Food Challenges.

Food Allergies.

There are many, many, many illnesses that parents face that are far worse than food allergies. This is what I try to remember when we are going through a food challenge.

Food challenges stink. Really. Really. Stink. When all goes well, they are exciting because they allow a new food into our house which has all sorts of positive ramifications.

The scary part is that we don't know when a food challenge will go well or go poorly. It's during the first week that we hold our breaths, say lots of prayers, and hope for a non-scary outcome. It's in the second week that we start to get excited that the food challenge will work.

We're at day 4 right now. This means four days of me watching. Four nights of me listening. Four days of waiting for the end of two weeks to arrive so I can declare the food safe and breathe again.

(After finishing making Santa's cookies Christmas Eve)

So, when I'm watching and waiting and worrying, I try to remember the families that learn their child has a brain tumor. Or the family battling childhood cancer. Or the family struggling to manage childhood diabetes. Because those are the hard diagnoses. Those are the diagnosis that are harder to manage because they can't be treated by simple avoidance. Those diagnoses require lots of medical care. Ours just requires lots of watching, carefulness, and avoiding.

But just every so often, I allow myself a moment to be frustrated with childhood allergies and how they cause us to be different than others. And how they force us to be left out of many things: family trips, dinners with friends, church outings, etc.

Soon day 7 will come along of this food challenge, and I'll breathe a little deeper, sleep a little sounder, and feel a little stronger. Then, I'll know we're in the safer zone of the challenge, and that we can start to feel just a little excited about the new food.