Monday Morning

The trend you see in Europe and the US is that people suffer more intense from allergies. A development that is difficult to define, to measure, to cope with, to understand. It's about reason and vulnerability.
An octopus or an chameleon. The tentacles, strangled around the body. The allergies appear with their various looks. I observe a trend here with my allergy daughter. It's recent. It's a stream of reactions we hardly ever had in such a staccato tempo. And these reactions are not caused by any peanuts or nuts.
It's allergies all the time! Every day,  morning and evening.
At the time she starts eating, she feels sick immediately or soon after and needs extra medication. Then she admits that the normally quick positive sign of feeling better stays out. So she serves her self an extra doses. This is not good! Right now

I don't understand where we are going. I can't think of a solution. The only strategy must be: avoiding anything that could cause of a new break out.
Monday morning the house still peaceful, a family wakes up, rituals, all like to start up slowly the new week. And she feels already so terrible.

Sitting at my desk, view into the garden, blue stripes at the sky, soft wind, dawn drops on the grass, out door noise, chilly. Nespresso.
Why this sudden thunderstorm of allergies?
How come?
Are we doing something different?
Is this a new trend?
Is she getting more allergic?
Is it the weather, the pollen?
Is it the specific Rabat Climate?
Cross contamination?
Food allergies and pollen?
Monday morning? Certainly but there is more. There is almost always as often as there are her allergies, positivism and her smile! Tons of courage and a believe that things will be better someday! There are projects and ideas, long term plans and wishes! 

Emotions

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/guide/food-allergy-intolerances?page=5

This site is very well structured, well balanced and pretty much comprehensible for all who like to get a clear image about allergies. The difference between food allergies and food intolerances. It's always pleasant to explore different sources.

To me the subject feels as common as waking up in the morning, admiring the first morning glory and having my Nespresso. Making breakfast, driving the girls to school.... 
To consider though, is that nothing is common for any individual case and throughout the fields of discoveries and new allergies, observing today's irregularities, contrasting with the situation yesterday or earlier this week. I always like to see the golden melting warmth and see a girl that goes with her positive and strong attitude but also prefers to hide when she fights with allergies and visible reactions. We continue to focus on our food rules. Such as the family golden rule to bake with 4 ingredients. Avoiding suspicious allergy triggers. Her love for food in all her variety resembles her colorful soul .
I see her struggling with her food allergies and the related limitations. I believe in our positive way to move on. I'am worried also. We find our way to jingle with the lousy possibilities here in Rabat. 


The way she acts, reacts, thinks, solves and pushes herself forward - is much about emotions. These seem strongly connected with the range of feelings so many teens encounter: the managing of inner conflict, building friendships, personal confidence, vulnerability, courage, risk taking, making choices ....... 
She of course knows that her life and the connections she constructs are somehow always linked with her peanut- and tree nuts allergies and more. It's common to her life style, less to others. My cosmopolitan allergy daughter has to deal with this by her own and it makes her hopefully strong and aware of here capabilities and her weaknesses. 

Teenagers and their very own perceptions. I love it and admire them. 

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Chocolate chunk cookies.

Take a good quality chocolate (75%) and chopped in big chunks!

soft brown sugar       70 gr
caster sugar              70 gr
butter                      125 gr
1 large egg
plain flour                175 gr
bicarbonate             1 teaspoon
chocolate chunks     175 gr

1. Butter, brown and caster sugar in bowl and start creaming.
2. Preheat oven: 190 ° C / gas 5 and Add beaten Egg
3. Stir in the flour
4. Add chocolate chunks
5. Spoon chocolate chunk mix onto tray
6. bake for 10 - 12 minutes and cool down on rack
7. prepare the tray for more cookies to bake

Enjoy this lovely cookie, the chocolate melts.... irresistible.

(From the Jane Bull Baking Book, 50 ways to bake delicious things to eat, A Dorling Kindersley Book)

Anaphylaxis through the eyes of the food-allergic child

Anaphylaxis through the eyes of the food-allergic child

My daughter has been deeply shocked after several reactions. I like to share the context of one experience here.

