Before I found out about my sons allergies I knew a few people who had food allergies to peanuts or milk, but I never truly understood until we were living with it ourselves. It is the kind of medical condition that if you don't live with it, it is very hard to understand.
In our society many people have allergies specifically to the environment and we watch commercials and talk with our friends and family about how they just had to take this medication and it was under control or that in general their allergies are no big deal. This is not necessarily the case with a food allergy. Of course there are people that don't have such severe reactions to their allergen. On the other hand there are also people who are very sick on a daily basis because of their allergies and cannot participate the way other children or people can in certain activities because of them.
With our son our entire lives changed. We have to look at everything through the eyes of his allergies. This does not mean that we don't have fun and do wonderful things. This means that we are also prepared and conscious of everything around us in order to protect him. Many people don't understand this reality that we live in and quite frankly I don't expect them to. Nobody can understand the severity of food allergies unless you are personally effected by them.
2 comments:
You are absolutely right, they DON'T get it. But I am doing my best to teach them... and I think that we will be much more successful promoting understanding, if we work together.
Since next week is Food Allergy Week, I'm inviting all food allergy bloggers and friends to contribute your own personal stories on dealing with food allergies... how you found out that you and/or your child has a food allergy, how you manage your food allergy, some of the things you are doing for Food Allergy Week, and what you want people to know about food allergies. We will post a collection of links to your blogs throughout the week. Interested?
Here's what to do:
1) Visit http://www.checkmytag.com/community.html
2) Let me know you want to join by leaving a comment on today's post (so I can post a link to you!)
3) Spread the word: link to the CMT Community page and/or display our Food Allergy Week banner and/or tell all your pals!
4) Add a post on your blog for Food Allergy Week
5) Stop by our Community page during the week to see your post and read other people's stories.
Hope you'll join us in spreading the word about food allergies...
Ria
I'm with Ria, they don't get it, but I'm doing my best to teach them :) The problem that I find is that because they don't live it every day like we do, they forget. They forget that he "can't eat that". Or "wash your hands before touching him". It's reminding over and over and over again and never letting my guard down.
Post a Comment