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Hiking with Allergies

September 27, 2019September 27, 2019

About our last hike… I post often on social media about the fun outdoor adventures that we like to take. It’s important to me to encourage others that traveling and being adventurous are possible with food allergies, celiac, and other special diets. Life doesn’t have to stop when we get new diagnoses (we have had more than our fair share). It just means that we have to do things differently, and that’s ok.

Labor Day weekend, we planned a family hike for Saturday. We wanted it to be a relatively short hike as we had done a few long hikes the prior weekends and didn’t want to burn the girls out. After all, we want them to love hiking and the outdoors as much as we do. 🙂 The hike we chose was an hour and a half drive from our home outside of Seattle, but the hike itself was only 1.5 miles each direction. When we hike, we get up early to beat the crowds, find a parking spot, and get home at a relatively decent time to enjoy the rest of the day. We made it to the trailhead about 7:30am and got one of the last parking spots in the small lot. After getting our gear together we headed up the dirt road to the trail. Soon after we started hiking my girls kept talking about hearing a constant buzzing noise. As we kept hiking, we kept hearing the buzzing noise. It was a similar sound to walking under power lines if you have ever done that. We looked around but didn’t see any power lines which wasn’t too surprising as we were pretty far out of town. On we went and tried to ignore the constant buzzing.

About 15 minutes into our hike, Super was hiking in front of me and got a bee stuck in her hair. She has long and very thick hair and happens to greatly dislike bees. My husband flung the bee out of her hair pretty far away just to have it fly straight back into her hair! This happened THREE times, no joke. We told her to put her hair up and then put her snow hat on, it was a bit chilly that morning. She put her hat on and then I got a bee in my hair. From then on, all of us girls had our hair up and snow hats on. We realized at that point that all the buzzing was BEES. For real, there were so many bees around that all we heard was constant buzzing. I have never experienced anything like it and I have spent countless amounts of time in the woods hiking and camping. My husband and I joked that we felt like we were being followed by the tracker jacker bees from the movie The Hunger Games. We just kept telling the girls to keep moving and not stand still for very long.

We made it to the small lake that was beautiful and serene. The girls enjoyed exploring the area we were in and Kiva (our mini australian shepherd) enjoyed swimming. Not long after we sat down to enjoy the lake, we actually saw more bees. Peppy got stung once or twice, but she has been stung many times and it doesn’t seem to bother her much. Then we heard a young boy across the lake start screaming and crying, he also got stung. We decided to keep hiking around the lake. There were a couple of gentlemen with their boys at one end of the lake so we struck up a conversation with them for a bit. They warned us that they had heard that the bees were really bad at the other end of the lake. We decided to go around the lake anyways and would watch out for bees. There was a beautiful rock on the other side that people cliff jump off and thought that would be a fun adventure for the girls. So, around the lake we went. We made it to the rock to jump off without any problems and enjoyed an hour there. It was getting late as we had another event to go to that evening so we needed to quickly finish hiking the rest of the lake to head home.

My husband, Peppy, Zippy, and Kiva were a bit ahead of Super and I. Super and I were chatting and enjoying our time together. We were about 100 feet or so away from the trail to head back down. I stepped up on a rock and walked across to end up being swarmed by bees and repeatedly stung. Super was behind me being stung and yelling at me to keep going. By this point, both of us were running and being stung at the same time. My husband realized we were being stung by all of our yelling and came back to see what was going on. Super had a bee stuck in her sock repeatedly stinging her and I had been stung about 8 times at this point with a bee stuck in my pants. We finally got the bees off and kept running to find that Kiva had been stung multiple times as well. She was rolling all over the ground and frantically biting at herself. There was no time to hang around as these bees were quite literally following us.

As we were now hiking very quickly down the trail, Super is still complaining that her leg hurt. Then she started to hyperventilate and said she was having pain up her whole leg into her stomach. My husband looked at me and asked if she was going into anaphylaxis (I was thinking the same thing). We are not new to anaphylaxis, but we were NOT prepared to have Super go into anaphylaxis an hour and a half away from any medical care and no epi pen with us. It had been several years since Peppy outgrew her life threatening food allergy to peanuts so we no longer carry an epi pen. We decided that we needed to stop quickly and look at her leg to see why she was having so much pain. She had a rash going up her whole leg and continued to hyperventilate. This was one of the scariest moments I’ve ever had. We quickly look through our first aid kit to see if we have any Benadryl, but didn’t have any in it. The only thing we could do was keep walking as fast as we could while assessing if she was in fact going into anaphylaxis. My husband has an inhaler so he decided to have Super use it to see if it would help in case she was not going into anaphylaxis, but just panicking. We are very aware that an inhaler won’t help in an anaphylaxis situation, but we had nothing else to give her. After we gave it to her we kept walking as fast as is possible with three kids and a dog. I kept talking to Super trying to get her to calm down, see if she could take deep breaths, if she was light headed etc. What seemed like forever, but was probably 5 minutes Super slowly began to breath normally and we realized her breathing was NOT her throat swelling but hyperventilating from panic. That was the fastest mile and a half we have ever hiked. We got to the car and dumped out of first aid kit that we keep in there and thankfully had children’s benadryl in there. She took Benadryl and hopped in the car. Meanwhile, my husband was getting the dog in the car and found a bee stuck in her fur. The poor pup had probably been getting stung repeatedly the whole way down.

