Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays

Do you say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?  Ah...the great debate at the end of the year, at least for businesses.  Each year, we hear of another business mandating that it's employees say one or the other.  The endless dialog about not wanting to offend anyone with wishing them a Merry Christmas if they are not Christians is, well, a bit absurd. 

If you are a Christian, would you be offended if a Jew said "Happy Hanukkah?"  These are just greetings, warm wishes.  So, why do we get all bent out of shape over them?

If the United States is a country of religious freedom, then why can't we express our religious freedom in our holiday greetings?  If we are Christians, what is the harm in saying "Merry Christmas?"  The argument that this greeting is a statement about denying other religions or ideologies is just not true.  Isn't religious freedom not having to hide your religious convictions?

In fact, is this really even a problem for the average citizen?  Outside of the business world, U.S. citizens greet each other with "Merry Christmas," "Happy Hanukkah," "Happy Kwanzaa," and "Happy Holidays."  I have yet to see someone offended by these greetings, outside of business, even if their religion was not a match to the greeting being offered.

Why not let the employee decide what and if they want to extend a specific greeting to customers.  Has this country gotten so enmeshed in legal nonsense that we have to walk on egg shells even when we speak?  If someone at Walmart says "Merry Christmas" to you, say "thanks."  It's not an overall statement about the religiousness of Walmart.  It's simply one person telling another to have a joyous day. 

So, let's just get over it already and enjoy our religious freedoms even around the holidays.

Growing out of an egg allergy - Yes!

My son has already received his gift for Christmas.  He can now eat baked egg!  This may sound like a little thing to you, but to him, it's HUGE!  No more special treats at school when someone brings in cupcakes or cookies.  No more saying "no thank you" to birthday cake at parties.  Now, he can say, "Yes!"

When I tell people about this change, I often get asked how I know he has outgrown the allergy.  How can I be sure?  To explain, lets start with the severity of his original allergy.  He was diagnosed with an egg allergy due to welts and hives that appeared on his face when he was a toddler.  We took egg out of his diet and everything cleared up.  Problem solved.  We have not worried much about anaphylactic shock with his egg allergy since his reaction to blood and scratch testing was mild and there was never an instance of difficulty breathing for him with egg.  The prognosis was that he would be a good candidate to grow out of this allergy (80% of children outgrow egg allergies).  So, the goal has always been to do a food test when he got older.

His last skin prick and blood test showed a decrease in his egg reaction.  There still was a reaction, but it was slight.  Knowing this, I had a cake made with 2 eggs for a family birthday party and let him have a piece.  There was no reaction.  Several months later, I let him have a cookie with eggs baked into it.  No reaction.  Recently, we decided to test him, at home, on a regular basis.  We decided to give him one item with baked egg once a week, on the weekend, during the day.  The weekend was necessary so that if he had a reaction, he had the rest of the weekend to recover.  During the day was necessary because we did not want him to have a reaction near bedtime.  For three weeks, each Saturday, our son had one baked egg item with no reaction! 

Our home is primarily egg free already since my daughter also has an egg allergy.  So, my son was not going to get items with egg in them very often.  It was easy to keep his egg testing to once a week.  What this has really done for him is to open up his options at school and outside our home. 

We did call our allergist regarding our testing.  They told us that we did not need to come in for blood testing to confirm our findings.  In fact, research has shown that scratch and blood testing are not very accurate.  It only gives you a percentage chance of a reaction.  However, they did warn that egg baked into an item is very different that egg on it's own.  The protein in egg is altered when baked into an item which changes the allergen and can affect a person's reaction.  We were warned not to give him direct egg, such as scrambled eggs, without a formal egg challenge in a doctor's office.

• Why you can eat pancakes with egg baked in, but not scrambled eggs.
• Prevalence and resolution age of food allergies

If you think that your child may have outgrown his egg allergy, check with your allergist about testing him with baked goods.  Depending out your child's past reactions, they may encourage you to do this at home.  Otherwise, your doctor may opt for a more formal in office food challenge.  Always check with your doctor before testing a food allergy on your own and always make sure to have your emergency medication available.

Growing out of his egg allergy can just in time for Christmas cookies season!

Asthma flare ups in the winter

Once the frost hits, the outdoor allergens lessen but my asthma does not!  Turn on the heat, turn on the asthma.  If you have allergic asthma, then you have been there.  A couple of rescue puffs during the day and all of a sudden you are also taking them before bed and during the night as well.  The most frustrating thing is that the triggers can be very difficult to find.  Is it the furnace kicking on?  Is it the dust stirred up from the Christmas decorations?  Pet dander trapped inside?  Scented candles?  Fireplace? 

• Does cold weather make asthma worse? 
• Do you need allergy medication in the winter?

Allergic asthma can be hard to pin point.  Sometimes all I know is that the air seems "close" and stuffy, and that fresh, cool air is what I need.  Opening a window or stepping outside in the winter, can do wonders for me in those situations. 

However, when it happens at my own home, it is particularly frustrating.  I can be fine all day and then experience a flare up haphazardly.  The best thing to do is to get started on my seasonal maintenance medication.  Generally, this will take care of the sporadic flare ups in my own home.  Singulair has been great for me.  I like it because it is not another inhaler, just a simple tasteless pill. 

If I would stay on my maintenance medication all year round, I may not feel these asthma flare ups quite so much.  However, isn't the goal of all asthmatics (after your symptoms are controlled) to get off as much medication as possible?  I think I will still stay on the seasonal plan.  I just need to be better about starting on time.