She told me: 'When your lip is swollen and you see yourself in the mirror it makes you sick and worried'. 'It is very unpleasant and frightened' . 'It feels like breathing is so difficult, and your lip feels stiff and deformed'. 'I do remember very well once on the kitchen in Cassis, we had the girls of Martine in the kitchen and it was one of the days that we danced all at our dance studio in Marseille. When we came back in our car we were all excited and hungry. We hang out 5 girls, around the table in the kitchen. The small white table, the one you use now as your writing desk , the Chinese red cabinet with the fine drawings and pieces of nacre. You were busy, with my baby sister and my two friends, Nuria and my self were preparing loafs of bread. There was marmalade, jam, Nutella (*)  and there were the girls, and us and the knifes and the constellation. The situation in the kitchen was just not well organized and their was excitement and then the doorbell rang. Martine arrived to pick up her girls, the consternation, the knife from the Nutella touched my lip and the reaction was there immediately. I felt strange, my lip got thicker, I screamed for you, you came running back from the front door, through the living room up to the kitchen, we took of in a hurry together, you pulled me, you looked to my face, I stopped running  in front of the mirror and looked at my horrifying face, you came towards me with my medications and a glass of water. I took my medication and stand still just confronted with myself and felt horrible, frightened, anxious.'

(*)(we had this nut chocolate spread at that time still in the cupboard, and it was with precautions and rules that we used it, of course in the setting of our family this was all so clear and well understand by all members) 

This article explains more about the way teens, develop their own feelings about their allergies. Their well being in the less secure environment in which they live, being a teen, and in which move around may cause anxiety. The responsibility towards one self is rigorous.
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20110127/Anaphylaxis-through-the-eyes-of-the-food-allergic-child.aspx?page=2

Just a Crazy day.
Split in between meetings, lost in compared images.
Conversations make no sens when the heart is not involved. Lost arks. Stills.
The bouquet to enjoy, the composition in the vase. Sweeping trees and drifted clouds.
We seem all tired. The weather makes that so many kids and adults in our circle our ill, seasonal flew, headache and fevers. Strength. Body catch up, adding more vitamins. Daily fruit portions are a serious and reasonable alternative. Berries, oranges, lemons, mint  and honey. Moroccan diversity in my kitchen when I propose more fruit for dessert.
  

Natural shower

The morning humidity, the air hardly fresh, warmish, plays with us. The season winter, her signs confuse, new leaves sprout, my weeping willow tells me. Tiny light green leaves climb up as the dried ones are still attached to the branches as well, they seem to interfere in each rhythm. Jasmine blossoming, the fragrant pure and seductive. Branches hanging over the garden wall, patchwork. Green in all her variations, notes, solemn tempo and allure. All refreshed by an intense rainfall.
Pollen and powders dropped on the ground, the palms shiver, awake now by a natural shower.
A peaceful day. I hope the clear washed air is a good sign for eczema.
The night was long, the rest was deep, exited mind deserves a relaxed body.

Family dinners

A table, memories, occasions, gatherings, recipes, no peanuts, no nuts, no night shade vegetables, family dinners, the village were we got married, medieval setting, time stands still.

Links

teens
trends
Table
fashion
Literature
Intellectual
Music
Theater
Peers
talks
Small talks
Outfit
Horizon
Time
table
Time table

A request from the blogger.

The blog.

The writings, my postings. 

the ideas and the examples are multiple.

The fancy, the moving, the erudite, the arty.

Need new input.

Looking for a change, other lay out. 

An update, a flew of pictures in the sidebar, the links I like to set and list up for teens. But which will vary all the time, like food, allergies, education and teens. May be by following the seasons, the tempers, the laughs, the moods.

Ideas.

Input.

Comments.

Please. 

But!

Sport is a must for teens but becomes a kind of a pain when this causes skin irritations. Gets very annoying but is still to handle as it seems to me, when we bring the allergy girl and her friends over to the indoor sport accommodation to join the tournament. It's interesting to see that when the ambition and the eager are both very much presented there seems to be no border, no reason, no excuse to stop. With your head through the wall and back again while we run out of medication here. The fancy pills for under the tongue aren't available in the Moroccan pharmacies. The point to obtain, to win the match is the dreamed score which is in the sky and on her mind for weeks. So any discussion like 'may be we should try to avoid to much sweating and indoor sport activities' becomes unrealistic. I like the hunger for the athletic experience and we should cheer them up, all those young teenagers who get out their warm beds early in the morning and who move their bodies. But for me, the only really but is the handicap with her eczema. It's the sport, it's the food, the rules to deal with and the limitations. It's the way how she, a teen deals with it and how we should interfere when things get out of hand. Where does the sport ends, where the need and necessity of a medical treatment becomes something she depends on? And then what. The interaction and the contradiction between the but and the because..

