Dear Parents Who Have Put Out a Teal Pumpkin This Halloween
Dear parents who have put out a teal pumpkin this Halloween,
You are doing something so important to parents and children with life-threatening food allergies. I want to acknowledge your effort to mark your home as safe for my food-allergic child and others like him this Halloween. I can see you painting the pumpkin teal and thereby teaching your child about empathy and compassion. I blink away the tears, because I am so grateful for homes like yours that will allow my child to focus on being Albus Dumbledore this Halloween and enjoy the magic of the night.
For our family, Halloween used to be downright scary. The truth is that I used to dread trick-or-treating with my son. I remember vividly a few years back when my sister invited us to her neighborhood. My son was so excited to dress up in his Thomas the Train costume and even more so, to trick-or-treat with his cousins. I’ll admit I was nervous, but armed with my EpiPen and safe candy, off we went. House after house, I remember my son asking if there was any safe candy for him, only to get looks of pity or blank stares. Even though I had safe candy with me, he just wanted one door to have something special for him, too. His disappointment was palpable, and for a mom to witness this, heartbreaking. I swore never to go to homes I had not vetted again.
If I have to be honest, it can be truly exhausting both physically and mentally to prepare for any celebration that focuses on food. After all, if I get it wrong, or don’t do my research, or miss an ingredient, there can be catastrophic consequences, even death. This weighs on my heart day in and day out. I fear for my son every day he goes into a world rife with peanuts, his particular poison. I love him so fiercely and just want to keep him alive and safe.
I want you to know these things because I can easily bet our family is not the only grateful one this holiday. Just in case you were wondering if it was worth the effort, please know you are helping to erase the stigma of food allergies. You are bringing magic into the world of a child, one teal pumpkin at a time.
Thank you again for participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project.
With gratitude,
A Food Allergy Mom
The author’s son dressed as Albus Dumbledore, holding a teal pumpkin.
This story was originally published on Huff Post.
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Lianne graduated Phi Beta Kappa from SUNY Albany in 1991, and earned an M.S. in Physical Therapy from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1997. In Nov 2013 , following a negative travel experience, launched The No Nut Traveler, http://www.nonuttraveler.com, a website with resources and advocacy tools for those flying with food allergies, stories from passengers and a petition drive http://www.nonuttraveler.com/SignPetition.aspx with over 90,000 signatures urging action. Married and has three children: one allergic to nuts. She was the recipient of the 2013 FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education) leadership award and 2017 FARE Vision Award. She is a member of a FARE led coalition formed to present a unified voice regarding the steps that the airline industry can take to better accommodate passengers with food allergies. This coalition is responsible for championing Bill S1972 introduced August 2015 in US Senate- which would put easy to use auto-injectors on-board airlines. She has been a regular panelist for IFAAA (International Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Alliance) presenting on the myriad of challenges passengers face when flying with food allergy. Lianne is also a regular presenter for FABlogCon (Food Allergy Bloggers Conference). Her tips for flying with a food allergy were featured in a piece for the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research at Stanford. Most recently, Lianne has worked with Interfaith Hospitality Network of Essex County, an organization that houses homeless families in churches and synagogues to help train and educate volunteer coordinators and staff on how to host families who come into the network with food allergies. In addition to her advocacy work, Lianne also serves as the co-chair of FARE’s New York Food Allergy Ball, helping to raise funds in support of FARE’s mission. She is the co-coordinator of the Social Outreach Team at Temple B’nai Jeshurun for Interfaith Hospitality Network and will be honored in the spring of 2018 for being one of the founders of this program at her synagogue. She is responsible for creating and successfully executing a toy drive benefitting sexually abused children who receive therapy at RDTC in Newark, NJ for the past 8 years.
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