Bleeping Food Allergies

In case you were wondering, food allergies suck. I went to the store to find some easy meals for my son, some of those toddler microwaveable meals, to have in the house or the diaper bag (I carry food for him EVERYWHERE). After checking labels, I discovered that of the 20+ varieties on the shelf, my son can not eat a single one. NOT ONE. I was quite frustrated. Seemingly vegetarian meals made with chicken stock, almost everything with eggs and milk. Argh! I know that I can go to the local health food store and get him some organic, vegan/vegetarian meals that he can eat, but they are considerably more expensive and I am on a budget. My sister took one look at me in the store and said "You need a support group."

Then today after dinner, which my son refused to eat, I noticed he had hives on his torso. There were none in the area around his mouth, and he didn't have any of the other telltale signs, like trying to scratch his tongue, pulling and scratching his ears, coughing, gasping or clawing at his face, so I didn't think he had ingested any of his allergens. Turns out that some of my sister's gravy, which contained a little milk, got on his chest (his food was gravy-less, and I didn't know the gravy had milk). She tried to give him some of her food when he wouldn't eat his own, but he refused to eat it (smart boy!). No trip to the emergency room, thankfully. But if that is what happened after coming into contact with a trace amount of milk in a sauce, then I think even a non-ingested reaction could be pretty severe. If there was anything I could to do to guarantee that he would grow out of his allergies, I would do it. Then I would become a millionaire, because so would thousands of other people around the world.