Valentine’s Candy for Lovers with Food Allergies!

By Kelley Lindberg

Here it comes… another candy-oriented holiday. Since the day after Christmas, the grocery stores have been stocking all things pink and red, in anticipation of Valentine’s Day. It's still a month away, so that means there's time to plan ahead for a safe Valentine's Day.

Gimbal's heart-shaped jelly beans were a huge
hit with the teenage crowd at my house!

The go-to gift is often candy – especially chocolate and those little conversation hearts (you know, the chalky little hearts with words stamped on them). But if you or your sweetie has food allergies, candy may not be an easy choice. After all, nothing says “I love you” like anaphylactic shock, right? While you can sometimes find allergy-safe chocolate online and in stores, most is simply a no-no. And those conversation hearts? Both Brach’s and Necco’s hearts carry allergen warnings for milk, egg, wheat, peanut, tree nuts, and soy, so they’re just not an option for most allergic folks.

And it’s not just receiving candy that’s a problem. What if you think you’re being romantic and you give your non-allergic sweetie some traditional Valentine’s candy, and then she wants to kiss you, and you just happen to be allergic to an ingredient in that chocolate? “Will you be my Valentine? Great, now whatever you do, don’t kiss me,” isn’t really the kind of dialogue romantic movies are known for, is it?

And then there’s the whole school Valentine exchange thing, where all the kids take in Valentine’s cards to drop in each other’s elaborately decorated Valentine holders, and parents seem to just love all the little candy add-ons. But if you know a kid in your classroom has allergies, what can you do to keep that child safe while still making your own child’s Valentines a little extra-special?

Well, first off, if you’re the super-ambitious type, you could make your own Homemade Conversation Hearts, using this recipe that calls for unflavored gelatin, light corn syrup and confectioner’s sugar, plus food colorings and food coloring markers.

Yeah, okay, now that we’ve all had a good laugh (I mean, really, who has time for THAT?), let’s look at some other options:

• Heart-shaped jelly beans, anyone? Gimbal’s Fine Candies has some really tasty heart-shaped jelly beans in a huge variety of flavors. I had a half-dozen teenagers in my kitchen the other day, and I set out bowls of Gimbal’s Cherry Lovers (9 different cherry flavors!), Sour Lovers (12 sour flavors, coated with sugar like gum drops or Sour Patch Kids), and Cinnamon Lovers (red-hot cinnamon goodness!). As you can imagine, all 3 bags disappeared in a heartbeat (ha! pun intended). My favorite is the Cherry Lovers, but judging by how fast the bowl emptied, the teens’ favorite was the Sour Lovers (“These are way better than Sour Patch Kids” was the final verdict), with the other two varieties coming in close behind. The best thing about Gimbal’s Fine Candies is that
  
  they’re allergy free and proud of it! Their candy is produced in an allergy-free factory, and all of their packaging says: “Peanut free, tree nut free, dairy free, gluten free, soy free, and egg free.” They’re also Kosher pareve. (If you think living with food allergies is complicated, try living with food allergies and keeping kosher, too.) Read Gimbal’s Allergy Statement here. These are so much better than those chalky conversation hearts, it’s ridiculous.
• Peanut Free Planet : One of my favorite online grocery stores for allergy-aware treats, Peanut Free Planet offers candy from many allergy-friendly brands. They also carry candy from Canadian manufacturers, who manage to make nut-free versions of popular chocolate candy bars that you just can’t find from American factories (my son’s favorites are the nut-free Kit-Kat bars and the Wagon Wheels, both made in Canada).
• Local grocery stores have options, too: Every year, I manage to find a few Valentine’s candy options that are free from the Big 8. Look for hard candy lollipops, and candies from those reliable standbys like Starburst, Skittles, and Jolly Rancher. I generally have the best luck finding safe candy at Dollar Tree, followed by Smith’s (Kroger brand is getting better and better at safe manufacturing), and Target. On the other hand, I have a much harder time finding safe candy at Walmart.
• Non-food treats: For school, of course, I highly recommend avoiding food altogether. The last thing any of those kids need, allergies or not, is more candy. So hit the party aisle at your local discount store or dollar store, order from www.OrientalTrading.com, or check out these adorable ideas from www.PopSugar.com’s “The 48 Best Noncandy Valentine Ideas for Kids.” (Just remember, Play-Doh contains wheat, so it’s not safe for wheat/gluten-allergic kids.)

