Grocery shopping will never be the same.

So I finally bought a book about the food allergies. There are just too many variables going on here. A "friend" feels the need to argue with me about everything and she brought up a very interesting point. I was giving Jack pizza dough because he like it so much. He is so allergic to milk, that if you eat a dairy product and touch him, he gets hives. Well, what was I thinking that if I take the cheese off it was OK? He seemed to do Ok with it I guess. Looking back, he wasn't OK with it. He gets up each and every night still and I don't know why. It wears on the nerves a little. I find out that now, he can not eat anything at all from a restaurant. They just can not be trusted with a milk, egg, peanut allergy. There is milk everywhere, and if there isn't milk, then there is egg. I was making my own meatballs with store bought bread crumbs. The stupid bread crumbs have milk in them. I bought Jack some "Organic Crunchin' Blocks" and it has a kosher symbol with a "D" next to it. It doesn't list anything in the ingredients about milk, but somewhere lurking there IS indeed dairy. This is much harder than I anticipated. I find that I am getting increasingly jealous of all the mammas giving their babies yogurt, and milk and cheeseburgers. I wonder why people feel bad that he can't have ice cream. He doesn't even know what he is missing and probably wouldn't eat it anyway because he hates anything cold. I never really wonder "Why me?", but I do wonder if it will be that much harder in the years to come. I look at the world differently now. When people feel the need to touch my child, I want to say to them "What is on your hands? What have you eaten since the last time you washed? Could you please take this wipee and wipe your hands first." Of course, that isn't always reasonable. I wonder about the apples in store and the railing that he wants to touch. Not so much for the germs, but the particles of dairy that may cause him to have an anaphylactic reaction and force me to use my EpiPen. I am glad I bought the book. It is very helpful in getting these ailments under control like a constant stuffy nose and eczema, or just plain misery. On the other hand, I am in for a long, long, road! Thanks for reading!

Katrina, what have you done?

I am totally glued to my TV about the horror in New Orleans. I am ashamed for those people down there and feel so sad and heartbroken for them. I am extremely angry at the scumbags who feel the need to act like idiots and shoot at police officers and steal jewelry just because they can get away with it. You all should be shot and stolen from and raped and beaten. Let's give you a taste of your own medicine. I am so helpless here and feel like I need to be there helping get people off their roofs and help take care of the sick people. I wonder how many people in the hospitals have died already. How many allergic babies are in New Orleans and along the coast that aren't getting the hypoallergenic formula they need? We had a "Labor of Love" drive in my area. Some radio stations got together 2 huge 18 wheel semi trucks to drive down to Baton Rouge. They challenged everyone to donate food and water only and of course cash donations. As soon as the truck fills up, it will be driven south. They are filling up number 5 as we speak. Our grocery chain, TOPS, donated a semitruck full of food and water. I drove there and donated some Alimentum, diapers and water and other things. I just can't help but feel I am not doing enough for those poor people. The phrase that really got me was "There are now 1 million American refugees." My mother was a refugee from WWII. She was born Feb 1946 and lived in a camp for 5 years! They had no place to live for 5 freaking years! How do you continue to live after that? How did my grandma, after being stripped from her home, want to live with no family left? I am so spoiled and so is almost every American. I just hope after this tragedy, people can appreciate what they have.