Hand Sanitizers DO NOT Get Rid of Allergens
⚠️Hand sanitizers DO NOT remove food protein, y’all!
🚰🧴Always use (allergen free) soap + water + friction (scrub) to clean hands and surfaces that have come in contact with a food allergen
One thing I must refuse to do as an allergy mom is to leave my child in the care of someone who is truly not allergy aware and not at all curious to learn how to become someone who is … While I’d love to drop off my child at a nursery, my priority remains: keep my daughter alive
This is a True Story:
When I tried to check her into a nursery, I began sharing that my daughter has food allergies - this was their response: “we are very allergy aware here”
🫥I explained that while kids may not actively be snacking around her, she will still react from any residual allergens on their hands… so if they touch a toy and she touches it or puts in her mouth... her body will react.
The response that helped me decide not to come back: “We have all kids sanitize their hands with a gel hand sanitizer when they first come in”
❌myth: sanitizers remove/kill food allergy protein…
✅truth: sanitizers do nothing to food protein 👉🏻
soap + water + friction is what lifts and removes/washes off allergens/food protein
For example, if there was a cashew on my hand and I poured an entire bottle of gel hand sanitizer on it, it would not magically disappear 🫠 I wish hand sanitizer worked like that 🪄
What a 3yo with Food Allergies Wants You to Know
she wants you to give her (only) allergen free foods to keep her safe 🙂
I can’t keep an eye on her to see what others offer her 24/7 so when you take extra care to not expose her to her allergens, you make her wish (and mine!) come true.
Considering she has multiple food allergies, I have to triple check food labels and often email the food company due to possible cross contamination issues in the production facilities and “may contain” labels.
Not fun fact: companies are not required by law to write “May Contain” on their products
but this label could well be the difference between life & death for 1 in 3 children (the amount of kids with food allergies)...
#foodallergyawareness Tip No. 4
Please, please confirm if it’s OK with the parents of children with food allergies before offering the child food 💛
What Food Allergy Parents Want You to Know
Truth is (almost) anyone can help support Food Allergy families like ours.
Here are some hard truths that (if you know) will help you help us:
▪️food allergies are a serious medical condition
▪️like Emma, 1 in 13 kids have food allergies
▪️if Emma eats a food allergen, she could die
▪️we want to feel safe + not feel like an inconvenience
▪️she wants to play & have fun like your kid #inclusion
before anyone says “I feel so bad for you. I wouldn’t last a day in your shoes”— 🛑✋stawp it. we don’t want to be felt bad for! we want to be supported in tangible ways that nearly everyone is capable of.
Here’s how:
#foodallergyawareness Tip No. 3
Ask questions— we love good allergy questions backed by genuine curiosity and openness. there are so many allergy myths out there. we are grateful for anyone who has a heart of “how can I help keep your child safe?”
Thank you in advanced for the empathy, support, and questions. If you have any now feel free to leave them below (:
I’ll do my best to get to them!