Whatever you choose to do for Valentine's Day, I hope it's a day full of love, hugs, and lots of giggles. 

Valentine’s Day Pop Quiz: Fact or Myth

By Kelley Lindberg

[Thank you to everyone who sent me kind messages about the passing of my father, who taught me how to live life with integrity, strength, and a healthy sense of humor. Because I’m a little swamped right now, I’m letting Mylan, the manufacturer of EpiPens, provide my blog content this week. Thanks, Mylan.]

The marketers and distributers of EpiPen^® (epinephrine) Auto-Injector did some research on the trends for Valentine’s Day, and they found some statistics that might surprise you. Pop quiz! See if you can guess whether the following statements are myth or fact.

·         Myth or Fact: Valentine’s Day is the most popular occasion for sending greeting cards

Myth! According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 145 million greeting cards will be bought for Valentine's Day, making it the second most-popular card-sending occasion in the U.S. Christmas is the most popular.

·         Myth or Fact: Everyone loves to get a box of chocolates

Myth! For people who have potentially life-threatening (severe) allergies, getting a box of chocolate might not be a welcome gift. Many chocolates may contain some of the most common food allergens like cow’s milk, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts.

·         Myth or Fact: The average adult spends more than $100 to celebrate Valentine’s Day

Fact! The average adult celebrating the holiday will shell out $126.03, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2012 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey.

·         Myth or Fact: More than half of people purchased flowers or plants as gifts for Valentine's Day 2013

Myth! Twenty-five percent of adults purchased flowers or plants as gifts for Valentine's Day 2013; of those, 64% were men and 36% were women, according to AboutFlowers.com.

·         Myth or Fact: You can experience a life-threatening allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) from a kiss

Fact! It is possible to experience a life-threatening allergic reaction if you kiss someone who has eaten something to which you are allergic. Your best bet is to ask your loved one to stay away from your allergens before you pucker up.

For more information about EpiPens and anaphylaxis, visit www.epipen.com or www.anaphylaxisrevealed.com.

To Kiss or Not to Kiss…with Food Allergies

by Kelley Lindberg


I’m feeling a little under the weather today, so I’m repeating a Valentine’s-themed post from last year. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!


Valentine’s Day is almost here. Yes, it’s that time of year again… the time for love, romance, special dates – and kissing.

Crap.

Just what we food-allergy sufferers need. Something else to worry about.

For young people, kissing is complicated enough. Think what kisses can lead to – brain malfunctions, ruined reputations, marriage proposals, bad dates, broken friendships, unreasonable expectations, dizziness, pregnancy, forgetfulness, poor fashion choices, high credit card bills, lousy steak dinners… and that’s all in a good weekend.

Now, throw in the fact that food allergens can stay in a person’s mouth for hours after they eat, and suddenly you’ve added “scary trips to the ER” to the list.

My son is only ten. He’s still in the “Oh gross, they’re kissing!” stage. Every time he sees someone kissing on TV, he slaps his forehead as if to say, “What are they THINKING?” I’m encouraging this attitude. As far as I’m concerned, he can think kissing is gross until he’s 35. Or 40. Really.

But sadly, I figure I’ve only got another few years (okay, I admit it, I’m optimistic) before the hormones suddenly turn from “eww” to “oooh.” And then I’ll be staying up late, worrying about all the usual things parents of teens worry about, plus that other one: “Did the girl he’s kissing eat peanuts today?”

Food allergies bring a whole new aspect – a really ugly one – to the already dangerous minefield of kissing.

In 2003, the Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology published a paper called "The Hazard of Kissing When You Are Food Allergic" from Swedish doctors who studied how many allergic people had a reaction after kissing someone who’d eaten the offending food. Their study showed 12% of survey participants had an allergic reaction after kissing. (When they eliminated respondents who “didn’t know” if a reaction was caused by a kiss, the numbers rose to 16%.) That’s not comforting.

