Our allergy life - why it's not all doom and gloom

Yesterday I talked about how we discovered Monkey's allergies. It really brought back how tough things were back then. It was a really frightening time for all of us.

We still have frightening times. Monkey still has reactions. But most of the time she's just Monkey. Allergies don't slow her down or stop her doing things. We might have to do things a little differently now and again but life with allergies certainly doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. Here's why;

Monkey is happy and healthy

Does this look like a poorly baby to you? Monkey is doing fab. She's growing up far too fast and is into everything. She's still little but not worryingly so anymore. She's developing as she should and as long as we avoid all her allergens she's a healthy little girl.

Monkey loves her food

With all the food that Monkey can't eat, we're lucky that she's not a fussy eater. We've not found anything she won't eat yet. She will eat ANYTHING, and the more the better!

Breastfeeding

I'm not getting into the whole breast v bottle thing. As long as you're feeding your baby, how you do it is your business. But for Monkey and me breastfeeding has really made a difference. Monkey was reacting to tiny amounts of milk in my breast milk. I don't drink milk (no allergies, I just don't like it) so this was milk baked into things, eaten by me and then diluted in my breast milk. And she was so poorly! Imagine how poorly she'd have been if I'd given her a cows milk based formula.

My local breastfeeding support group is run by health visitor. Before returning to work I went every week which meant I had a really good relationship with my health visitor and she knew Monkey really well. She has been such a support to us both and really helped us get Monkey the care she needs. The other mum's at the group have also been wonderful which moves me nicely on to...

Fab friends

Since having Monkey, we've met lots of lovely babies and lots of lovely mummies who we're now lucky to call friends. Our friends are fab! They make sure Monkey can join in with everything, keep unsafe food away from her, try their very best to cater for her at parties, bring Monkey friendly picnics on days out and have become a second pair of eyes for me now Monkey is on the move. They help me relax and stress a bit less, even giving my head a wobble if needed!

And finally....

Nando's

Nando's was always a favourite pre-Monkey so I was very excited to find out about their wonderful allergy file. It's so detailed and even better you can tell that the company actually puts the training in with the staff too. We've eaten at loads of different Nando's and they've all talked us through the menu, cooked Monkey's separately on clean grills and brought hers out first.

Pizza Express also deserve a mention. Their gluten free base is Monkey safe and they'll even put your dairy free 'cheese' on for you if you take a sealed packet. We can even have a pudding!!! :-D

I'm linking up with Monkey Footed Mummy for Thankful Thursdays.

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