Not Just a FOOD Allergy

Corn. We've call it a "food" allergy. That seems a bit shy of reality. While David would never eat glue or adhesive tape, contact with those items makes him ill. Same with deodorants, soaps, shampoos and so on. Soy is prevalent as well in products such as lip balm and lotion but thankfully, soy seems to truly be just a food allergy. We haven't had any problems with contact reactions that don't involve the actual consumption of soy (products). (We still however, attempt to a avoid products with soy that will come in contact with David.)

David's been having "issues" again at work. Last night as we were drifting to sleep I did my typical 100 questions - or however many he stays awake for.

I've decided that perhaps the problem is his use of paper towels to prevent splatter when using the microwave at work. (I'm hoping *fingers crossed* hoping that he can use the microwave at work because if eliminating the use of paper towels doesn't work he'll have to avoid the microwave completely.) We typically don't use the microwave at home. I prefer to "re-invent" left overs on the stove top or in the oven. At work David doesn't have that option. And it's tough to come up with enough food for him if we don't include left overs from dinner in his lunch kit. Raw fruit and veggies don't cut it out for him. Raw nuts and seeds help but still - not enough. Sandwiches are ok but again, he can eat 4 in a day with out something more filling.

Last night I asked him to take a dish towel to work with him. Specifically a thin 100% cotton towel I like to use for covering dough while it rises. It's light weight, easy to clean and perfect for bread rising, storing, serving as well as laying flat on the counter for air drying hand washed dishes (I detest hand washing but I do still occasionally).

My theory is that microwaving the paper towel some how transfers allergens in a way that simply using it does not. It was the same with plastic food storage containers. While we now avoid use of plastic in the kitchen in any form, he can drink cold beverages from plastic and not have a reaction. When hot beverages, however, go into a plastic thermos, he gets a reaction. When I stored veggies in a plastic container he was fine, but if he reheated in a plastic container he had a reaction....

We shall see. I think I only had 3 of these towels to begin with so it looks as though he didn't take one with him this morning. Hopefully he grabbed another dish towel because I'm pretty sure I was unable to convince him that his pasta tossed with olive oil, Parmesan and cracked black pepper could be eaten cold.

(DAVID JUST TOLD ME I HAD FOUR OF THOSE TOWELS AND HE TOOK THE RED ONE....)