As an interesting side note, the doctors surveyed both Russian and Swedish participants. Of those, 12% of the Swedish survey participants reported a reaction, and only 5% of the Russian participants did. I can think of all sorts of jokes here about who you would rather kiss – a member of the Swedish Bikini Team or the Russian Swimming Team, but that would be rude and stereotypical. So I’ll let you come up with your own jokes.

The Mayo Clinic Proceedings website outlines a 2003 case report (apparently 2003 was an extraordinarily bad year for kissing) of a seafood-allergic woman kissing her boyfriend after he’d just eaten shrimp, and then suffering from an anaphylactic reaction and having to go to the hospital ("The Kiss of Death: A Severe Allergic Reaction to a Shellfish Induced by a Good-Night Kiss").

This case report was only one of many that have been showing up with alarming frequency in the literature, so some doctors in New York decided to study how long peanut residue could stay active in the saliva of people who’ve eaten peanut butter, and whether or not brushing teeth or other “interventions” would help get rid of the allergens. They published their results in 2006 ("Peanut Allergen Exposure Through Saliva: Assessment and Interventions to Reduce Exposure"). They studied 38 people. Immediately after eating 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, the subjects’ amount of allergens in their mouth varied “considerably,” but many had levels of peanut proteins high enough to cause reactions. They tested again one hour after eating; at that point, 87% had undetectable levels. Unfortunately, that means 13% still had detectable levels of peanut in their mouth.

When they used interventions to cleanse the mouth immediately after eating peanut butter, such as rinsing or brushing their teeth, the allergens were reduced, but still remained in approximately 40% of the samples. Their conclusion: “Patients with peanut allergy require counseling regarding the risks of kissing or sharing utensils, even if their partners have brushed their teeth or chewed gum. Advice to reduce risks, although not as ideal as total avoidance, includes waiting a few hours plus eating a peanut-free meal.”

Another comment in the study added: “Teenagers with peanut and other food allergies need to be reminded that to stay safe, restraint and patience are necessary even in the most intimate situations.”

Yeah, good luck with that. Parents have been trying to remind teenagers to use restraint and patience to stay safe since they were running around poking spears in angry wooly mammoths.

So what’s a teen to do? Well, here’s what the experts recommend:

1. Tell your date what you’re allergic to, and explain how serious it is.
2. Ask your date to refrain from eating those foods on the day of your date.
3. Ask your date to brush their teeth and wash hands if they have eaten something you’re allergic to, and wait AT LEAST one hour before kissing.
4. Keep your EpiPens with you at all times.
5. Wear a medical ID bracelet, so if you end up unconscious, the EMTs will know what to do with you. A bracelet also is a good way to "break the news" to people -- when they ask what the bracelet is for, it's easy to explain food allergies without sounding like you're fishing for a kiss.

As for us parents, here’s what we can do:

1. Worry.
2. Pray.
3. Trust that we’ve taught them well.
4. Love them.
5. Breathe a sigh of relief when they come home safe with that silly look on their face. Despite the silly look.
6. Keep on the lookout for other teens who also have food allergies, and try fruitlessly to arrange accidental meetings between your child and those other teens.

Personally, I’m going to be creating a “dating application” for my son. All of his prospective dates will have to complete the application, submit to a lie detector test, and provide a $100 deposit for ambulance transportation fees before the date commences.

I can hear my son slapping his forehead now.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

To Kiss or Not to Kiss...

Valentine’s Day is almost here. Yes, it’s that time of year again… the time for love, romance, special dates – and kissing.

Crap.

Just what we food-allergy sufferers need. Something else to worry about.

For young people, kissing is complicated enough. Think what kisses can lead to – brain malfunctions, ruined reputations, marriage proposals, bad dates, broken friendships, unreasonable expectations, dizziness, pregnancy, forgetfulness, poor fashion choices, high credit card bills, lousy steak dinners… and that’s all in a good weekend.

Now, throw in the fact that food allergens can stay in a person’s mouth for hours after they eat, and suddenly you’ve added “scary trips to the ER” to the list.