Table heritage

Because of love and food, kids and taste, families and weekends, home stay, winter flu and cold noses, fevers and desperate because tired of all the nonsense of every day. Some color on the table and installing new fancy tables in the garden because I found the man to do it and works with iron. The two structures for the two plates were done in less than a week. It's fun to wotk with the artists and craftsmen from the area. The lucky one is certainly me today. A large table for the months to come, the time we'll spend outside and all the food and conversations and laughs we share around that table. We still had the two marble plates. We used the table back in Cassis but moving on to Lausanne, where space was limited, we broke the wooden structure and kept the black heavy marble plates. Now after long years of absence we will reconstruct this table again. The tiny dark chocolate cakes will do perfect to celebrate. It's how it seems to be for me with our tables, they were both made in Beijing during our stay in the People's Republic and we can't say good buy to them. 

Sur la piste de nouveaux marqueurs de l’allergie alimentaire…

Sur la piste de nouveaux marqueurs de l’allergie alimentaire…

Atopic Dermatitis, Treatments & medications, Food Allergies. Food allergies can result in disorders.
I am concerned once again and not sure about the way I should handle the dermatological disorders. There is this very reasonable connection between the two fields. The concerns we have are definitely connected to both.
Although very technical the site: http://emedicine.medscape.com/  is coming up with explanations, treatments and links.

No try outs

Food rules,
golden and good,
no try outs because all the food on our table is safe,
no peanuts, no nuts.

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/foodAllergy/research/Pages/noPicnic.aspx

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/foodAllergy/research/Pages/noPicnic.aspx

Here's a story from two siblings, younger than my allergy girl, but the picture is like ours.

I'll notice

Medication, daily menu. And it seems to work wonder well. Now the discipline comes in and the willingness to continue with the rhythm of the pills twice a day.  But the allergy girl is under control and I mean that's a great thing to admire. The conclusion seems to be that when you're young and you've a lot on your mind you simply can't use the literally annoying disturbed facial appearance. The inner fight to stay home, missing classes and to go deep down under the blankets, covering yourself, hiding from all and every thing, hoping things will be arranged the moment you pop up into the day light. There's simply not a reasonable meaning or discussion to add by the parent to the subject.'I hate my skin? ? 'I can have it any more' ' I better stay home and come never out again'. I'll notice - the years that you grow up, you deal with your own world to organize, the outings with friends, the parties to attend, travels to make, conversations on face book and within other social networks and pictures to share - see that your life and that of your generation is plenty full and multi tasked and crazy diverse and you simply don't got time planned for skin and allergy situations. I see the worries that those factors implicate to your life, I do understand the unfairness you feel deep inside.

Envelope

The medication and the treatment. Both is taken care of. Neither of both give a direct significant sign that things are going better. Seeing amelioration is much about patience, looking in the mirror a second or longer in the morning when ready for the day or late in the evening when it is the hour of going to bed again. Hoping for better. It is about tears, feeling just awful and getting really fed up with yourself. Derma, our skin, the envelop that covers our body. The very complex wrap paper that comes along from birth to death. It's the precious and dearest skin that we like to touch and admire when we give birth to our child. Pink, soft, thick, velvet, peach and apricot, cotton and adorable. Elasticity and puppy wise.

Just another episode

Terrible.
Never ending story,
eczema. 
Predictable.
Sport.
Sweating.
What helps, what not.
Have not's or just a diet.
No cream, milk, dairy for now. Just how we managed in the past. The rushes of eczema are in fact exactly the same as 3, 5, 8 and 10 years ago. the connection between skin and allergies it's all clear and the data speak up. But your face is what you see and what you like to have just pretty. Angry because your skin is in dis-accord. And it's hard to speak about it or to know how I can come up with a solution, most of the time the moment is just wrong.  Two weeks of medication. Standard procedure. Of course it's a discipline to take care of these episodes and time is involved, precious minutes for body hygiene. And then when you don't see that things are getting any better.
I'll need to check with the dermatologist but the clue is that I don't like the medication and the facial creams which contain corticosteroids.

