Who Is Jaiya?
Hi! My name is Jaiya and I decided to start a blog about food allergies. You might be wondering why. Well, I have deadly (anaphylactic) food allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, and dairy. As you can probably imagine, that can be a little scary to some. When people hear that I have food allergies, the first thing they say is “I am so sorry.” Like, what do you have to be sorry for??? You didn't give me food allergies, you’re not the reason I have them. So the only thing I ask of the people reading this blog is: PLEASE do not feel bad for me because of my food allergies because they've actually taught me a lot about life and how to live it.
I was diagnosed with food allergies when I was very little, and ever since then my family and I have had to learn how to manage them. We've definitely made mistakes along the way, however those mistakes just led to us learning more about managing living with food allergies. Over the years I have tried restaurants a few times, however those experiences didn't really turn out that well. But even though they didn’t work out for me does not mean that it wouldn’t work for someone else. The reason why I don’t eat out is because it is a pretty in depth process. I have to ask the restaurant about their allergy protocol and where they source their ingredients from, something that can take a while. There is also the issue of human error with cross-contact, which is a very prevalent cause of allergic reactions. Talking to restaurants is just one example of how my family and I practiced self-advocacy. Another place I specifically had to practice advocacy for myself was in school.
Growing up I went to a lot of smaller schools that were able to become nut free for my safety. However, making schools dairy free was just too hard because so many foods have dairy in them. Because of this, dairy was always everywhere and I had to be very cautious, especially in kindergarten and elementary school. The reason behind this was that younger kids (including me) were definitely less aware about hand washing and not getting food everywhere than middle and high schoolers. Because of this, I would have to tell people to please wash their hands and to be careful when they were eating around me. Though this happened less frequently in middle school, there were still times when I had to ask students to wash their hands. Overall, even though these things seem pretty minor, they definitely helped me grow my ability to self advocate. Of course that journey is not over yet, however it honestly never will be. Social situations can make it hard to self advocate, however learning how to can really strengthen your willpower.
I am really grateful that I had such a supportive family. My mom grew up with a sibling who had anaphylactic food allergies like me. In the 80s and 90s there was not much information regarding food allergies. It was definitely a more unknown disease. However, because of her brother, my mom was somewhat already informed about allergies and I think that made a big difference. However, there was still a lot she learned with me. Things like preventing cross-contact and wiping down surfaces to prevent hives. I am really grateful for my parents because of everything they have done for me, from giving up certain foods to always cooking for me and keeping me safe.
Thank you guys for reading this. I will be posting again soon with more indepth posts. This was more of a get to know me than anything else. Next post I will be mainly focusing on defining certain terms in the allergy community, talking about FALCPA labeling, and more. Hope you have a great rest of your day!
-Jaiya