My Food Allergy Friends – Book Review
Jackie Nevard, the Australian author of the creative and adorable series My Food Allergy Friends, contacted me after my son’s first anaphylactic reaction. She reached out to offer support and share her fears regarding her own son’s anaphylaxis to eggs, nuts, and dairy. She offered to send us a few things to help us get through the experience and to encourage my son to embrace his allergies rather than shy away from them. Jackie generously mailed us two books from the My Food Allergy Friends series along with an adorable bunny that ties into the stories.
These books are wonderful! Not only do they have fantastic, colorful illustrations, but the stories are simple and fun. They are educational, but your kids won’t realize they’re actually a learning tool and will just think they’re cool, as my son did. All the books in the series follow a little boy, named Thai, through different life experiences all while managing his food allergies like a champ. The books portray food allergies in a non-threatening way, in simple language so very young children can understand, yet older kids will enjoy as well. At the end of each book there is a guide for parents on how to best use the books to help your children embrace their allergies.
We received and LOVED….
Thai Goes to a Birthday Party (1st book of the series)
In this book, the first of the series, Thai learns to make safe food choices by bringing his “safe cake” and a “safe party lunch box” so that he can participate without feeling left out. The story normalizes food allergies by showing that other children bring “safe cake” to parties too. There are two recipes included in the back of the book – one for muffins/cupcakes and one for cookies or biscuits as they call them in Australia.
An inside peek…..
Thai’s Big Adventure in the City (2nd book in the series)
This is the second book in the series. It helps children understand how to handle food allergies when away from home. With the help of his family, Thai makes safe food choices by bringing his “safe food” and by not taking food from other people. Children will enjoy finding Rabbie, Thai’s stuffed rabbit, who is hiding on every page of the book.
An inside peek…
Jackie sent my son the loveable stuffed rabbit from the books, Rabbie, how cute is this little guy?! He seems to be really enjoying his new home.
The My Food Allergy Friends website has some nice free printable coloring pages you can view here.
You can buy the books and the Rabbie together or separately here.
FROM: Allergies, Food Allergies
These books look so cute! My 2 year old son has eczema and is allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, and Brazil nuts. I want to teach him about his allergies and I want him to know that he is amazing no matter what!
This would be a great book for him Tiffany – my five year old loves it! We read it in bed just this morning.
My daughter has never known any difference! She thinks that mommy gets ‘adult’ milk instead of her lactose free milk.
What adorable books, I love them! I am constantly searching for something to share with my son about his allergies that his older sister can relate to as well. These beautiful stories look like they will accomplish that. Thank you for this opportunity Jennifer!
Suz
Of course, Suz! They are really cute books, I’m sure your kids would love them.
We have been teaching my son about his allergies to dairy ( finally outgrew this one), eggs, peanuts and tree nuts any way we can! Having never experienced this before we were and still are, flying by the seat of our pants, LOL. We show William things that are not safe, like scrambled eggs and talk about how it could make him very sick. He is just four and seems to “get it”, for the most part. I have to say I am very proud when he will ask someone, “Does that have nuts or eggs?”
The coping and fitting in part have not been a huge factor yet. He starts school this fall and I have to say I am scared of how he will react. We have all day kindergarten at our school so that means he will be eating his lunch there. I have to be honest and say I am not sure what to do. He still struggles with not touching other people’s plates, however I must admit this is just with family. He will have to wear his meds, which he currently does not need to so that is another hurdle. We have our work cut out for us. Wish me luck!
Suz
Hi Suz – You should be proud, you’ve taught him so well. I think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised at how independent he’ll be in kindergarten. My son started full time preschool last fall and I was always amazed at how he protected himself against his allergies. He wears the kozyepi belt, which I really love as it’s so compact, but cute. For school, just make sure the principal, nurse, and teacher all know exactly how to handle your son’s allergies – their understand combined with your son’s knowledge will be the best protection. Fingers crossed for you! It’s always way harder for the parents than the kids when it’s time to start school 🙂
Elle has an allergy to Dairy. We’ve been trying to teach her that there are so many other things she can eat an enjoy – Almond Milk, Coconut Milk Yogurt, etc. It’s great that there are so many other alternatives out there. We try to eat these things with her so she understands they are tasty and something to be enjoyed. She seems to get it an enjoys everything so far. Fingers crossed this continues!
Gosh, we are certainly lucky that there are great alternatives out there today! Our little ones really don’t need to miss out on anything.
My son is 16 months and has no allergies yet. For myself, I try to explain to him that mommy cannot eat that food and it will make her very sick. I have Celiac Disease and a peanut allergy.
Hi Ashleigh – I hadn’t thought about using this book to explain a parent’s allergy. What a great idea!