Ten to 15 minutes into the drive down the mountain, Super had calmed down and the rash up her leg had began to get better. The Benadryl was working!!! Praise the Lord! We monitored her all the way home to decide if we needed to head to the ER. She seemed fine by the time we made it into town so we all headed home. As a mom, I look after my kids way before I ever take care of myself. I too had been stung many times and my legs were on fire. It had probably been at least 30 years since I had been stung by a bee so I didn’t have very much to go on whether what I was feeling was normal or not. When we got home, we all changed, and I realized that one of my eight bee stings had a HUGE red mark around it. It measured 4 inches in diameter. I figured it was no big deal as I had no other symptoms other than my leg was on fire so I moved on with my life. The next day, and the day ofter that, all of my bee stings still stung and itched like crazy. Three days after I had been stung, my mom came over and showed my mom my bee stings. She took one look at the big one and told me I needed to let my Dr know. I took pictures of my bee sting and sent them to my Dr. Her office responded that I should have come in earlier for prednisone. Umm, what?! Oops! My mom told me I was probably glad I didn’t go in for prednisone as it’s side effects are awful.

What started out as an easy family hike turned into our worst nightmare that ended ok thankfully. We have learned so many things from this wild event in the woods. The first and most important is that we need (and I would highly encourage you to as well) to carry Benadryl at all times hiking/backpacking. You never know when you are going to need it and are most likely far from any medical help when you are out hiking. We now have Benadryl stocked in our hiking bin, in our car, in our first aid kits, and of course at home. Super’s pediatrician has been great though all of this and we decided to get an epi pen just to take hiking with us. She consulted with our allergist to see if he thought we should be concerned about anaphylaxis in the future given Super’s body response to this one sting. He said he didn’t think she is at high risk. That being said, the pediatrician and I decided we would rather have an epi pen to hike with and never need it than to need it and not have one! You just never know what life is going to throw at you. I am so glad that my husband and I both jumped straight into assessing if Super was going into anaphylaxis. My husband asked me later if he thought that we handled the situation well. I think we did the best we could with the knowledge and tools we had. Now we have a new tool in our box, the epi pen. You can see below that I taught Super how to use the epi pen herself just in case she ever needed to use it on herself.

Seattle Nourished Festival

September 9, 2019September 9, 2019

For years I have scrolled through social media to see gluten free and allergy friendly trade shows all over the country, except for my hometown. It has been sad and frustrating that there hasn’t been a show here. Seattle isn’t a small town in the middle of nowhere, it’s a major metropolitan city! Two years ago, my husband and I traveled down to Portland, OR. to attend and host a booth at the GFFAFEST. It still wasn’t close enough to home for me, I wanted one in my own city. Last spring, I heard that we were FINALLY getting a gluten free and allergy friendly trade show in my home town: Nourished Festival. YAY!! This is something I have looked forward to for a long time and am thrilled to not only attend as a blogger sponsor, but also as a speaker. I’m honored and really excited to be at this event and I’d love to have you join me there. You can purchase tickets for 30% off through September 20th by using the code: EARLYBIRD Please let me know if you decide to go, I would love the chance to meet you.

When my daughters and I go to Costco on sample day, it’s like a game for us to see who can actually eat any of the samples offered. For those of us with multiple food allergies, intolerances, and celiac disease, eating Costco samples is nearly impossible. Going to the Nourished Festival will be like the Disneyland samples of gluten free, allergy friendly, vegan, paleo, keto, and plant based food. My girls cannot wait to attend the event and be able to eat their way through the event. They have never experienced a place that they will be able to eat so many foods. If you are anything like them, you don’t want to miss this event!

