When you have a child with life-threatening food allergies, leaving your child alone, for any amount of time, is anxiety provoking. Luckily for us, Chloe’s friends and their families have all been amazing and over the top careful about her food allergies. Here’s what we did to prepare for this HUGE step of independence for her:

1.  We decided to invite her new friend over to our home first. This allowed us to talk as a family with her friend and her family about our serious food allergies. This conversation was a great ice breaker and allowed us to talk openly about many things parents have concerns about.
2. After the first play date at our home, Chloe had her first play date at her friends house.

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon. Chloe was over the moon excited. I was trying to stay optimistic the entire time – she was so happy to see her friend. Suddenly, I remembered the conversation that I had wanted to have with her before we left regarding nuts. She had NO IDEA what nuts actually looked like – she definitely knew the names of the nuts that she’s allergic to, but she’d never actually seen a walnut, pistachio, shelled peanut, cashew. We jumped online and saw a few pictures together before packing her purse with a safe snack, EpiPen and Benadryl.
Once I dropped her off, I didn’t go home. I couldn’t. It felt to far. Instead, I opted to do some grocery shopping nearby and check my phone every 5 minutes. It’s hard. It’s hard knowing your child has this life-threatening allergy and leave them in the care of someone else, even though I trust them immensely. I have seen my daughter have two episodes of anaphylaxis. We know for a fact that her allergies are serious. Life-threatening. She swells up and is unable to breathe if she comes in contact with these foods.
Cross-contamination happens so easily and if you’re not “in it” — in the allergy world, reading all the labels, communicating with the manufacturers, realizing that not all labels are created equal and peanut free does not mean nut free, just knowing all these silly allergy rules! I’d much rather spend my time reading ANYTHING other than damn food labels and websites! But for now, my daughter depends on me to know these things in order to keep her safe. And I will. Forever, even when she’s grown, help her understand her allergy and manage it as safely and effectively as possible.
She rocked her first independent play date, like I knew she would. She had fun with her friend, and that’s what mattered.