Dutch site for my Frenchy

http://www.allergologie.nl/

I like this site. It's Dutch and for my 'Frenchy', my allergy daughter, who's a Dutch native as for all other allergic teens and their parents it's relevant to have access to the multiple sites. They all focus but with a different pint of view, a variety of perceptions. This site gives a very complete inside in allergies in general and lists of international links. In Europe and elsewhere in the world. Allergies are global, so the issue is better taken of care of when we try to get a wider view. Plus it's just more fun to zap through the countries where we lived and where we are today.

Doctors take crack at nut allergies

Doctors take crack at nut allergies

Some day there will be an answer and a medical treat to hopefully overcome peanut allergy.

It is really great that in different hospitals around the world, doctors are advancing in research and coming up with important and positive results.

Food News Journal

Food News Journal

Open the above link, and see Food News, Tuesday January 11

Have a food Allergy? Time to Double Check, NY Times

It is as true as it is, Take allergies serious without going nuts! 

Faces

A story behind. I am a hardliner. I remember almost all dishes I ever made, and with a little bit of luck I easily memorize the guests, the friends, the family members who shared the food with me. Faces on my plate. Every child does it. With the nice thick vanilla cream side to side with chocolate variety in one bowl. You design the face by painting chocolate flavor with a small desert spoon at the vanilla side and visa versa. Like my pictures feed my mind and help me to memorize and color events, happenings, voyages and our life in different countries the food feels like the link to my social life and all kind of conversations, thoughts, music, feelings which connect to that life. The bowl of strawberries yesterday evening was an invitation for the girls to make some whipped cream, a large bowl full of thick white cream. My allergy girl seems to be longing for sweet, sweeter and sweetest lately... The small plate she used for her desert was soon transformed into a clown's face, the border with a thick layer of cream visualized the hair, curly around the white face with open eyes and a smiling mouth. Decorate your plate, decorate your cake, your desert... the art of decoration. My head feels like a story board, all those faces and different places, I stop the film and try to focus and see the clown, the ups and downs which mark life and so does food, whether we feel strong, happy, exhausted, hilarious, our  senses will accompany and reflect these feelings.

And then like today I don't have any inspiration, neither for reading nor for writing, I simply miss the discipline or perhaps is it the feeling, to get not close enough to the source, the message, the stream of tunes and sounds is not coming out. To let go, the opening sentence, the words seem to disperse all over the page, I can't get them in the right order. So I drink some tea, and have a second and even a third cup.... I have New Years wishes to send to friends, to my family, I receive lovely answers from close souls far away, and this lightens my thoughts. The temperature outside is as if Spring has come already. I feel the energy in the air out side and at sunset I admire simply the colors all along the horizon. When the night falls, the air feels fresh and suddenly it's chilly. A light wind in my hair, small projects in the kitchen. I wave the time, my laziness, the small troubles of getting organized and what I will prepare so we'll have some decent food at the table. Some fresh made dough, waiting. Small airy pizza's for the girls, fresh tomatoes with mozzarella and pressed lemon.

From hearts and stars!

Home sweet home,
cookies as sweet as stars as light as hearts,
as taste is sweet and home is where the heart is, so we bake.

Out door eating and sleeping. Teens and their peers, my daughter and friends, out of the house, away from me and on the road, their way of saying good buy, waving and laughing, it all reminds me so much of long ago. Being young and innocent, going out by yourself and tasting the wonderful feeling of freedom among friends. There will be a dinner, Moroccan food, delicious Tajine  with chicken and plums, but it need to be double checked. 'She has her epi pen, doesn't she?' ' Yes, she does, but we don't want to use it..!!' 'Of course not, but it's good to have it any way, let's not only trust the food in this particular case....' 'Yeah...I nod.....'. The conversation is between me and the other parent, there is no involvement from my daughter, although I try to catch her attention, slightly, without emphases, I think she gets the message, she packs her stuff from the back of the car as does her friend. They're off, out in their world and that's how it should be. Friday afternoon, no school, a long weekend in front of them. No risks food wise, she knows, she should be aware. I let go and take off. More girls to feed at home.

Living With a Tree Nut Allergy - FAAN

Living With a Tree Nut Allergy - FAAN


Because stories never are the same and we all like to join a table with friends and nice food we can eat. Once again: I am what I eat!

When the food is safe.

