Jersey Shore, life with autism & without it, the gluten & casein free diet, and vaccination choice issues at The Bon Bon Gazette and raising a child with amblyopia at Adventures in Amblyopia.

Anti-Bulling Initiative

I've written in the past about bullying and autism and well, how - bullying isn't acceptable in any form but when its aimed at a child who has autism it just seems even more unfair.

This year the Ocean County Council PTA announced they were having a poster contest and the subject was Anti Bullying and a "Wanted" poster theme. Our SEPTA received the application to put in an entry and it was decided that since Alex enjoys art and is talented in that area, that we'd try to submit an entry to the contest. The "Wanted" poster theme was over his head but the instructions stated the entry could be any anti-bullying poster.

This is what Alex came up with. He drew a DS and his self portrait (wearing his signature red POAC hat) and a behavior stoplight. In his class they use the stoplight - the kids start on green and if they go to red, then they don't get recess - yellow is a "warning" status.


















Of course we were proud of what he came up with!

In May they announced the winners of the contest and we were thrilled to learn that Alex won FIRST PLACE in the contest overall. I was especially proud of him that his entry won against posters submitted by "typical" kids.

Way to go, Alex!

On Stop & Shop

Other kids sneak candy into the grocery cart, my son proudly put in Nature's Promise Organic Olive Oil cooking spray. He did this when his dad took him grocery shopping, I wish we had a picture!

The kids love to go grocery shopping, especially Alex. He is extremely helpful and usually insists on scanning all the groceries by himself at the self checkout. He also helps to bag and push the cart. His little sister is also quite good at scanning but can only do "the light things". The truth is, the kids can operate the self checkout better than I can - which is a good thing because the store has gone to all but 2 aisles being self checkout.

Nature's Promise is the Stop & Shop 'healthy' store brand. Over the past year or so, the Stop & Shop here has expanded and moved rapidly into carrying a lot more healthy choices and allergy friendly foods. I used to have to truck it to Whole Foods, Wegmans and the Local Health Food Store at least 1 or 2 times a month, but now I can get pretty much everything I need at Stop & Shop. That's the good news.

The Bad News is that the store recently went through and is currently in the process of moving everything and reorganizing. They even changed their logo, which kind of pissed the kids off even further. The old logo was a stoplight and the new one is a fruit basket or flower sort of deal. They didn't get bigger but the store looks much bigger - I guess they have new higher shelfing or something. The problem is - nothing is where it belongs and it is very disorienting. The first time my son went in after the renovation he cried and yelled and told me to PUT IT BACK! Really, I think he expressed (without filter) what 99% of the shoppers pushing carts madly and grumbling to themselves were thinking. In time, I imagine we'll get used to it. But, I feel like I can't even enjoy the expanded gluten free section in the midst of all the chaos!

Oh. Stop & Shop.. giving me a few more grey hairs these days.

Allergies and Siblings

So, we recently learned that Alex is allergic to peanuts. As a result, the pediatrician and I agreed - it made sense to also run the RAST testing on his sister and then follow up accordingly with an allergist.

So.. I got to be the lucky one to take the most dramatic child ever in for 'blood taking' as Alex calls it. Lets just say, she was not as well behaved with it as her brother was! I am sure the screams were heard throughout the township!!

And, sadly - the results for her didn't come back all that great either. She however, doesn't share the peanut allergy.


Instead... the verdict is:

Treenuts,
Dogs,
Cats

Off to the allergist she goes too!

Jo-Sefs Gluten Free Cookies make our list!

So, in light of our recent 'news' about the need for peanut elimination, I have had to go through my son's pantry and toss/give away anything that contains nuts or was processed with nuts. This was distressing because I realized the bulk of the 'snacks' that were in my son's school snack supply were to be nixed. However, there was a bit of a bright shiny light when I examined a box of Jo-Sefs gluten free cookies and found that they are nut free too. Jo-Sefs made the cut, and rightfully deserving too! Yumm-o!

About a month or so ago I was sent a supply of these cookies that got pretty quickly depleted as both of my children are cookie monsters - especially when it comes to animal crackers and sandwich cookies [oreo type]. I was even more thrilled to find that my local Stop N Shop grocery has started stocking the Josefs gluten free cookies, so I've been able to keep them in the pantry and now will send a few boxes into school for him. They look like a 'deluxe' cookie complete with fancy packaging but they are priced very affordably.. actually under $5 a box in my local store.

The Josefs cookies are

• gluten free
• egg free
• cholesterol free
• additive and preservative free
  
• kosher
• peanut free
  
• lactose/dairy free

** they do contain Soy

The kids have sampled the complete array of Josefs cookies including square cookies and sandwich cookies in chocolate, vanilla, and cinnamon as well as chocolate and vanilla animal crackers. By far their favorites are the vanilla and chocolate sandwich cookies and the vanilla animal crackers.





for more info: http://www.josefsglutenfree.com

Saying Goodbye to Peanut Butter

May 12, 2010

Saying Goodbye to Peanut Butter

I got "the call" today from my son's pediatrician. I was expecting the phone call, with the results of last week's extensive blood work which was mostly routine. My son has autism and a list of food sensitivities including but not limited to wheat and milk. My husband is allergic to tree nuts, so we'd been playing it safe and avoiding tree nuts with my son as well. The pediatrician had added in RAST testing to the routine blood-work to test for the various nut allergies, including peanuts, and also pets - cats and dogs. Since our old dog had passed a few months ago I had noted improvement in his asthma symptoms and before adopting another dog I wanted to make sure that it wasn't the dog after all.

