Allergies

Until we had a child with food allergies, I rarely gave it much thought. When one of our children did develop some rather severe allergies (milk, eggs, nuts), I figured the hardest part would be learning the ropes, avoiding what he can't eat and finding a decent variety of foods he can. The first year or so was rough, but I think the hardest part has been lately. Sammy has been struggling with his allergies lately. Why him, he wants to know. He has asked me several times lately why he had to be born with allergies, and he even asked once if we could pray that Jesus would take the allergies away. I try to explain that there are a lot of worse things a person can be born with, but he is only six, and six year olds are a bit limited on their philosophical scope. I think the main problem is that he feels singled out.

So, anyway, you can see why this is a difficult thing for him and us. Today, after a particularly rough morning and some tears about his allergies, it occurred to me that what he needs is a support group! To know that he is (by far) not alone. While there isn't exactly one around here, we did find this video on youtube and it seemed to really help. I even heard him telling his brothers later that he is one of the millions of kids with allergies.