Tuesday, April 27, 2010

My Child's Attempt With Honey Nut Cheerios

When my daughter was first diagnosed with food allergies she was able to eat Honey Nut Cheerios. It always boggled my mind because it says, 'Honey Nut'. At the time, being new to food allergies, I didn't take the time to figure out what kind of nut it was because it never affected her. Plus I talked to another mother whose daughter had nut allergies and she said her child was able to eat Honey Nut Cheerios also, so, no big deal, right?

Sometime later, I gave my daughter a bowl of the cereal and she said it made her tongue feel funny. I asked her if she was sure. I thought she was fine when it came to this cereal. So I tried a bowl of it myself. I don't know if I was trying to "empathize with her", but it left a metallic taste in my mouth. Just like any mother who is weirded out by stuff, I threw the box out. This prompted me to see just what kind of nut they actually used in the cereal. I know, I know, bad mother. How could you feed your daughter something you haven't fully researched? Well, my daughter never had severe reactions to food like most other kids did and her allergist also told me that peanuts and cashews were the ones I needed to look out for. Not getting much help from her allergist, I realized how serious it really was after doing research on my own.

Now, we jump to the present. I was in the store shopping for cereal when I came across the "new" Honey Nut Cheerio. Well, it was new to me. Apparently they took out the nut and put in almond flavor instead around 2006. I figured we could try it again because the actual nut is no longer in it. So I gave her a bowl and she happily ate it. Halfway through the bowl she stopped eating it and started on her bread. She had a weird expression on her face, so I asked her if the cereal made her feel funny. She said that it did, with a little hesitance. I think she really wanted to finish it, but I didn't let her. This convinced me to pull out her results again and look them over to see what her number had gone down to. It went from a 2.58 (class 2) to a 0.44 (class 1). Now my question is, how is it that when she was listed as a class 2 she could eat the cereal, but now that she has dropped to a class 1, it seems to bother her? Am I the only parent out just doesn't get this whole allergy thing, or are there others?

1 comment:

  1. This was interesting. I'm thankful I don't have food allergies. It must be very frustrating.

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