Why a Reality Show made me cry

For the 1st time this season I watched Celebrity Apprentice. I only did so because Trace Adkins was doing his charity for Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). As you all know, Britney has multiple food allergies that are life threatening.

At one point in the show, they followed Trace's family including their 6 year old daughter with a peanut and dairy allergy. Wow!! Watching another family having to do what I do everyday was so comforting to know that we aren't the only family dealing with this and I hope it helps more of the general public to understand a glimmer of what it's like to live with a life threatening food allergy.

Britney is allergic to the Legume family which includes Soy and peanuts. She is also allergic to several fruits and to mixed nuts. Most of the food we eat as Americans includes Soy. Soy is cheap and works great as fillers in just about everything. She is also allergic to grass, tree, pollens, weeds, dust, animals. Basically everything outside. When one allergy flares up it makes all her other allergies worse. She also has asthma that complicates the matter. She takes one medication in the morning, a nasal spray throughout the day and another medication at night. That's just to keep her feeling ok. Then we have medications she takes if she has a reaction to something.

It took me about a year for Primary teachers in our ward to understand that Britney was to NEVER get treats. Yet almost every Sunday she was handed treats. It's hard to make someone understand the life threatening situation.

Eating out spontaneous as a family won't happen very often. Before we want to eat out, I try to look up the restaurant's website and see if they have listed allergy warning's on their food.

I cannot let Britney eat at anyone's house for fear of cross contamination of allergy food. This includes birthday parties and family gatherings.

Watching Britney have a reaction to a food that was previously safe is so frighting because I know I can't be around her 24/7 with Benadryl and an epi pen in hand to keep her from possibly dying.

Just one small bite of an allergic food could kill my daughter within 7 minutes.

Watching Trace promote FAAN hits home for me. I actually cried seeing another family go through what we go through because it's an everyday struggle. FAAN is an organization that needs money to help research why more and more children are developing life threatening allergies at an alarming rate.

Britney is one very special girl who has seen more visits and stays to a hospital than most people have in their entire life. I feel so blessed to be her mom and I want to make sure I help her have a wonderful childhood.