Food allergies suck for everyone

Luke is sleeping next to me as I write. He just had some weird reaction to something he ate and we treated it with a dose of Benedryl, which fortunately did the trick. It's probably a cross contamination thing, where maybe the toast he just had somehow got a molecule of peanut on it or something. Or maybe he's allergic to Sunflower Seed Butter, but he's had that before without an issue. That's what's so maddening about this shit, the answers aren't always clear.

As I watch Luke sleep I'm feeling overwhelmed with emotion. At 3.5, he's too young to learn the "life's not fair" lesson. And, I'm a little angry about it. As all good anger belongs displaced on some intangible other person, I'm going to write a little rant in response to the attitudes I've encountered from time to time towards food allergies.

The people who read our blog regularly aren't my intended audience, but it's a public place to state a few things and that alone provides me a sense of satisfaction. Thanks for bearing with me...here goes...

By sending a message of inconvenience and deprivation regarding procedures put in place to protect another child, you miss an opportunity to teach your child to respond to other people's challenges with compassion and understanding. For example, "My son is deprived his daily peanut butter sandwich and it's not fair to him." It's silly to think your child's quality of life seriously depends upon a peanut butter sandwich. Come on people, model something positive to your child.

I wish people would stop telling me kids who live on farms don't have allergies, that our houses are too clean, or that allergies are caused by vaccines. At this point, that's not helpful (or conclusive) information, though I wish somebody would find the magic bullet to stop the allergy epidemic.

And, lastly, those of us who carry epipens and benedryl in our purses would be ELATED to be able to send anything we wanted for snack-time. I don't like the limitations either. The alternative is having my child feel left out or worse and I have to believe we all would do the same for our child.

Rant complete. I feel better. Sorta.

Way to go Rebecca!

Rebecca Miller used to babysit Luke when we lived in the city. She would take him on adventures all over the city, and he loved it. Absolutely loved it (and her).

Congratulations are in order because Rebecca received a Fullbright scholarship. You can read about it on the covchurch website. She started a blog so that those of us who care can keep up on her overseas experience.

I wish I had a picture of her and Luke to post...but I don't!

Earthquake

I felt it this morning, and realized it was probably an earthquake. The house shook gently for maybe 30 seconds. (It felt gentle at least.) The windows rattled a little.

There's a train track near our house, and it felt as though we were close to a passing train, but there was no train horn, no train noise. No train.

I thought briefly about what to do if it got worse, but assumed it wouldn't. (I don't know why.)

The USGS calls it magnitude 4.5, but others put it at 5.2 or even 5.4.

Update: Here's the only link not expired as of 2/10/2010: Magnitude 5.4 Illinois.

Got Milk?

Mmmmm.... milk....