Sorry about that winter birthday!

Wow. Crazy. Kids with November or December birthdays (like A's) have higher rates of allergies. The scientists think that if a fetus is first developing during springtime, they are exposed to particularly high pollen counts. Totally, totally fascinating.

Your Birthday May Be To Blame For Your Food Allergies | NBC 4i

File This One Under: Ya Think?

I guess this TIME article is an example of the whole good news/bad news thing regarding food allergies. Bad news first: it sucks that more and more kids seem to have food allergies. The good news: because it's on the rise it's in the news and on people's minds. Sigh.

Kids Really Are More Allergic

Interesting information on food allergies and the fact that black males seem to have them at a higher rate than other groups. This is news to me -- I knew that food allergies are more common in children, but I was unaware of any gender or racial trends. Hopefully we'll continue to learn more.

Winter babies are more prone to food allergies

From BBC News comes a report that babies born in fall and winter are more prone to food allergies, possibly due to a Vitamin D deficit. Too late for our November baby (sigh) but maybe it will give future families with food allergies in their history a way to avoid FAs.

Nabisco's Reply (in short: not helpful)

As I mentioned a few weeks back, we bought a box of Nabisco graham crackers only to notice the fine print: kosher dairy symbol on the front (although no dairy listed in the ingredients). So I wrote to them, and here is the reply:

Hi Andrea,

Thank you for visiting http://www.nabiscoworld.com .

I appreciate your interest in HONEY MAID Grahams.

I'd be glad to provide you with information on our manufacturing processes pertaining to milk food allergens.

I understand that allergic consumers are concerned about the potential carryover of an allergen between products that are manufactured on shared equipment. Most of our production lines are designed to be convertible to other products. If a product is made on shared equipment, every reasonable precaution, including stringent cleaning and sanitation practices, is taken to prevent cross-contact with the eight major allergens (eggs, fish, shellfish, milk, peanuts, soy, tree nuts and wheat).

When contact with one of these allergens is unavoidable, then the product is labeled appropriately. Please be aware that formulas may change and the best source of information is the ingredient line. We ask that our consumers take the time to check the ingredient line prior to purchasing a product.

I hope this information will assist you with your food choices.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact me. For more information about food nutrition, visit www.kraftfoods.com and click on Healthy Living.

Kim McMiller
Associate Director, Consumer Relations

I realize they can't always answer every question, but all I wanted to know was why the dairy sign?

Cucumber!

For a kid who is having such a rough time lately (yes, having a baby brother is annoying, we got that), Amelia managed to eat a new food anyway today, and it was... drum roll... wait for it... A VEGETABLE! Yes, folks, our scurvy-bait four-year-old had not one, but two slices of cucumber tonight at dinner. I am not sure why -- something to do with the fact that the beef burned her tongue and "cucumbers are never hot." I don't quite get the logic but it was hella exciting, anyway.

Was this a one-time only event? Or could this crunchy green thing actually get added to her repertoire? No idea, but yay for now!

Kraft Foods-- this time you FAIL!

A while back, I sung the praises of Kraft Foods for their excellent labeling. Not so fast!

A few days ago, Amelia asked if we could buy her graham crackers (I think they served them at school but she couldn't have them at the time because of her soy allergy), so since she can have soy now, we said yes. I went online and checked out Honey Maid Graham Crackers -- which, as you can see, from the ingredient listing (ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, GRAHAM FLOUR (WHOLE GRAIN WHEAT FLOUR), SOYBEAN OIL, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL, HONEY, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), SALT, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SOY LECITHIN-AN EMULSIFIER, CORNSTARCH) contains wheat and soy but no other top-8 allergens. Since it's the top graham cracker brand (or it seems to be, from all their marketing and shelf-hogging at the supermarket) and part of Kraft, I felt pretty confident that if the label didn't list a food, it wasn't in there.

I did one last scan of the box before I gave it to her, and noticed the Kosher Dairy symbol on the front (meaning in some way, shape, or form, there is dairy in this box). Super annoying and frustrating! I sent them an e-mail and I'll update when I hear back from them, but with a major food company like this, if there's some trace amount of dairy in their food, they should tell people.

Can you see the D on the front of the box? Grrr. It should be an "F" because Kraft, YOU FAIL!