Still so many people don't have a simple clue about allergies. Still I get confused when I need to explain, tell, memorize, explain, list, describe.... the causes, the diagnoses, the outcomes, the testing, the proofs, the reactions... Still people do ignore, don't understand, see no danger in the beginning...... Still it takes time, I look up and see in the eyes of my allergy daughter, she feels, she knows, she accepts, she must exclude some of the food at the table, there where could hide the danger, there where one is not ready to make an exception for not eating a such and so ingredient while having an allergy girl at the same table and still not understand the reality of a life threatening food allergy...... We act, we know, we see, we feel but we can't be neither too hard or too critical towards the non allergic but when  I look up and see in her eyes, my allergy daughter hopefully finds out how she will survive the next days, when knifes will go in and out from jam, to peanut and back and forth and without a guarantee, never guaranteed that this will cause no accidents for her... Still we need to explain and yet of course we can't blame any body, we can't expect that we are the ones to set the rules, but the thing is that when there is one girl deadly allergic and the peanut butter stays on the table, eating for my allergy daughter becomes a kind of Russian roulette..... this is not a game..... Parents hesitate, they stay on the side of the peanut lover, which is kind of logical and understandable. Parents then  seem sometimes a little bit less easy to convince, where a child, a friend, will understand sooner that her friend can be safe at the same table for a week, while spending a beautiful time together and eating something is you like to share together....... So the child, the friend, does understand the point of safety and fun and suggest all by herself to put the peanut butter away until next week. Wow these personal actions are so great, meaningful and gorgeous. Empathy and vulnerability are wonderful feelings! The table becomes again a spot where every body can sit and share and eat, a safe place where nobody will have any frustrations or fears to deal with, because we decide all together not to play with fire.

Connections

Clashing cultures.
Creating colors.
Evolving flavors.
Costumes and traditional cutumes.
History and timetable.
Children's magic mind and fantasy.
Presumed innocence.
Orange trees, juicy fruit, clementines, pink hybiscus and blue violet leaves.
Winter in rabat. Clouds are drifting, covering the sky. Aurore fleeds pink and yet so close. Children's voices in the house. The empty and cold house gets back her ambiance. Footsteps from the girls. Somewhere someone opens a door. A voice to remember. A season never to forget. Sisters love survive, sisters cook together in the light that warms the kitchen. Aprons with sunny stripes, morning light peeps through the kitchen window. Oranges, loaded branches, heavy weight, oranges hanging down, low at the red dry earth. Jam to make and cookies from English recipes. Oranges and soon strawberries from farmers nereby. Girls and cultures, they talk from an old friend, an english woman, sweet and busy. Her Britain touch, long hours of cooking with the girls. Learning some new English sweet and crusty flavors too and a few English words. Colorful cultures, peaceful borders, respect. Tables, food and living together sometime and then again separated, amused arguing about the next w dish to prepare or the fruit to catch. Longing ever again. Strolling, living, eating, thinking, kids, parents, sharing, thoughts, music, cultures, conflicts, perspectives, vulnerable, philosophers, lovers, sons and daughters, family, perception, opinions, respect, freedom.

To remember.

And now it's a New Year. A Year to live, to enjoy, to share and to have wonderful food together with friends and family. To follow up with the research done in the medical world, peanut strategies to study and the respect of our own honest rules for food. It was fun to travel with the girls. We were so lucky to hang out with dear family and friends throughout the season holidays.
My head is full with a stream of good memories, gatherings and recent experiences.
Christmas Eve was fabulous, especially the cooking together with my sister and the girls. The charm of the apartment where we shared Christmas dinner, the view into the white streets of Praque, candles flickering all over the place. The emails between Rabat, Praque and The Netherlands the last weeks were  much about the food, the table decoration, the presents and the groceries lists. Distance preparation is fun.

The kitchen was convenient, we missed some tools, so we put all our creativity together and a lot of laughter. We used the coffee package to measure the flour and the ingredients for the Parmezan cookies and sweet sandy cookies. The warm chocolate cakes served in nice small colored cups, all prepared by the amazing hands and minds of the girls. All dishes were peanut and nut free and because of my nephew there were no nightshade vegetables on the menu. No allergy worries, just perfect food for everybody.

Spirit and curiosity, love and friendship, patience and sisterhood! We'll keep this all in mind during the New Year.