Independence

Do you tend to feel sorry for you child with food allergies?  It's easy to do.  I have seen children with special dietary needs be coddled or given extra (unhealthy) snacks because parents "feel sorry."  Don't feel sorry.  Treat them like any other child.  If you "feel sorry" you are most likely going to see the child using food as a way to get attention (either food they can or can't eat or should I say won't eat).  On my other blog today, I posted about Promoting Independence in a Toddler.  There are some useful tips that we use to help with behavior and teaching a child to be independent.  As a parent to an allergic child, it's easy to put majority of our focus on the finding "safe" foods and then the other parts of parenting suffer.  Also, I think with a food allergic child we work extra hard to "protect" them.  You can easily do many of the things I suggest in the comfort of your own home with the limitations you choose.  These children especially need to learn independence so as they grow they can explain their food allergies to adults.  Enjoy the post and feel free to add some of your techniques, too.