Allergy Mum Helena shares her relatively new but very involved journey in today’s episode. She talks about figuring out what what was making her children ill, her experiences at the doctors, adapting to an allergy safe lifestyle and mother’s guilt.  Helena’s 3 small children (the twins are 4 years old, youngest is 2 years old) have between them environmental allergies, (potentially) asthma, and multiple food allergies (egg, dairy and soya).  The twins were premature babies so that had its complications too.  It was and still is a journey to maintain health and a full diagnosis, but Helena has grown so much. I ask Helena about how she dealt with the emotions and anxiety for her sick babies. What she looked out for, her instincts as a Mum and then how she communicated that to the doctors. 27:00 I offer some of my experiences as a grown up allergy kid on how to think differently about mother’s guilt. How, although your child has to be in and out of hospital, your child will probably have a different idea of it because their association is where they get better.  As an adult we have so much more awareness of the world and the connotations of allergy and asthma management and the worse case scenario, but children getting involved, wanting to put together their spacer or take their medication themselves is just like wanting to push the button at the pedestrian crossing. They want to be involved in their world, they want to take ownership and be grown up. That’s a good thing when they have allergies.



































Top 3 Tips For Food Allergy Parents

1. Keep a food and health diary to find triggers



2. “We can’t control the wind, but we can control the sales” - Tap into the resources out there



3. Trust your gut instincts



































Resources



* Listen to when I interviewed my parents on our journey living with allergies in episode 12, 13, 14 & 15.

* Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

Sign up for my FREE allergy 101 tutorial series

* Join the Eat Allergy Safe Facebook Group

* My new recipe book "Chocolate Treats: Decadent delights free from the top 14 allergens" on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk