What It's Like Not To Worry About May Contain Allergen Labeling & Cross Contact

October 23, 2024 By Corinna

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What it’s like not to have to worry about may contain allergen labeling and cross-contact

I know many of you mamas are currently struggling with having to read labels and not only avoid foods that contain your allergen, BUT also foods that say “may contain traces of allergen”.

For food allergy moms, navigating these vague warnings can feel like playing food roulette with our kids' safety. But what if you didn’t have to live in fear of every ‘may contain’ label? What would that REALLY LOOK LIKE in everyday life?

Not only that, but I know a lot of you are considering some sort of food allergy treatment like Xolair. One of the benefits of Xolair is that you don’t have to worry about small traces of your allergen. So I thought you might want to know what it’s like because that may help you decide if the treatment is right for your family.

We’ve been doing OIT for about 7 years. About a year and a half ago, we got to the point where we didn’t have to worry about may contain traces of our allergens. Our whole world flipped upside down, in a good way!

Just that extra layer of security is life-changing!

Even so, some fears have been hard to overcome, and surprisingly, some things changed less than I thought they would.

So if you’re wondering what it looks like to be “in-between” where you can have traces of allergen, but no more than that, this is for you!

Dealing with food allergies is like navigating a ship through stormy waters.

As a food allergy mom, you're the captain, doing everything you can to steer your child toward safety. You’re running all over the deck, trying to see where to go, while running back to the helm to actually steer the boat to where you think you should go. But sometimes, the storm is overwhelming—the fear of a reaction, the anxiety of life with allergies, and the pressure of getting it right.

Now imagine trying to navigate that storm without a map or a compass. You're relying on your instincts, but the winds are strong, and the waves are unpredictable. You can’t see clearly, and every decision feels like a risk.

But getting help from a trusted mentor is like getting that map and compass. They guide you through the storm, showing you safe pathways you couldn’t see on your own. They help you understand where the danger zones are and where you can sail with confidence. Now you don’t have to run so much anymore, instead, you steer the boat where you want to go without the stress of figuring everything out.

Without a Mentor’s help, you’re left guessing in the dark, but with it, you can navigate the waters with knowledge and assurance, knowing that you're making the best decisions for your child.

Just like every great captain relies on a crew, moms don’t have to face food allergies alone. I hope that this podcast helps be that compass and map for you.

And, if you need deeper support, I’ve created workshops and templates that will help you get through many of the storms of food allergy life so that you can use the safe pathways and avoid the danger zones.

Here is a list of the food allergy support I offer, so you can feel confident without learning the hard way all the time. You don’t have to do this alone!

Social Event Survival Pack - RSVP Templates that get hosts to understand how serious food allergies are, without feeling awkward.

90-Minute Variety Booster - Your Quick & Easy Way To Get More Allergy-Friendly Variety You & Your Kids Love

Get Over The Fear of Trying New Foods - Feel calm instead of nauseous so you can give your child the new foods your doctor recommended.

School Allergy Plan Template - Your detailed guide to keeping your child safe and included at school.

Food Allergy Travel Workshop - Our family has traveled worldwide with multiple severe food allergies. Learn my BEST tips and get all the planning checklists and planning templates you need for a trip with food allergies.

Dining Out With Food Allergies - Make dining out as safe as possible and feel confident knowing when it’s safe and when to leave.

Just go to the “GET HELP” page to learn more about all of these workshops!

Why We Don’t Have To Worry About Cross Contact and May Contain Allergen Labeling Anymore

Ever since my daughters were diagnosed with food allergies, 17 years ago we would strictly avoid anything with may contain traces of their allergens. We lived this way for many years, and this is what I base all of the strategies I teach in all of my workshops and templates on.

BUT, as I mentioned, about a year and a half ago, we got to the point in our OIT journey where my daughter can now eat foods that say “may contain traces of allergen”

OIT, is a long treatment process with many ups and downs. If you want to know more about our journey with OIT food allergy treatment, listen to episode 22 where I talk about that specifically

Right now, there are some exciting treatments out there like Xolair or OIT or TIP, and these treatments don’t necessarily come easy. What I mean by that is with Xolair, you need to give your child an injection every 2-4 weeks, and that can be difficult. And the level of protection is basically that you can hopefully ingest traces of allergen, but you can’t actually eat the allergen.

But since these treatments come with their downfalls, you may be wondering what it’s like to get to the point where you don’t have to worry about cross-contact…

So I’m going to go through 5 different life experiences where food allergies majorly impact each one of our lives, and I’ll tell you how being able to eat foods that have “may contain allergen statements” or may have come into contact with allergens has changed the experience! I hope that this gives you the information you need to see if these treatments are right for your family!

Let's start with Grocery Shopping

As a food allergy mama, grocery shopping takes a long time! And it can feel super overwhelming in the beginning because of all the label reading, and how many products don’t work for your allergies. Let’s be honest, it can feel really demoralizing to shop with food allergies.

So now that we can have foods with may contain allergen labeling, it feels like a whole new world! Yes, it’s like starting over again, BUT in a good way!

So yes, you still have to read EVERY SINGLE LABEL, but this time, if it says “may contain traces of”, you can still buy it! It feels really good, and so free.

Here’s the thing. It takes time to let go of the fear though. Even though we CAN buy those new products, it took us a long time to do it. For awhile, we stuck to the safe foods we always had. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to try the new food, we just weren’t sure we were ready to trust that it really was ok for my girl. And this was the same feeling my daughter had too.

