FOOD ALLEGIES!! PLEASE READ!! - Page 2

I mentioned the scrubbing everything and then washing in the dishwasher in an earlier post because I've had this argument with my mother-in-law numerous times. She is one of the people who doesn't scrub things before she puts them in the dishwasher and will dump a whole cup of coffee, once even a bowl of salsa, in the dishwasher. I thought that was disgusting even before my daughter's allergy. So she thinks I'm using this as an excuse to get her to stop putting things in my dishwasher like that. You'd think she would just be considerate of my house and my things and do what I ask her to do in my home. I've even said, I'll do the dishes, just put everything in the sink but she sneaks around and tries to get it past me be by running the dishwasher before I can check. I've found casserole dishes in my cabinet with baked-on cheese still stuck to it that she washed and put away while she was babysitting for us. Last time we were at her house, I told her Caitlin could not have bread she bought because it was made in a bakery and then I found her cutting Caitlin an apple on the same cutting board and with the same knife she used for the bread. The next morning, my husband got a knife out of the drawer and told her there was food on it and she waved him off and said it was probably just peanut butter. I had already told her about at least scrubbing her peanut butter knife before putting it in the dishwasher or Caitlin would not be able to eat at her house. Anyway, after the apple incident, Caitlin had a SEVERE asthma attack that I think was really a peanut reaction. We had to give her 3 breathing treatments before she stopped wheezing. And she wonders why we won't let her keep our kids for a week in the summer. We're afraid we'll never see Caitlin alive again! Needless to say, when we all go to visit we don't let Caitlin eat anything at her house or use her dishes anymore. I bring her food and make her eat on a paper towel with her fingers. Luckily they live far away so we don't visit that often.

I just felt that I needed to say something because a lot of people are under the impression that if it doesn't list milk in the ingredients, it's OK. But the list of ingredients for milk is really long and I've had to memorize it. I also know from personal experience that most people don't understand that you have to read the labels to make sure things weren't processed near peanuts. It wasn't only your post, MrsFish, that was just the 4th or 5th one I had seen that might be misleading to someone searching for info about a milk allergy. I know it's not common knowledge that butter flavor has to be watched for with a milk allergy. I just wanted to give everyone the information and my feeling that if you have a question about an ingredient for a special-order cake for someone with a food allergy, illness or disease the best person to be asking is the person who has the allergy, illness or disease. That's really the only way to be safe. Because while several people may have the same problem, the severity of it may not be the same. For instance, my daughter is slowly outgrowing her milk allergy and can now have butter flavoring but if she hadn't had such a severe allergy to it in the beginning, I might not have known about butter flavoring being a risk and could have harmed someone by giving information according to my child's allergies when their allergy might be more severe. You just never know. That's why I think if you do want to be helpful and make these types of cakes, you should always put all of your questions to the person that it most concerns. I know everyone on this website is helpful and friendly and you have all helped me a few times but I also am sure that you wouldn't want to give information that could harm someone. That kind of information needs to come directly from the person who will be affected if something goes wrong.