November 3, 2013

Dealing with Allergies



For the past several months we have been dealing with a couple of allergies that Zoie has come up with.

The first is MILK. 
Easy enough to avoid. 
She can eat dairy products, but can't drink plain milk. 
We have experimented with all different kinds; raw, organic, homogenized...
You name it, she has tried it. 
Same reaction every time.
Horrible tummy ache and diarrhea for days, followed by blisters covering her bottom area. 
So sad. Breaks my heart. 
So... we avoid milk. Which is easy and she loves Almond Milk.
Crisis Averted!


Her second allergies is APPLES.
Not so easy to avoid.  
Apples are in everything!
They are a cheap, easy to grow, natural sweetener.
We do a pretty good job avoiding the obvious; apples, apple juice, and apple sauce.
The not so obvious we tend to struggle with.

I read all the labels.
I thoroughly check all sweet products that may or may not have apples in it or may be sweetened with apple juice. Apple as a sweetener is in everything from fruit snacks, to most juice drinks. 

My big issues came a couple weeks ago when Zoie ate a Twizzlers.
I read the label. Nothing.
She ate 4 of them. They are my favorite and we shared a pack at the movies.
The next day. 
Reaction.

So I called the Hershey Company, who makes Twizzlers.
They did a little research and got back to me with this:

There is no direct way of knowing whether or not apples are used in their product. They receive their sweetener from a company that makes "Artificial Sweetener". That company is only required to list the top 4 allergens in the ingredients list of their product. Which does not include apples. The other ingredients are not revealed to them.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!
My daughter had an allergic reaction to on of their products!
AND THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT IS IN THEIR PRODUCT!
The only thing I want from them is knowledge. And they can't offer me anything to help.

So here I sit... wondering what I can and can't give my daughter to eat. She loves food. She will try anything I give her.... but how am I supposed to know what is safe when the company that makes the product doesn't even know what they put in it??

November 1, 2013

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween yesterday!
We had such a great day.

First - A Throwback to last year. Zoie's first Halloween last year.
With her big sister Ry dressed as a Fairy.


It started off running errands in town.
(Got Costco done before the 1st. Yay me!)
Followed that with a long nap for Zoie.
Finished off by an amazing night of Pizza and Zoie Trick or Treating!

It was perfect!
Zoie had SO MUCH FUN!
And by the end of the evening she was even saying, "Trick or Treat!"
In the beginning when they opened the door she would say.
"Hi! Candy Mease!"

So Cute.
About a month ago she couldn't stop talking about Charlotte's Web. 
So she dressed up as Charlotte and I decorated her pumpkin as Wilbur.
Adorable.


I am not kidding you ... every single adult we passed on the street had to stop and say "Hi" to her. 
People were randomly handing her their candy. Someone even gave her their WSU glow stick! It was hilarious and she was taking it all in. It's like they'd never seen a baby dressed as a spider before.

Not to brag or anything... but we made One Cute Kid!


Checking out her loot!

Hope you all had a perfect Halloween!