Living With Food Allergies Blog Carnival #20

Welcome to the 20th Edition of the Living With Food Allergies Blog Carnival! We've got a lot of great writing to get to this week, so let's just get right to it, shall we?

Your First Steps

Check out the great ongoing discussion at Gabrielle's Peanut Free Mama blog in How Did You Get Here and Our Thai Birthday. People with allergies and allergic children have been sharing all sorts of diagnosis stories. Feel free to add your own!

Could you have a wheat allergy without knowing it? Healthy Tips for a Healthy Lifestyle shares a video clip and suggests Your Undiagnosable Condition Could Be A Wheat Allergy.

Fruit, vegetable, and spice allergens can be tough to avoid because they're not required to be labeled as clearly as "big eight" allergens. Maya of Allergized shares Allergy to Fruit, Vegetables, and Spices: What Should You Avoid?, with handy tips for anyone dealing with one of these allergies.

Recipes and Eating

Ria of Check My Tag Community shares a Homemade Peanut Butter Alternative that's both frugal and free from cross-contamination -- I'm sure this will be very popular!

Amy from Settings of Silver has created a delicious looking Allergy-Free Lasagna. It's both gluten-free and casein-free! Hers uses spinach but should be adaptable for any number of fillings.

Both a peanut butter alternative and an option for raw foodists, hummus is a versatile summertime favorite. James Brausch of Weight Loss Dude shares his recipe for Raw Hummus, which unlike most hummus recipes is sesame-free as an added allergy bonus.

Coping with Allergies

Jennifer B. of Food Allergy Buzz presents Food Allergic Buyers Beware: how labels on baked goods at your supermarket might not mean what they seem to mean, and what to do if you find something ambiguous or misleading on a food label.

Christine of Corn Allergic: What I Reacted To Today shares Who Puts Corn in Everything? Honestly!: how corn is treated differently from other allergens at work functions.

Did you know that cleaning products can contain peanuts or other allergens? Gabrielle of Peanut Free Mama has the scoop on one manufacturer with a blessedly complete allergen statement in Is There Peanut In That Polish?

Cleaning products aren't the only source of hidden allergens. You can find them in toothpaste too. Karen Blue of Avoiding Milk Protein shares Allergens in Your Toothpaste to help you find safe alternatives.

I love this next story! Much like drug- or bomb-sniffing dogs, Peanut Detector Dogs can sniff out traces of peanuts. Ruth from Allergizer has the whole scoop.

Are men and women really that different? Yes, when it comes to how often they develop food allergies. I've got the skinny on Gender Differences and Food Allergies here.

And a scary story with a (luckily) happy ending to close out. Ewa from Casein Point presents First Time Wheezer on 15, the story of her allergic daughter's first trip to the emergency room.

That's it for this week! Alisa of Go Dairy Free will be hosting the next edition on July 10. You can submit your articles for the next edition here. Thanks to everyone who submitted their food allergy stories, recipes, and writing!