Blogtober day 3 - Everyday Essentials

For some people an everyday essential might be their morning coffee. Or that foundation they simply can't leave the house without. For us it's something slightly different.

If you've read this blog before you will know that Monkey has allergies. She's allergic to dairy, soya, egg, wheat, apples and pears. Everyday essentials aren't just something that makes our day a bit happier. They really are essential to keep Monkey safe and well.

Our day usually starts with this.

Neocate Spoon. It's a specialist prescription food that means despite her limited diet Monkey is getting all the calories, vitamins and minerals that she needs. It's horrible stuff, reminds me of wallpaper paste. It's a powder that you mix with water to make a sticky flavourless goo. You can mix it with other foods to give it more of a flavour but for some strange reason Monkey likes it just the way it is and polishes the lot off for breakfast - along with a banana and cereal or porridge.

Monkey has been having Neocate Spoon since she was 4 months old and it's definitely made a difference. She's always struggled with her weight gain and is still tiny now but is back on the chart and following the 2nd centile quite happily.

Another essential for us is the medicine bag. It comes everywhere with us. Thankfully we've not had to use it very often but it has everything we need to help Monkey if she has a reaction. There's paracetamol for tummy pains and mild reactions. We've also got piriton and inhalers for more serious reactions. She's quite good with medicine but hates having her inhaler. At the moment we don't have epipens although they haven't been ruled out. She is too small to have one at the moment so if piriton doesn't work straight away we have to ring 999.

Oilatum isn't used everyday but it us an essential. Monkey's eczema can flare up as part of a reaction or sometimes just for no clear reason. So far we've been lucky that Oilatum has helped as I wouldn't want to use a stronger, steroid based cream on her face.

Our final essential is a smile. And Monkey is full of them!