Thanks Mom and Dad

By the title of this blog, you might assume that I am being sarcastic with this post.  I'm not.  I love Thanksgiving time since it gives everyone the chance to reflect on the good things in life.  Combine that with eating some good food and what's not to love?


Well, I'll admit that getting together with family can be as aggravating as it is enjoyable.  And, parents can be the cause of some of that aggravation.  Whether you feel that you are still not living up to their expectations, or you just don't think that they appreciate you, it has become quite common to blame our parents for our bad moods over the holidays.  Not only common, but easy.


Instead, this Thanksgiving I am giving my parents some much deserved praise.  I am blessed to have parents that are still together.  In a world where our public figures are making cheating and living together in place of marriage the norm, I am thankful to my parents for working through the hard times with each other.  Their relationship has become the foundation of our family.   Something my sister and I can count on. 

Thanks Mom and Dad and Happy Thanksgiving!

Teachers approving our children's snack - subjectively

The denied snack.

It is hard enough to get multiple lunches packed and ready in the morning without having to worry about a separate snack as well.  Each of my elementary school aged children have snack time in the morning before lunch.  First of all, is this really necessary?  I have an opinion on that question, but we will save that for another post.
In our school, there are multiple allergies and several peanut free rooms.  Our house contributes to some of this since we have peanut, egg, and fish allergies.  Finding a safe snack that is labeled, for the teacher to check, healthy, and different that the other items in their lunch can pose a problem some hurried mornings.  Some teachers are now insisting that the snack chosen also must be what they deem to be healthy.  Sounds good, right?

Well, as much as I like that teachers are concerned about our children's health, is it really their choice to make as to what snack my child consumes?  If I pack a safe snack that does not have any classroom allergens and is labeled, is it right for the teacher to take away my child's snack because she does not deem it healthy enough?

I bought a multi-pack bag of Baked chips: Baked Ruffles potato chips, Baked Doritos, Baked Cheetos, Pretzels, etc.  for my children's lunches and snacks.  All these items are labeled and safe for the classroom.  These snacks may not have high nutritional value, but they are not sugary snacks either that will make the kids hyper.

Recently, my child's teacher did not let him have his snack because it was not healthy enough.  It was Baked Cheetos.  Let me also add that I have sent him with Baked Doritos and Baked Ruffles before.  So, when are Baked Cheetos so much worse than Doritos and potato chips?  Why is this the teacher's choice? 

What about treats that kids bring in for birthdays.  Most of the time they are sugary snacks that the children are allowed to eat in class.  Why is that o.k. and Cheetos are not? 

Yes, we need to keep our children as healthy as possible.  We need to give them healthy options to eat.  But, since when is it the teacher's job to overrule the food choices we make for our children?  I am not talking about food allergy restrictions here.  That is a medical matter of keeping children safe.  I am talking about safe snacks that are taken away because a teacher makes the subjective choice of what is healthy enough.  Absurd!

 

New use for lice combs...hair leaf remover

In a previous post, "Don't let it be true, not lice!," I exposed my lice Kryptonite.  Before it infiltrated our family, I was completely disgusted by lice.  I always thought that I would lose sanity if we ever got them.  I did not lose it when we got them.  As moms do, I rose to the occasion and got to where I could be a lice expert.  Even though they are still as disgusting as ever to me, I can deal with them now.

If you have ever dealt with lice, you are familiar with those fine toothed lice combs.  Once your bought with lice is over, you may have thrown that comb away.  Hopefully, you boiled it and kept it because I just found the perfect "non-lice" use for it...Hair Leaf Remover!

My kids love jumping into piles of leaves during the fall.  When they come inside, their hair is covered in leaf bits.  Multiple shampoos often do not remove all the debris.  However, a lice comb will!  Just comb through their wet hair, preferably with conditioner still in it, with the lice comb.  You will be surprised by how many leaf bits you are able to remove and were still in their hair!

Try it and let me know how it works for you.

Breakfast without eggs - cereal and oatmeal again?

If you have or live with an egg allergy, you are nodding your head right now to the subject of this post.  As I sit down to write this, I am cooking some steel cut oats on the stove much to the chagrin of my kiddos.  Cereal and oatmeal are standard choices in our house each morning since they are quick, readily available and most importantly...EGG FREE!

As blessed as I feel to have these morning options, they can get pretty mundane.  "What are the choices mom?"  "Cereal or Oatmeal."  "I'll have a Pop Tart." "No, that's not one of the choices."  "Well, what else is there?"  Now, some of you are probably wondering about fruit choices.  Yes, we do have grapefruit and cantaloupe some mornings which are great options.  In fact, when I am able to plan ahead, it is possible to have some egg-free variety in the mornings.

• Egg-free breakfast options

One of our favorite egg-free morning meals is Keifer and Grape-nuts.  We came across this combination a couple of years ago when my husband introduced us all to probiotic foods.  Keifer is a liquid yogurt product with good bacteria to support your immune system.  Our favorite kefir product is...

Lifeway's strawberry and blueberry cultured milk smoothies.

Since our family is not a fan of drinkable yogurt.  We pour the keifer in a bowl and add Grape-nuts for texture.  Mix it up and eat it like cereal.  Add lots of Grape-nuts for a thick mix and just a sprinkling for a bit of a crunch.  This is a fast and easy morning egg-free option that I can feel good about serving.  Although Lifeway's keifer can be found at many specialty health food stores, we have found it to be priced the best at Costco.  You can purchase a box of smaller sizes with at least two varieties to choose from.  We get about two servings out of each of those small bottles.

Now, going out to eat for breakfast is another story set with different challenges for the egg-free.  I'll save that for another post.  In the meantime, enjoy your probiotic breakfast!