About Me Contact

Hi, my name is Laura and thanks for stopping by… I hope our journey with multiple food allergies will help you or someone you know and love.  I’ve always wondered what families of young children eat, let alone families with food allergies.  The goal of this blog is to help families with dietary restrictions find meals and snacks they can eat AND actually enjoy.

About Me

I am a self taught cook and baker. My family never cooked. I’m a product of awful TV dinners and fast food.  I discovered a whole new world in the kitchen after leaving home for college. I found there were much healthier options than processed fast food (that tasted good too).  Ironically, college was my beginning to eating better.  My major had a mandatory basic nutrition class.  It started a spark. This spark has grown into a fire for consuming information about nutrient rich foods for my family.  If I had it my way, (and the kids would eat anything) you’d definitely see more leafy greens and vegetables… but since they won’t eat everything, I sneak vegetables whenever I can and it works… sometimes.

I also believe less is more with over processed foods that and lack real nutrition. If possible, I use organic and natural products. I’m not an expert by far in nutrition, but I do like to think of myself as somewhat educated 🙂 I am not a physician or dietician, so please don’t take anything mentioned here as fact. (See disclaimer)

Our Story

My boys are 7 (Sir) and 4 (Mr. Naughty). Sir is severely allergic to peanuts. We have been in the emergency room at just 4 years of age. Mr. Naughty has multiple severe food allergies. Mr. N’s allergies include: wheat, eggs, peanuts, all tree nuts, soy, fish, shellfish, sunflower, sesame, poppy seed, beans, peas and honey. Both have multiple epi-pens and we are well stocked in Benadryl.

In the beginning, it was difficult adjusting to Mr. Naughty’s diet. Depressing actually.  I was forced to cook for every meal, from scratch no less. Eating out became forbidden. While I loved to cook and bake, the pressure to invent foods and be allergy compliant was beyond frustrating annnd depressing. Our whole world was turned upside down from the moment we received the call from his doctor. He was diagnosed at 1 year of age but I suspected food allergies since he was 2 weeks old. I was nursing at the time of his diagnosis, so I needed to avoid all the same foods. And I was starving at the beginning…losing 6 pounds the first month. I threw out over half of our pantry staples and took a crash course on gluten free baking and cooking. I had some major “epic fails” at the start. You probably will too. It’s OK. It happens. There’s a huge learning curve when baking without gluten or eggs.

But things do get easier with time.

Once you’ve adjusted your diet, it’s not difficult to eat gluten free or without the other allergies listed…But it does take planning and time to cook. Annd of course, getting the kids to eat it. 😀 Toddlers aren’t going to go crazy for gluten free salads. Kids need nutritious food they like and be allergy safe at the same time. Many of the recipes will be quick and easy.

I do try to make recipes healthier by reducing the amount of sugar, sodium, utilizing whole grain flours and unsaturated fats. I also cheat whenever I can to save time in the kitchen. Most recipe sites advocate using a hand mixer or letting allowing resting time, not me. I try and avoid making more mess and simplify steps in all my recipes. You’ll find a little more sweets than meals here… I found treats are one of the most important to have around- socially speaking, since your child will more than likely be the only one at school without treat while other kids are enjoying bakery bought cupcakes.
The process of baking has become therapy to me. Creating something can be empowering. I’m still learning a lot and thought I could share what I’ve learned so far. Adapting the family to food allergies can very difficult at the beginning but it gets better. I promise. Follow along with me. I keep learning new things each day. Maybe you could teach me a few things too. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments, I love receiving feedback.

If you are a brand and would like to work with me, please email me for a complete Media Kit.

petiteallergytreats@gmail.com

-Laura <3

All photos (unless otherwise stated) are my original work that is copyright protected. If you would like to use one of my photos please contact me before using them. I work very hard at producing high quality photos; it’s not nice when people take (steal) images without my knowledge or permission. If you happened to see them being used without proper credit, please email me. A thousand Thank Yous!