So, when the doctor told me my son had a lower, Class 1, reaction to dogs I wasn't real surprised given my own observations. I could handle that and made a note to call my friend who runs a dog rescue who was looking for a dog for us to call off the search. My doctor then went on to tell me that our fears and concerns about tree nuts were nothing to worry further about and that my son didn't carry the same allergy as his father. I breathed a sigh of relief, but only for a second.

She then floored me.

The pediatrician shared that even though he wasn't allergic to tree nuts that my son's blood-work showed a moderate to higher reaction, levels between Class 2 and 3, for peanuts. She went on to ask me if he had ever shown any type of allergic reaction to peanut butter. Of which he eats a moderate amount of. My answer was "No" but that he'd been getting a reddish circle that was like very chapped lips that seemed to come and go for no apparent reason. Could that be from peanut butter? I'm not certain. But, per the test result we are to "stop the peanut butter" until more extensive allergy testing can be done by a pediatric allergist.

I haven't broken the news yet to my son about the peanut butter. I haven't gone into my cabinet and thrown out the jar or banned it from our house yet. I'm still wrapping myself around the idea that we have yet one more forbidden food in our house added to the pre-existing list. I know that this is a must-do and that it is a serious situation. I know that we have been very lucky that my son has not previously reacted in the past 9 years from his somewhat regular peanut butter consumption or from being in the proximity of others enjoying peanut butter. I'm feeling very angry right now that my son has to strike yet one more 'regular' food from his diet.

I feel like my child already gives up so much and peanut butter is just one more thing on a long list of sacrifices that he makes daily. My son lives gluten free and dairy free and he handles this already difficult diet quite well. He can't have a sandwich on bread, unless you count the overpriced gluten free bread that resembles styrofoam and is stored in the freezer. He can't have a big glass of chocolate milk or tollhouse cookies. He can't have Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or a slice of delivery pizza. His version of the childhood staple of PB & J was served on rice cakes and it was almost like the last remaining bit of kid-food he had left. As if living with the daily struggles of Autism weren't enough he faces the demons of the allergy monster daily while avoiding wheat and milk.

And now we will say goodbye to peanut butter. Peanut butter, I'll miss you.

New Jersey Moms Blog post by MaryTara. MT blogs her adventures in parenting two beautiful children on the Jersey Shore, life with autism & without it, the gluten & casein free diet, and vaccination choice issues at The Bon Bon Gazette and raising a child with amblyopia at Adventures in Amblyopia.

On Blood-Taking and a Peanut Allergy

Last week I took my son in for blood work aka blood taking. I started a blog post but didn't finish it in the hub-bub of a very busy week and getting ready to go out of town for a family wedding. Not to mention the car accident I was in as I was rear-ended leaving the KOHL's parking lot [I was looking for a dress to wear to said wedding].

At the kids well visit, the doctor requested we go in for some routine bloodwork and of course to look at some levels in his blood [you know.. toxic metals that shouldn't be in kids blood but happen to be almost commonplace] as well as running a RAST panel for nuts, tree nuts, dogs, cats and few other suspected allergens. So, we go to the blood lab at 7am before school and my Alex was beyond brave and well behaved. It took 4 jabs and it wasn't until that last jab and 5th vial that he got even the slightest bit agitated and started to cry. Wall-E went with us to the blood lab and was a good friend to Alex helping him get through it.

I was expecting the phone call either yesterday or today from my son's pediatrician office with the results. The call came today.

I knew something was up when it was actually the doctor on the other line and not the nurse who traditionally calls with any bloodwork result. She told me that he has a low allergy to dogs - our allergy bomb of a dog passed a few months ago and the Shih-tzu we have now is "safe" for him but this would definitely play into the selection of any future pets. Cats were not an allergy nor were tree nuts. Since his dad is allergic to tree nuts this surprised me since we honestly thought treenuts were a problem for him. Tree nuts are OK. That is good news. The slight reaction to dogs, also stomachable.

But.. she then dropped the bomb that he is allergic to Peanuts and not just in a low amount. He is testing between a Class 2 and 3. Its significant.

No more peanuts.
No more peanut butter.

And could this be the cause of the strange rash that has been coming and going around my son's mouth for the past year? Quite probably.

We are lucky he has been eating peanut butter without a severe reaction for the past 9 years.

But for now, we say good bye to peanut butter.

And I begin a search for an autism friendly allergist who can get to the bottom of things and conduct further testing.

I'm exhausted already.

Did you know?

May 9-15 is Food Allergy Awareness Week.

Did you know?
- Three to five million children in the U.S. have food allergies
- There is no cure for food allergies.
- Strict avoidance to a food to which a child is allergic is the only way to prevent a reaction.