My Kid Has a Food Allergy and I Need Support
03/04/19 • 62 min
If you have a child with a newly diagnosed food allergy, you are likely consumed with learning as much as you can to keep your kiddo safe and healthy. This may also mean that you are neglecting your own self-care in order to take on the extra responsibility of eliminating allergens from your home and meeting with daycare providers and school administrators to develop a plan for your child. What can you do to take care of yourself during this challenging time?
Diana Rice, RD, is a nationally recognized nutrition professional and family health expert. She is passionate about communicating effective and evidence-based strategies that incorporate good nutrition into the challenges of modern-day life. Prior to launching her consultancy, Diana served as the Associate Director of Nutrition Communications at The Monday Campaigns, where she spearheaded the Kids Cook Monday initiative. Now she focuses on perinatal, infant and child nutrition, and food allergies, working directly with families to implement practical strategies for improved health. Diana is also a frequent contributor to national media publications, including Parents, The Huffington Post, and Everyday Health, among many others.
Today, Diana joins us to describe how a child’s food allergy diagnosis impacts the entire family. She shares the professional advice around introducing allergens early and often, explaining the ‘mom guilt’ she felt for not doing everything she could to reduce her own child’s risk. Diana also walks us through the steps she took to manage her daughter’s allergy to peanuts and tree nuts and offers advice for parents on reaching out for the support you need. Listen in for Diana’s insight into why food allergies are so much more complex than simply eliminating a particular food from your diet—and learn how to advocate for your child AND take care of yourself as an allergy mom!
Key Takeaways
Diana’s transition to motherhood
- Smooth process with first daughter (support network)
- Relocated when second daughter just 3 weeks old
- Started to slack on self-care, developed anxiety
Diana’s second daughter’s health issues
- Introduced potential allergens ‘early and often’
- Diagnosis of allergy to peanuts and tree nuts
How Diana responded to her daughter’s food allergies
- Eliminate foods manufactured on shared lines
- Meetings with daycare providers, school
- Research around brands with dedicated facilities
The professional advice around introducing allergens
- Prompted by study of Israeli kids in UK and Israel
- Introduce potential allergens early to reduce risk
Diana’s mom guilt around her daughter’s allergies
- Couldn’t say ‘did everything I could’
- Tell self that your best is enough
The responsibility of managing a child’s food allergies
- Challenge usually falls to mom
- Focus on child’s needs AND own self-care
Diana’s insight on navigating your child’s food allergies
- Recognize that diagnosis affects whole family
- Get support you need (e.g.: therapist, dietician)
Diana’s advice for parents of children with allergies
- Identify anxiety triggers (i.e.: grocery shopping)
- Connect with other allergy parents
- Set aside time to dig through info
- Talk through concerns with partner
How parents of kids without allergies can provide support
- Understand risks of cross-contamination
- Respect school policies re: outside food
- Cultivate empathy for families with food allergies
- Don’t give child food without parent permission
- Celebrate with non-food alternatives (e.g.: stickers)
Diana’s top tip for food allergy moms
- There’s no shame in being ‘that mom’
- You deserve to advocate for family’s health
Connect with Diana
Connect with Lindsay
Nutrition Instincts - San Diego Nutrition Therapy
If you have a child with a newly diagnosed food allergy, you are likely consumed with learning as much as you can to keep your kiddo safe and healthy. This may also mean that you are neglecting your own self-care in order to take on the extra responsibility of eliminating allergens from your home and meeting with daycare providers and school administrators to develop a plan for your child. What can you do to take care of yourself during this challenging time?
Diana Rice, RD, is a nationally recognized nutrition professional and family health expert. She is passionate about communicating effective and evidence-based strategies that incorporate good nutrition into the challenges of modern-day life. Prior to launching her consultancy, Diana served as the Associate Director of Nutrition Communications at The Monday Campaigns, where she spearheaded the Kids Cook Monday initiative. Now she focuses on perinatal, infant and child nutrition, and food allergies, working directly with families to implement practical strategies for improved health. Diana is also a frequent contributor to national media publications, including Parents, The Huffington Post, and Everyday Health, among many others.
Today, Diana joins us to describe how a child’s food allergy diagnosis impacts the entire family. She shares the professional advice around introducing allergens early and often, explaining the ‘mom guilt’ she felt for not doing everything she could to reduce her own child’s risk. Diana also walks us through the steps she took to manage her daughter’s allergy to peanuts and tree nuts and offers advice for parents on reaching out for the support you need. Listen in for Diana’s insight into why food allergies are so much more complex than simply eliminating a particular food from your diet—and learn how to advocate for your child AND take care of yourself as an allergy mom!
Key Takeaways
Diana’s transition to motherhood
- Smooth process with first daughter (support network)
- Relocated when second daughter just 3 weeks old
- Started to slack on self-care, developed anxiety
Diana’s second daughter’s health issues
- Introduced potential allergens ‘early and often’
- Diagnosis of allergy to peanuts and tree nuts
How Diana responded to her daughter’s food allergies
- Eliminate foods manufactured on shared lines
- Meetings with daycare providers, school
- Research around brands with dedicated facilities
The professional advice around introducing allergens
- Prompted by study of Israeli kids in UK and Israel
- Introduce potential allergens early to reduce risk
Diana’s mom guilt around her daughter’s allergies
- Couldn’t say ‘did everything I could’
- Tell self that your best is enough
The responsibility of managing a child’s food allergies
- Challenge usually falls to mom
- Focus on child’s needs AND own self-care
Diana’s insight on navigating your child’s food allergies
- Recognize that diagnosis affects whole family
- Get support you need (e.g.: therapist, dietician)
Diana’s advice for parents of children with allergies
- Identify anxiety triggers (i.e.: grocery shopping)
- Connect with other allergy parents
- Set aside time to dig through info
- Talk through concerns with partner
How parents of kids without allergies can provide support
- Understand risks of cross-contamination
- Respect school policies re: outside food
- Cultivate empathy for families with food allergies
- Don’t give child food without parent permission
- Celebrate with non-food alternatives (e.g.: stickers)
Diana’s top tip for food allergy moms
- There’s no shame in being ‘that mom’
- You deserve to advocate for family’s health
Connect with Diana
Connect with Lindsay
Nutrition Instincts - San Diego Nutrition Therapy
Previous Episode
Dr. Linda Shanti's interview for her It's Not About the Baby Weight Summit!
