If your child has food allergies, you know how difficult it can be to buy allergy-free snacks. Let's be realistic. Your kid is not suddenly going to decide munching on celery and carrots are all he wants to do just because he has food allergies. Here are some ways to find allergen-free snacks and some that are even individually packaged for travel or school.
Instructions
1. Join Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis (FAAN). FAAN is a great resource for learning about labeling laws, food allergies in general and keeping yourself informed about federal and state laws. FAAN also advocates for research and better labeling for those who have food allergies.
2. Read an article on the Allergy Moms website listed on their blog that talks about online companies that make allergy free snacks, then visit the companies' websites by clicking on the links in the article. You can decide which companies sell allergy free snacks that your kid can eat.
3. Educate yourself. It can be overwhelming trying to understand all the implications of dealing with your kid's food allergies. Educate yourself about labeling laws in order to understand keep your child from having a reaction when eating.
4. Shop whenever possible at stores like Whole Foods that list ingredients on everything in the store, including deli items and prepared foods.
5. Access a food seller's website to see if the company has ingredient information and manufacturing procedures listed for a particular food. At the least, you can obtain the company's contact information if you need to do further research on whether a snack is allergy free.
6. Contact the manufacturer when in doubt. The longer you deal with food allergies the more you realize that sometimes you need to contact the manufacturer to determine whether a snack is safe for your kid.
7. Use your common sense. If you're not sure if a snack is safe, don't let your child eat it. Not eating a particular food is less traumatic than visiting the emergency room after a reaction. If you do some research, you can relax while your kid snacks.
Tags: food allergies, your child, about labeling, about labeling laws, allergy free