I love attending gluten free and allergy friendly trade shows to find all the new amazing companies and products on the market. There are so many amazing brands out there, but it can be heard to sift through so many. An event like this is the best place to find what is new, ask questions, and of course sample their products. It’s also fun to see our most favorite gluten free and allergy friendly brands that we have loved for many years like Enjoy Life Foods, Made Good, Hilary’s Eat Well, and many others. At the festival this year, I love that they have added a paleo, vegan, keto, and plant based areas. So many of people’s food needs cross over into one or more of these areas as well. I think this festival is fit for anyone and if you don’t think so, I bet it fits for someone you know. As a way to love them, come join us and invite them too! 🙂

Please follow along with me on September 21 & 22 as I will be posting in my Instagram Stories all about the event while I am there. I can’t wait to tell you all about the new brands I find, the information I learn through the classes I will attend, and what the favorite brands we’ve had for many years are up to these days. I’ll be sure to tell you everything once the festival is over in one blog post as well. You won’t want to miss it, it’s going to be great.

I mentioned that there will be classes at the Nourished Festival as well. There are a few classes each day that you’ll want to be sure to attend. I have been given the opportunity to speak on Sunday September 22 from 12-1pm on Baking and Cooking free from the top 8 allergens and gluten. It would be wonderful if you would attend my class! I am happy to answer any questions you may have during my class so come prepared with any you may have. Thanks for supporting me in this way, I can’t wait to see you all at the event! Again, be sure to buy your tickets ahead of time for 30% off by using the code: EARLYBIRD As always, let me know if you have any questions.

*There are affiliate links above for your convenience and helps support my blog 🙂

Seattle Area Restaurant Guide

August 14, 2019August 14, 2019

As a family we avoid most of the Top 8 Allergens, Gluten, and a good list of other random foods as well. If you have followed me for any length of time you know that my girls have out grown many of their food allergies. Some of those are now intolerances and some are completely gone. There are two people in our family with celiac disease, and we all have many food intolerances. All that to say, eating out is very difficult for us. We don’t often eat out because it takes a lot of time and effort to find a safe restaurant, but when we do eat out, it is something my family really enjoys. I will continue to add to my list as we find new local restaurants. Just so you have a better understanding of the foods we avoid when we go out to eat, I have them listed below. I am very aware that not all families deal with this many, or the same, food restrictions as we do. My list is to give you hope that you can find safe restaurants to eat at even with food allergies, celiac, and intolerances. Please be sure to call these restaurants yourself before you visit them to ensure that you feel confident eating there. We all have different levels of comfort.

Food Intolerances for us:
Dairy
Soy
Egg Yolk
Cane Sugar
Peanuts
Garlic
Tomato
Apples
Corn
Strawberries
Almonds

Food Allergies:
Peanuts
Tree Nuts

Celiac Disease:
Wheat
Barley
Rye
Oats unless they are certified GF

Even with that long list, here are the amazing restaurants we have found that we can eat at in the Seattle area. They are listed in no particular order.

Red Robin Seattle, Redmond, Bothell, Bellevue, Lynnwood

I know there are Red Robin’s all over our country, but they are still worth mentioning. Even though they are all over, I have heard that each location is very different when it comes to how allergy/celiac friendly they are. My understanding is that not all of them have a separate gluten free fryer and not all staff are well trained on food allergy/celiac safety. We have had wonderful experiences at several Red Robin’s, many of which even use allergy sticks in food items as an extra sign of the precautions they took in the kitchen. I love when I see the allergy sticks come out in our meals, it gives me extra confidence that they took our food allergies/celiac seriously. The Red Robin’s that we have successfully eaten at are: Bothell location off Bothell Everett Hwy (photo at the top), Lynnwood location behind Alderwood Mall, Redmond location downtown, Bellevue location in Bellevue Square, and the Seattle location on the water front.

Razzi’s Pizza Seattle

Razzi’s is well known in our area for being allergy/celiac friendly. Zippy’s Celiac Support Group through Seattle Children’s Hospital has even had them cater one of their events. This small Italian restaurant is well worth your time and drive. They have the most amazing pizzas, calzones, sub sandwiches, salads, and more. Check out their gluten free menu, it’s AMAZING!! Not only do they have amazing gluten free breads and pizza crust, they also have dairy free/vegan cheese. This is the first restaurant we ever went to that had vegan cheese so pizza was actually an option for us. All of their staff are well trained and understand food allergies/celiac. One note of caution, their red tomato sauce contains soy. We found that one out that hard way when Zippy was allergic to soy. :/ They do have a soy free red sauce if you request it which we they told us when we called about Zippy’s allergic reaction. We still love going to Razzi’s and highly recommend it!