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IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BABY WEIGHT - RECOVERY MAMA SUMMIT
During pregnancy and postpartum, your relationship with food changes and your body transforms. This shift is challenging for nearly all new moms, but if you have a history of anxiety, depression, or an eating disorder, that adds another layer of complexity to an already difficult process. So, what kind of support do you need if you are in recovery as you transition into motherhood?
Dr. Linda Shanti is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in San Francisco. She specializes in recovery from eating disorders, body image challenges, anxiety, postpartum depression, and new mom support. Linda is also a well-known speaker and author of the book The Recovery Mama Guide to Your Eating Disorder Recovery in Pregnancy and Postpartum. With 20 years of experience in the realm of compulsive eating, emotional eating, binge eating, bulimia, and anorexia, she is committed to helping women leverage expressive arts, mindfulness, and compassionate mirroring to support recovery in pregnancy and postpartum.
On this episode of The Embodied & Well Mom Show, Linda joins us to explain the proactive approach she took to get support during her own pregnancy, discussing the way her anxiety presented as irritability, anger and hypervigilance. She shares her experience with both food and body image during pregnancy and postpartum and describes how she supports women in decoding the myths around ‘getting your body back.’ Listen in to understand Linda’s approach to working with new moms in recovery—and learn to quiet your overdeveloped self-critic in favor of self-compassion!
Key Takeaways
Linda’s proactive approach to getting support during her own pregnancy
- Brought up history of anxiety, eating disorder at first appointment
- Surprised by irritable depression, rage and hypervigilance
The challenge of supporting a partner with irritable depression
- Looks like pushing away, want to be alone
Linda’s experience with food during pregnancy and postpartum
- Disconcerting ravenous hunger
- Nausea in first trimester (calmed by eating)
Linda’s experience with body image during pregnancy
- Drastic hormonal shifts led to BIG feelings
- Fun to have baby bump in middle of process
- Very rough at end, ‘carting around boulder’
How Linda supports clients around postpartum body image
- Work through grief process
- Decode myths re: diet culture, getting body back
How Linda works with moms in recovery from eating disorders
- Reframe independence as interdependence
- Address overdeveloped self-critic
- Reassess schedule, lower the bar on expectations
Linda’s advice for overachieving first-time moms
- You will come back, have time to self again
Connect with Linda
Connect with Lindsay
Embodied & Well Mom Show on Facebook
Resources
Next Episode
Responsive Feeding & "Picky eating"
Parents receive conflicting messages about feeding. We’re told that getting the right nutrients is incredibly important to our child’s health and wellbeing. Then, we’re told that we should simply offer our kids food and let them decide whether and how much to eat. So, how do we follow both sets of advice? The fact is, nutrition is the result of a trusting feeding relationship, and if you can learn to appreciate your kiddo’s presentation and respond to their cues, you can achieve a stress-free mealtime.
Grace Wong is a certified eating disorder registered dietitian with 15 years of clinical experience in mental health and pediatric nutrition. Grace works with a diverse presentation of feeding and eating disorders and supports children with co-existing conditions like ADHD, autism, sensory processing challenges, anxiety, depression, addiction and trauma. She is committed to helping clients uncover their family feeding history and establish a comfortable environment at mealtime. Grace’s practice is based in Calgary, and she does online coaching through her Facebook business page.
Today, Grace joins us to explain how she supports parents whose kids have complex feeding presentations. She discusses the concept of food acceptance, sharing her aim to get children to a place where variety is not disruptive and her approach to establishing a peaceful mealtime. Listen in for Grace’s insight on the challenges of parenting neuro-diverse kiddos and learn how to appreciate your child’s feeding presentation and build a trusting feeding relationship!
Key Takeaways
How Grace supports parents whose kids eat differently
- Don’t treat child as ‘problem’
- Learn story, family feeding history
- Identify cause of current challenges
- Move child closer to natural trajectory
The tenets of division of responsibility in feeding
- Parents responsible for when, what and where
- Children responsible for whether, how much
The concept of responsive eating
- Relationship rather than set of rules
- Read child’s cues, respond appropriately
Grace’s insight on the idea of food acceptance
- Limited diet grows with experience
- Get to a place where variety not disruptive
The conflicting message parents receive re: feeding
- Nutrition important, necessary for wellbeing
- Offer children food and let them decide
How Grace works to establish a peaceful mealtime
- Collect story and identify stressors
- Give child autonomy to choose or remove
- Address concerns (e.g.: anxiety, appetite)
- Make meals safe + comfortable
The challenges of parenting neuro-diverse children
- Shaming or judgment from friends, family
- Kids employ masking to appear normal
- Increases anxiety, creates more aversion
Grace’s advice on appreciating your child’s presentation
- Develop trusting feeding relationship
- Outcome = nutrition, peace with food
Connect with Grace
Connect with Lindsay
Embodied & Well Mom Show on Facebook
Resources
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