NUT allergies are indiscriminate and deadly. Miki and Anthony Field better known as the internationally acclaimed BLUE WIGGLE of the popular children’s stage show called The Wiggles, has experienced a brush with death, an anaphylactic reaction to peanut butter with their son, Antonio, 3. Little Antonio had previously eaten peanut butter.
I can just imagine what the Miki and Anthony are going through and I would not be surprised if Miki is researching online for answers to allergy awareness in our community. I made my obsession to keep Isabella safe, into a positive community awareness initiative. I wanted to learn more about the nut allergy and what I could I do to help others. Having a naturally Positive Peanut Personality, I was looking at ways of protecting my little Isabella whilst at school without seeming a paranoid parent. Knowing that we appeared to be a minority group in the community with less than 2% of the population with nut allergies back in 2005, my thinking had to be outside the shell.
Isabella is an identical twin and having a nut allergy, I realised that I had to keep my strategies simple therefore I used the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid. Australia now has up to 6% of children with food allergies before they reach school age, this translates to 65,000 little kids” says Dr Mullins President of the Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy.
We found chocolates and desserts to be the hardest foods to give Isabella; therefore we never gave Isabella any chocolates, which made any claim “may contain traces of nuts”.
Our family became even more loyal to the big brands and I do understand why they must add claims “may contain traces of nuts”. However I am enjoying watching my favourite household brands, start to include additional allergy aware wording on their packaging. Well done, you are making a difference in our lives. Big brands are being responsible in helping us manage allergy awareness in the community.
My twin girls already endure a debilitating disability called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and I refused to allow the “may contain traces of nuts” allergy epidemic to rule my life, therefore my creative mind started spitting out terminator tactics to help save my child and others in the community just like Isabella.
The Principal at my children’s primary school, Mr. Rick Firns, was very responsive to my fears. Mr. Rick Firns allowed me to use my creative nut together with his team of teachers and the community and we rallied around to promote allergy awareness week each year, raising funds for Anaphylaxis Australia. The children got to wear FREE Dress for the day and we promoted this event as N.U.T. FREE Dress Day. The N.U.T. initials represent the words, No Uniform Today. N.U.T. FREE is simple in its message and common wording used in our community. Mr. Firns created a pro active school approach to allergy awareness and I am forever thankful to Mr. Firns for taking a monumental approach to allergy awareness in our school and wider community. My primary school and community became my testing platform for giving simple quirky messages about allergies and I soon realised that I was on a winner and that adding humour in messages about allergies helped the general community become allergy aware without them realising they were actually helping us manage this epidemic. My messages became contagious; therefore I was creating allergy aware environments for Isabella and her mates to enjoy. Managing this epidemic through allergy awareness initiatives is the key. I do not endorse NUT FREE zones as these give a false sense of security. Let’s learn to get a grip on these nut allergies and help us by wearing No Uniform Today!
Never seeing an end to the peanut allergy challenges we were facing, Isabella and I made a pinky promise, that if she grew out of her nut allergy, I would buy her a chocolate shop and you can have all the chocolates you ever wanted! Later in 2008, Isabella took the Kraft Peanut Butter challenge at Princess Margaret Hospital with Dr. Richard Loh and she passed the peanut butter challenge. Be careful what you promise!
Today our home is filled with all the peanuts, nuts and 4 different varieties of Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut cereals, Nutella, Kraft peanut butters and chocolate spreads What a great obsession!
CEO of Positive Peanuts
Rona Chiera
Please feel free to add your school into the Allergy Aware initiative N.U.T. No Uniform Today, which takes little volunteer time.