Skinny D’s Yogurt Shop Mill Creek

This is our all time favorite local frozen yogurt. It’s as local as it gets, we can walk there easily. They have dairy free options, sugar free options, and only one (cookie dough) of their MANY flavors have gluten in them. We are also dairy free so we order our yogurt on a little iPad and our yogurt comes out in a separate space. Then we get to head to the toppings bar that is full of fresh fruit, mochi, candy, candy bars, cookies, etc. They have Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips and Kinnikinnick gluten free Chocolate Sandwich Creme (Oreo type cookies). While it is great that they have these toppings, they still aren’t safe for Zippy to eat with the chance of cross contamination. Buffet style food is never an option for her. I talked to the owner and asked if we could get all the items that Zippy needed from the back. She said she would be happy to do that so Zippy’s most recent toppings were strawberries, cherries, Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips, Kinnikinnick cookies, mochi, and boba on top of salted caramel frozen yogurt. YUM!! The owner went in the back and used a separate scoop for each item Zippy got or used fresh gloves. We just love going to Skinny D’s, it’s such a great treat! Not only that, they also have lots of board and card games so we often spend family evenings there playing games and building memories. 🙂

Chick-Fil-A Lynnwood, Kirkland, Bellevue

Chik-Fil-A is a new find for us. They have only been in our area for a year or a bit more. I honestly didn’t know that they were a safe option for us until a few months ago. We don’t eat fast food very often, but it’s nice to have a safe option when we need one. It make Zippy’s day every time she gets to go. She is able to safely eat their grilled chicken nuggets, waffle fries, and a juice box or water. They do also have gluten free buns! I love Chick-Fil-A because all of their staff is well trained in dealing with food allergies and their online menu shows allergens very clearly. When we order we tell them that we have celiac disease/can’t have any gluten. That usually cues the cashier to bring over a manager to ensure that your order was heard and communicated correctly. The receipt also says *Allergy* on it so they know to take extra precautions in the back and also change gloves.

Thai Rhapsody Mill Creek
Before we had kids with life threatening food allergies and celiac disease, we used to frequent Thai food restaurants everywhere we went. It’s definitely one of our favorite ethnic cuisines to eat. We have spent the last 9 years not being able to eat Thai food. Now that our girls have outgrown most of their severe food allergies, we only need to worry about gluten and nuts when we eat out in terms of cross contamination concerns. Last fall, I was on my Find Me Gluten Free App (free, I use it everywhere we go) when we had guests in town and read that a local Thai Food restaurant was great with celiac customers and other food allergies. I called the restaurant at an off busy time to ask lots of questions to ensure they could feed us safely. By the conversation I had with the restaurant I felt comfortable trying it out. We went early (4:30pm) which we typically do so we can be sure the communication with our server isn’t rushed and the kitchen isn’t too busy. When we arrived we talked to our waiter about celiac and nut allergies and they said they could feed us safely. To be honest, I still felt a bit of anxiety because I’m still human and have seen my girls have many celiac and allergic reactions. They made Zippy’s meal separately and she got to basically create her own meal there. The food was great, the staff was helpful and wonderful, and everyone left feeling healthy. We have since eaten there and had the same great experience!

Terracotta Red Everett
If you love Chinese food and have celiac disease or gluten intolerance, you need to visit Terracotta Red! They are very knowledgeable about food allergies and celiac disease. Their gluten free menu (listed as GFO) is long and amazing. It is a place that you will want to get reservations for as it gets really busy, or go at on off hour from the rush. I remember my family couldn’t believe how good the food was and how many options they had to choose from. It’s definitely worth going to!

Grilla Bites Snohomish

We just found Grilla Bites last week, but had heard about it a few months ago. It’s a small restaurant/cafe’ in a quaint town close to us. They serve soups, salads, sandwiches, chicken nuggets, and lots of drinks. The staff are very knowledgeable about food allergies and celiac/cross contamination. They have gluten free bread for sandwiches and burgers as well as gluten free chicken nuggets. We had a great experience here and will definitely be back.

Asiana Bistro Redmond

This is a new find for us last week as well, again I found it on the Find Me Gluten Free App. Almost the whole menu is gluten free (58 items are). If you love Asian food you need to go here! It’s a small shop, but is a great one. The owner is very knowledgeable about food allergies and celiac disease. She is also very sweet and funny. My severely peanut allergic mom ate here with us. All of us, including her, ate safely and well. The food was delicious! We will definitely be going back!

Hopefully this list is helpful for you. I will continue to add to our list as we find new great restaurants that we can eat at locally. If your list of food restrictions isn’t as long as ours, you can likely find many more safe finds. We love using the Find me Gluten Free App and Allergy Eats App to help us find new restaurants to try. I would love to hear your favorite safe restaurants in the Seattle area, leave me some in the comments below.