Adventures of an Allergist Mommy

This morning, while getting dressed in his Pull-Ups (yay!) and jeans, the following conversation made it clear that my 2 year old is acutely aware of the power of suggestion: Son #2: "Mommy, we going to school?" Me: "Yes, honey, we're getting ready to go to school." Son #2: "How about Toys R Us?" Me: "Umm, no. Nice try, though." Son #2: "How about tomorrow?" He keeps this up, and we will eventually own a majority stake in the place. The kid has a bright future as a lobbyist.

Me: "Honey, we're overscheduling him." DH: "What are you talking about? He loves these classes, and gets to see his friends!" Me: "But he wakes up early to go to school, and by the time we get home from afterschool activities, we basically only have time for dinner and homework before it's time for bed." DH: "Great- that means he's not watching tv." Me: "So, when does he play outside?" DH: "Doesn't he have 2 recesses a day at school? And he plays outside all weekend whenever it's nice outside. Actually, I've been thinking that we should get him into a team sport on Sunday mornings." Me: "Are you kidding me?!!? If I have to drive this kid to any more activities, I'm going to lose it. Between getting the kids ready for school and barely getting to work on time myself, rushing to pick them up before the daycare closes and keeping track of karate, Saturday school, etc., I don't know if I ...

Dear Reader, With the recent media attention surrounding accommodations for food-allergic children in the school setting, and confusion about what reasonable and effective accommodations even are, it is important to gain a better understanding of parental attitudes about food allergies. I recently received this survey from the Kids With Food Allergies Foundation, and wanted to pass it on. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers- this survey is simply evaluating the opinions of parents of both food-allergic and non-allergic children. There is power in numbers, especially when it comes to compiling data. The more parents that complete this survey, the more compelling the results will be! Thanks in advance, the AllergistMommy The Kids With Food Allergies Foundation and some members of its medical advisory board are conducting a research study to examine parental opinions about food allergy management policies and accommodations in schools and child care centers. We are ...

Thanks to the Mothers of Children Having Allergies group for passing on the important information below! ----------------------------------------------------- With the generous support of the Food Allergy Initiative-Chicago there is now a food allergy-specific learning opportunity for school nurses on-line:   http://cmhdotnet.webitects. com/ce/online/article.aspx? articleID=238   When completed the participant will receive 0.5 INA contact hour for continuing education.     Please share this information with your favorite school nurse.  :-)   --------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this era of budget cuts and staffing shortages in our schools (especially when it comes to nurses), how wonderful to have easily accessible resources for our school nurses to educate themselves (and earn continuing education credit, to boot) on how to keep children safe! Bravo to the Food Allergy Initiative!...

I'm waiting for my flight home from the 2011 AAAAI Annual Meeting (delayed, naturally). It was a wonderful and educational conference, but I am ready to go home. I miss my boys. The time difference made it difficult to connect via phone- I was always calling during naptime, mealtime or mid-car ride to some really unhealthy restaurant meal with DH. During the one call where I was actually able to speak with them, all I could make out was "Mommy, guess what?" and the rest was garbled. Sigh. At the airport, there are adorable children everywhere. I know this is an impossibility, because children can only be annoying at airports (last trip, Son #2 actually ran OUT OF THE AIRPORT while we were checking our bags), but as I am not the mother, they are adorable to me. When I hear a toddler call out, "Mommy!", the reaction is visceral- my throat chokes and my eyes get watery. Similar to hearing a baby's cry when separated from your newborn. What is this connect...

I am in San Francisco, California for the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. It promises to be a very educational and intellectually satisfying meeting. Last year, I tried my hand at live-tweeting from the conference. I'll be doing the same this year- hopefully, it will give folks at home an opportunity to take part in the knowledge sharing remotely. The exercise is mutually beneficial- in addition to sharing information with others, my tweets will obviate the need for any paper-based note-taking on my part! It really highlights the "green appeal" of social media- so many trees saved! I will not be alone in this endeavor- my expectation is that we'll see a substantial increase in the number of tweets coming out from the conference compared to 2010. If you'd like to partake in the knowledge-fest, please subscribe to hashtag #AAAAI on Twitter to get a live stream of tweets from the meeting!

Many thanks to Illinois House Representatives Chris Nybo (R) and John D'Amico (D)  for sponsoring HB3294, the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, on 02/24/2011. Click here for details regarding this bill: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=3294&GAID=11&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=60664&SessionID=84&GA=97 Synopsis: " Provides that the purpose of the Act is to allow schools to have access to life-saving emergency epinephrine auto-injectors if and when a student has an anaphylaxis reaction and to allow the school to have personnel trained to administer an emergency epinephrine auto-injector. Provides that a school district may provide emergency epinephrine auto-injectors to trained personnel, and trained personnel may utilize those epinephrine auto-injectors to provide emergency medical. Provides that each public and private elementary and secondary school in the State may make emergency epinephrine auto-injectors and trained p...