But after a few months, we started to venture out, and it does open up quite a few new food products.

So as I mentioned, we still have to read and re-read every label to make sure the allergens aren’t in the food, and we still have to stop at more than one store to get other safe items too.

That said, we now have our new safe products, and there’s just more of them, and so it feels like there’s so many more options than we used to have!

School

Keep in mind that my allergy girl is in grade 11 of high school. And allergies in high school are so different because there’s just way less hand-holding and kids are required to advocate for themselves.

So, if my daughter was still in elementary or middle school, honestly, we would still do the same things, as we always did, which was meet with the teachers and school every year, and educate them about food allergies, the epinephrine, and all the required accommodations.

But I don’t think that we would have to worry about the lunch room as much, because traces of allergen would be ok. That said, there could still be no sharing of food, and we would still have to figure out what to do with classroom celebrations like birthday parties and treats.

We have never let our daughter eat birthday treats made in other people homes while at school, and that wouldn’t change. You might ask, well, why wouldn’t you let your child eat birthday treats at school,when you don’t have to worry about whether there is cross contact, as long as you know there isn’t any nuts or peanuts in the cupcake?

and I would say it’s because there’s so many people who don’t realize what they put in the treat. For example, they may not put peanut butter in the treat, BUT they might put Nutella in there, not realizing that Nutella is made with Hazelnuts, which is a tree nut and is one of my daughter’s biggest allergies.

Consider the same for dairy allergies. People sometimes forget themselves. For example, they may not put MILK in a cake, but they may use butter, forgetting that butter is made from milk. There’s just too many mistakes that can and do get made. So many reactions I’ve heard of are people eating food that they THOUGHT was safe. Meaning the person who made it told them it didn’t have any of their allergens in it, while in reality, the person who made it didn’t realize that an ingredient they used WAS an allergen.

An example of this was Oakley Debb, who’s parents are founders of the Red Sneakers For Oakley organization. The Debb’s family tragically lost their son to anaphylaxis, and have now created an amazing organization to help spread food allergy awareness.

Anyway, Oakley ate a piece of cake that unknowingly had walnut extract in it which he was allergic to. Yes, there were other factors involved here, but I think that knowing the ingredients of every item your child eats is really important.

So I feel like being able to eat food that says may contain allergen labeling doesn’t change the food allergy situation at school very much.

Moving on, let’s talk about…

Dining Out

This is a big one. I have to say that dining out with food allergies is much easier now because we don’t have to ask about cross-contact measures. We just have to worry about what is actually IN the food. So we still have to talk to the staff, but we have fewer questions to ask, and we feel more confident. That said, it’s still important that the restaurant takes food allergies seriously, and that they are fully aware of what is in each menu item so we have to do our due diligence there.

That said, my daughter still has multiple allergies, so there are some places that just don’t have food options that don’t contain her allergens. For example, even though gluten isn’t a strict allergy for my daughter, there are still some restaurants that don’t have ANY gluten-free AND nut and peanut-free options. So this will rule out a lot of restaurants.

So there’s freedom because we don’t have to worry so much about cross-contact, BUT there’s still the issue of whether the restaurant actually has food options that don’t contain her allergens. So I think that this benefit isn’t as huge if you have multiple allergies, vs. just one.

Travel

The biggest change that comes to travel is being able to dine out more easily. As mentioned earlier, we still need to do a lot of research and cook a lot of our own food because some places simply don’t have food that is gluten and nut and peanut free.

So we still do our research, and we still bring a lot of our own food because it’s still easier in some cases, and it also saves a lot of money! That’s another point that I want to make. We can save a lot of money by cooking ourselves on vacation, we will still cook our food in some situations.

When it comes to flying, we still ask to board early and wipe down plane seats. Technically, we may be able to skip this because she can handle traces of allergens, BUT we feel like its still important because

1. We want to be extra careful on flights since we’re far away from medical help AND 2. I feel like it helps to wipe away not only the allergen, but viruses and germs too so we stay healthy on our trip.

Other than that, we do a lot of the same things that we used to do while we’re traveling, and restaurant research is still important to make sure that a restaurant has options that cater to all of her allergies, just like I mentioned when i was talking about dining out..

Social Events:

I have to say that social events are the least impacted by the ability to have may contains. Yes, now my daughter could technically eat food cooked in other people’s homes, and we wouldn’t have to worry about cross-contact, and she does, BUT even so, we still have to verify the ingredients in everything, so potlucks and BBQs are still a challenge. Even if we tell people about her allergies and they are good about accommodating, it’s still easy to miss allergens on labels! So I still get them to send me ingredient lists and pictures of the labels if they’re cooking for my girl.

AND because we have multiple food restrictions, it can also be hard for the host to know WHAT to make that will fit into her requirements. So that means we still bring food that’s safe, OR we give ideas to help the host as much as possible.

Conclusion

I hope this has given you an idea of what it’s like to live in that “in-between” place where we don’t have to worry about “may contain allergen labeling”, but still worry about the main ingredients in every single food item.

What do you think? Was this helpful? If so, please comment below, so other food allergy families can find this post. You can also send me a DM over on Instagram. I love hearing from you!

Did you know I have a low-cost series of workshops designed to help you with the biggest food allergy struggles?