My son is only ten. He’s still in the “Oh gross, they’re kissing!” stage. Every time he sees someone kissing on TV, he slaps his forehead as if to say, “What are they THINKING?” I’m encouraging this attitude. As far as I’m concerned, he can think kissing is gross until he’s 35. Or 40. Really.

But sadly, I figure I’ve only got another few years (okay, I admit it, I’m optimistic) before the hormones suddenly turn from “eww” to “oooh.” And then I’ll be staying up late, worrying about all the usual things parents of teens worry about, plus that other one: “Did the girl he’s kissing eat peanuts today?”

Food allergies bring a whole new aspect – a really ugly one – to the already dangerous minefield of kissing.

In 2003, the Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology published a paper from Swedish doctors who studied how many allergic people had a reaction after kissing someone who’d eaten the offending food. Their study showed 12% of survey participants had an allergic reaction after kissing. (When they eliminated respondents who “didn’t know” if a reaction was caused by a kiss, the numbers rose to 16%.) That’s not comforting.

As an interesting side note, the doctors surveyed both Russian and Swedish participants. Of those, 12% of the Swedish survey participants reported a reaction, and only 5% of the Russian participants did. I can think of all sorts of jokes here about who you would rather kiss – a member of the Swedish Bikini Team or the Russian Swimming Team, but that would be rude and stereotypical. So I’ll let you come up with your own jokes.

The Mayo Clinic Proceedings website outlines a 2003 case report (apparently 2003 was an extraordinarily bad year for kissing) of a seafood-allergic woman kissing her boyfriend after he’d just eaten shrimp, and then suffering from an anaphylactic reaction and having to go to the hospital.

This case report was only one of many that have been showing up with alarming frequency in the literature, so some doctors in New York decided to study how long peanut residue could stay active in the saliva of people who’ve eaten peanut butter, and whether or not brushing teeth or other “interventions” would help get rid of the allergens. They published their results in 2006. They studied 38 people. Immediately after eating 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, the subjects’ amount of allergens in their mouth varied “considerably,” but many had levels of peanut proteins high enough to cause reactions. They tested again one hour after eating; at that point, 87% had undetectable levels. Unfortunately, that means 13% still had detectable levels of peanut in their mouth.

When they used interventions to cleanse the mouth immediately after eating peanut butter, such as rinsing or brushing their teeth, the allergens were reduced, but still remained in approximately 40% of the samples. Their conclusion: “Patients with peanut allergy require counseling regarding the risks of kissing or sharing utensils, even if their partners have brushed their teeth or chewed gum. Advice to reduce risks, although not as ideal as total avoidance, includes waiting a few hours plus eating a peanut-free meal.”

Another comment in the study added: “Teenagers with peanut and other food allergies need to be reminded that to stay safe, restraint and patience are necessary even in the most intimate situations.”

Yeah, good luck with that. Parents have been trying to remind teenagers to use restraint and patience to stay safe since they were running around poking spears into angry wooly mammoths.

So what’s a teen to do? Well, here’s what the experts recommend:

1. Tell your date what you’re allergic to, and explain how serious it is.
2. Ask your date to refrain from eating those foods on the day of your date.
3. Ask your date to brush their teeth and wash hands if they have eaten something you’re allergic to, and wait AT LEAST one hour before kissing.
4. Keep your EpiPens with you at all times.
5. Wear a medical ID bracelet, so if you end up unconscious, the EMTs will know what to do with you. A bracelet also is a good way to "break the news" to people -- when they ask what the bracelet is for, it's easy to explain food allergies without sounding like you're fishing for a kiss.

As for us parents, here’s what we can do:

1. Worry.
2. Pray.
3. Trust that we’ve taught them well.
4. Love them.
5. Breathe a sigh of relief when they come home safe with that silly look on their face. Despite the silly look.
6. Keep on the lookout for other teens who also have food allergies, and try fruitlessly to arrange accidental meetings between your child and those other teens.

Personally, I’m going to be creating a “dating application” for my son. All of his prospective dates will have to complete the application, submit to a lie detector test, and provide a $100 deposit for ambulance transportation fees before the date commences.

I can hear my son slapping his forehead now.

Happy Valentine’s Day.