Having allergies at Christmas can be a right pain in the arse. Lots of new Christmas food coming out that looks so tasty you check the ingredients list and bam! There are those loathed words: may contain nuts. But its not just new food in the supermarket. Christmas parties and days out shopping present new obstacles of eating out. Luckily most places are fab with allergies, but for some reason, with the arrival of Christmas, comes the swift arrival of nuts, nuts and more nuts! They're every sodding where! I’m changing the name of Christmas to nutmas!
Families can be a problem for allergy sufferers. Often not understanding how to prepare a nut free meal which can cause stress for allergy sufferers, particularly parents of allergy children. Sweets and chocolates are a pain, most Christmas chocolate isn't safe and we often see a rise in reactions this time of year.
So here are my tips for having a safe nut free Christmas.
- Shop around. Chances are you'll be able to find all the Christmas goodies you want, but not often in one shop. It can be annoying but keeping an eye out in different stores can mean you find an absolute gem of a nut free product! For me this is the chocolate coins in Wilkos! Big kid!
- Learn to bake! I’ve never found a nut free mince pie. Anywhere at all in the 6 Christmases I've had with a nut allergy. So I bake mine. I have made pastry in the past but a lot of the time I just can’t be bothered so ready made pastry is a godsend! I know a few places do nut free mince but I buy coop own brand, only because I work there and its convenient!
- Get on pintrest. There are some yummy recipes on there, I always search for whatever I want to bake or cook and hope it has no nut ingredients, if it does carry on searching or leave the nuts out. Theres usually an alternative nut free recipe on there.
- For kids, Christmas can be frustrating with all the extra treats about that they can’t eat, so think of ideas to keep their mind off missing out like Christmas crafts, baking new Christmas treats. And keep an eye out for Kinnerton chocolate treats. I’ve seen these in Wilkos and Asda and I'm sure they're in many other places, but Kinnerton are nut free and do a great range of advent calendars each year for little and big alike!
- Following on from advent calendars, if you don't fancy, don't like Kinnerton chocolate or just don't like chocolate at all, one option is to buy a diy advent calendar. This could be something with pockets or draws to add your own treats. This doesn't have to be food, it could be tiny toys, or something like lego pieces and at the end you've got a lego toy. And you're never too old people! I’m 28 and my mum is doing just this for me and filling the pockets with chocolate coins from wilkos!!
- Don't worry about food. Asking an allergy sufferer not to worry about food at Christmas sounds crazy but really, don't worry. Keep Christmas at home, invite the family over instead of eating out and you know what is exactly in the food and that its safe. Family, no matter how understanding they are, can easily miss nut warnings or make a mistake, its happened to me before, actually even today my mum had been eating nuts and I went to share something off the same spoon and almost had it in my mouth when mum slapped it out the way remembering she’d eaten nuts! If you prefer to eat out on Christmas day have a look around restaurants beforehand and have a chat about the menu and safe options.
- If you take allergy medication, or have piriton for example in your emergency pack make sure they are in date and if they run out around Christmas time make sure you get your prescription done in time so you're all set for Christmas. This goes with epipens too, make sure they're in date and haven't gone cloudy and get them replaced if needs be well in time for Christmas.
- This leads me to my last tip. ALWAYS carry your epipens everywhere no matter what. I’ve heard of people leaving them at home for party season because they don't fit in a clutch bag, or men not carrying them because its inconvenient. This is absolutely mindbogglingly stupid! Carry your epipens!!
So theres some tips for a safe nut free Christmas. Have you got any of your own? What does your allergy Christmas look like?
Thanks for reading!
Vikky
X
No comments
Post a Comment