Allergy Awareness - Nuts

10/09/2026

When you’re parenting a child with food allergies, your brain is wired to stay alert — and for good reason: to keep your child safe.

But a highly anxious mind tends to persistently make everything feel urgent and push for certainty and total control as a way to quiet and regulate itself, especially in new situations.

Unfortunately, we can’t always guarantee outcomes, have 100% certainty, or have total control over things. Therefore, part of living with food allergies is building skills to navigate the uncertainty.

Yet, research shows that for parents of kids with food allergy, difficulty tolerating uncertainty is strongly linked to higher anxiety, worry, and stress — even more than allergy severity in some cases (Roberts et al., 2021).

The goal isn’t to silence anxiety — even though that would *feel* better.

It’s to strengthen your “grounded mind” — the part of you that can:

✔ recognize and assess risks

✔ slow urgency urges down to stay present-focused

✔ make thoughtful, “safe enough” decisions

✔ plan, prepare, and build allergy management skills to help you navigate various outcomes including best, worst, and most likely outcomes.

This helps us balance both safety and quality of life when living with food allergies. 💛
Need support with this? I provide telehealth therapy for allergy moms in IL, FL, and OH, and non-therapy educational consultations to those in any state - link in bio.

Or connect with other allergy-informed therapists listed in your state via the Academy of Food Allergy Counseling’s therapist directory (Academy of Food Allergy Counseling (AFAC)) - link in bio.

And check out my book, May Contain Anxiety (published by Hopkins Press) for Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) content and strategies to help navigate the overwhelm and anxiety associated with allergy parenting. 💛

10/09/2026

The scariest part of Halloween shouldn’t be something your child could actually die from.

When you’re managing life-threatening food allergies, trick-or-treat can feel like a whole lot more trick than treat. But allergy families have found some pretty brilliant ways to change that

Someone in this community recently told me about the Switch Witch — and I wish I'd known about her years ago.

Kids leave the candy they can't eat out at night, and the Switch Witch takes it and leaves behind safe treats, a toy or another surprise.

Such a simple idea. And such a good one.

It made me wonder how many other great ideas are hiding in this community.

Do you trade candy?
Plant safe treats with neighbors?
Have a stash waiting at home?
Buy the unsafe candy back?
Look for teal pumpkins?
Skip trick-or-treating and do something completely different?

I want to hear ALL of it.

How does your family take some of the anxiety out of Halloween?
Give us your best trick for making trick-or-treating actually feel like a treat.

Let's make the comments a giant idea swap for every family trying to figure out Halloween with food allergies.

10/09/2026

https://snacksafely.com/2026/10/study-finds-gut-barrier-defects-may-predispose-people-to-peanut-allergy/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=group&utm_campaign=peanut_allergy_awareness&fbclid=IwZnRzaAU1ImpjbGNrBTIhTmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHBkb2YBYnJpZBExbzQ1OXR1SXNKSVRFR2dTc3NydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR4kUZPYQNXbq9sZ4F1t5aQgoO_KbDaOH17r4V2-VgMEP_YMk7WYgf3XeclPfg_aem_OZCduuqoCTDhXtffO4bzAQ

Study links peanut allergy susceptibility to pre-existing intestinal barrier defects, Paneth cell dysfunction, and loss of protective lysozyme.

10/07/2026

10/04/2026

�REMINDER!� Different sizes of candies can have different ingredients.

Ex: full-sized Laffy Taffy has a different formulation than the small Laffy Taffy. The large bars contain egg. The smaller bars contain soy.

Share examples you've seen �

10/02/2026

BREAKING NEWS for food allergy travelers. ✈️

Delta Air Lines and Allegiant Air are moving to stock epinephrine auto-injectors in their onboard emergency medical kits.

YES. Auto-injectors.

For those of us who fly with food allergies, this matters.

We will still carry our own epinephrine.
We will still have our emergency plans.
We will still do all the things we always do.

But knowing there may be additional epinephrine available at 30,000 feet?

That is progress!!!

Delta says the rollout across its fleet will continue over the next year, so availability will vary by aircraft while that happens.

Now I want to hear from allergy travelers:
Does knowing an airline stocks epinephrine auto-injectors make you more likely to choose that airline?

YES or NO — and tell me why.

Because if the answer from this community is overwhelmingly yes, airlines need to know that.

10/02/2026

parent knows their child better than anyone.

As a pediatrician, I’ve learned that when a mom or dad says, “Something just isn’t right,” it deserves attention—even when everything looks reassuring on paper.

Parental intuition isn’t a replacement for an exam, labs, or evidence. But it is information. And good medicine means listening to all of it.

Parents: trust your instincts enough to speak up.
Doctors: trust parents enough to listen.

Sometimes the most important clue in the room doesn’t come from a test.

10/02/2026

Nut free facility!

10/02/2026

Nut free facility and awesome!

10/02/2026

💌A message from our founders:

"Food Allergy Awareness Month begins today, and for our family, it’s more than a calendar date — it’s a reminder of exactly why we started Vermont Nut Free Chocolates.

When our son was diagnosed with a life-threatening peanut allergy, it completely changed how we looked at food. For the first time, we were reading every ingredient label, scanning for allergens, and discovering how limited our options were. We couldn’t believe how many chocolates and sweets came with a “may contain peanuts or tree nuts” warning.

Not wanting our son to miss out on the sweet things in life, Gail began making chocolate he could safely enjoy. Before long, we were sharing those homemade treats with other families in the food allergy community. What began in our home kitchen quickly turned into something much bigger than we ever imagined.

Since 1998, we’ve been handcrafting artisan chocolate in a dedicated peanut and tree nut free facility. Twenty-seven years later, we’re still family-owned and operated, still doing things the old-fashioned way, and still just as committed to allergen safety as we were on day one.

We’re incredibly grateful for the continued support and love we've received from this amazing community. Whether you’ve been with us from the start or recently discovered our chocolates —thank you. Your trust means everything to us.

Here’s to many more sweet years ahead!"

— Mark & Gail Elvidge