Peanut Allergy: Would You Eat This?

I was going through the blogs in my feed reader and stumbled upon this:  Jif is now making Hazelnut Spreads.


I know what you're thinking - ugh, peanutty!

But not so fast there, tigers!

Being the chocolate lover concerned Peanut Free Mama that I am, I decided to investigate.  Things might not be so bad. Here's the label from the Chocolate Flavor:

I found this REALLY interesting.  Mainly because under the allergy information, peanuts aren't listed as a 'may contain' item.  Frankly, I was shocked.  And I know what you are going to say:  You're not going to eat that are you?! What about cross contamination with all those tree nuts and sunflower and wheat and soy???  

Well, yeah, there's that.  I didn't say it was allergen free.  

BUT IT IS PEANUT FREE - AND IT'S FROM A COMPANY THAT MAKES PEANUT BUTTER!!!  Is this progress or what??

Oops, sorry for shouting - I was just a little excited about a PB company having dedicated lines for non-pb products (I am assuming this - I haven't called them so I don't know for sure - but I can hope, otherwise why wouldn't they list peanuts in the may contain statement?).

We don't avoid 'may contain' warnings when it comes to tree nuts (and our allergist supports this) so technically, B could eat it.

But would I buy it for B instead of Nutella which I am more comfortable with her eating?  Probably not, but maybe I'd buy the mocha cappucino flavor for me.  There's no way B would eat that :)

I'll keep you posted.

p.s. have any of you seen this on the shelves?  tasted it?  do tell!!

Labels: How Far Do You Go?

I try not to single out B with too much peanut free paraphernalia.

She has a medic alert bracelet (or if she isn't wearing that, she's got a shoe tag and a dog tag necklace), a button on her backpack, and that's about it.

I have a few cute shirts that say things like "Some Bunny Doesn't Eat Peanuts", but not much else.

I don't label her jacket. I don't have a bright colored lunch box for her that says "NO Peanuts!".

I'm not criticizing other parents for doing this. I'm actually wondering if I'm doing her a disservice by being quiet about it. But I also don't want to single her out to bullying by going overboard.

How are you all finding a balance with this? What's working for you?

How much is too much? Too little?

That Peanut Butter Has What?

So I bet you never thought I would blog about Peanut Butter, did you? Well, I am - sort of.

Some of you know that I'm on twitter. I really don't tweet much about food allergy (but feel free to follow me!), but my FA (food allergy) friends are on there too and I keep up with them there. And I also keep up on trends like #foodallergy and #peanutallergy. And I also do a search every week or so on peanut and peanut allergy to see if there are any new peanut allergic families to follow.

OK, so enough about building the clock instead of telling you the time. In these searches, there are countless number of people who say things like "I just read the peanut butter jar and it says CONTAINS PEANUTS - duh!". Well, yeah, duh. But it isn't worth replying to these folks, explaining that it's not the obvious stuff FA families worry about, but the hidden stuff (peanut flour in cereal, etc) and that food labeling is invaluable in this regard.

And then last night at the grocery store I saw this peanut butter and looked at the label. Why you ask? Well, because I always look at labels! Oh, you mean why was I examining peanut butter? Well, my good friend's son just passed his peanut challenge (I know??! AWESOME!) and she mentioned looking for PB without tree nuts (since he's still allergic to tree nuts - but when you pass the challenge you are supposed to keep exposing your child to peanuts so they don't become allergic again).

So I'm standing there in the aisle, reading the label, and what do I see? This label:

Look! More allergens! Like Wheat and Egg! And they also produce a tree nut butter and there is a risk of soy cross contamination. That's 4 more of the top 8. Whew. Just for peanut butter!

I'm not knocking this product at all. There up front about their product which is great. And it looks like a fine product. In fact, if B wasn't PA, I would likely buy it. I LOVE wheat germ and who doesn't love honey and peanut butter?!?! But if you simply went with the thought that it's peanut butter, and why would it have anything else, you'd be wrong.

My point is that you never know what you'll find in a product, so keep reading those labels!

Imagine what those folks on twitter would say now?

A Lesson: Always be Diligent about Labels

So I did something REALLY stupid over the weekend.

We went out to the grocery store and picked up the usual staples for the week. I'm transitioning to a vegetarian-esque diet so I was picking up tofu and noodles in the produce section and noticed all the meat alternatives. Score! I could replace some of our meat with soy substitutes and maybe noone in the house would be the wiser.

So I grabbed some mock meat. Checked out and we came home to eat some lunch.

B got some mock chik'n nuggets. She gobbled them up with some secret sauce (organic ketchup and vegenaise - oops my secret's out!) and told me how much she was liking them.

I was feeling very proud of myself.

Until I wasn't.

I realized I had put these on her plate and NEVER checked the label!!! So what did I do?

I FREAKED of course and ran to the fridge.

We lucked out. No nuts. Phew.

But I felt really stupid (we're not allowed to use that word in our house, but in this case it's appropriate). And lucky.

After all these years I couldn't believe that I slipped up and didn't check - especially since it was a new product we'd never had before. Argh!

The lesson here: NEVER let down your guard. Keep reading those labels. Thankfully this wake up call wasn't accompanied by Benadryl and a shot of epinephrine.

Phew.

p.s. I could go on and on about Vegenaise. Where has this product been my whole life? It's incredible!!! So tasty and none of that grassy funk of regular mayo. Vegan, so no eggs or milk. But it does have soy. Says they are gluten free. I highly recommend it.

There's Wh(e)at in that?

As a peanut allergy mom, I read labels ALL the time.

I bought myself some hairspray last week and found myself looking at the label of that too. And I was shocked by what I found!

No. No peanuts or peanut oil in hairspray.

It's not unusual to find nut oils in beauty products. But I did find wheat!

In John Frieda Frizz-Ease Moisture Barrier Hairspray, the ingredients are:

"Alcohol Denat., Hydrofluorocarbon 152A, Octylacrylamide/Acrylates/Butylaminoethyl/Methacrylate Copolymer, Aminomethyl Propanol, Triethyl Citrate, Pentaerythrityl Tetracaprylate/Tetracaprate, Quaternium 52, PEG/PPG 20/15 Dimethicone, AMP Isostearoyl Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Fragrance"

Now, we don't have a wheat allergy in our house, but I would feel awful if we did and I was spraying this into the air!

Just goes to show that label reading is important, no matter what the product.