OUR STORY: INTRODUCTION

Last night I had a dream, or perhaps a nightmare, that my mother, whom I love very much, was babysitting my two young sons, and she gave them some candies. There was candy such as banana flavored taffy, lollipops, sweet tarts and all sorts of things that I had never seen before. My children were grabbing the candy and gleefully eating it. In my dream, I ran around the room screaming at my mother that I did not know what was in this candy and she had no right to give it to them without checking with me first. She nonchalantly responded that the boys would be fine. She shrugged, frowned a little bit, like I was a bit crazy, and casually tried to calm my fears by saying, "Oh, don't worry."

I woke up in a sweat. Adrenaline was surging through my arms and legs, giving my fingers a tingly sensation. I tried to remind myself that this was only a dream. I then tried to relax and go back to sleep, but it was impossible. I was wired, nervous and awake for the duration of the night. This dream summed up the main fear that I have, that the people I trust most might not fully understand the severity of an allergy. They might accidentally put my children's lives at risk. They might interpret my husband's and my behavior as over-reactive, over-protective and just basically a bit crazy.

At times that nightmare seems like reality as I face another day. Other times, it really isn't that bad. Keeping things in perspective and keeping a positive attitude have helped my husband and me the most in dealing with both of our sons' food allergies. Both of our boys have a dairy, egg and chicken allergy. We've also been advised to avoid peanuts and tree nuts hopefully to fend off an allergy if we wait until the children are school-aged before introducing these potentially serious allergens...

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