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Teignmouth tops for allergies

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If you have allergies or are coeliac and you’re planning a visit to Teignmouth in Devon you’ll be very satisfied with what you find. This visit involved some of the usual military plannng but also some unplanned spontaneous eating out and some lovely home cooked safe food. All totally freefrom dairy, wheat, soya, nuts, tomato, celery, broad beans and kidney beans.

    Delicious home-cooked #freefrom roast lamb dinner with all the trimmings

    Delicious home-cooked #freefrom roast lamb dinner with all the trimmings

  1. My Dad’s house…

    2. Firstly and most importantly I never go anywhere without the bag of supplies.

    I treated myself to a loaf of NewBurn Bakehouse’s Artisan Sourdough bread, Vitalite dairy free spread, KoKo yogurts, Oatly vanilla custard, wheat free Nutribrex and some of the new freefrom cakes from Morrisons; Coffee cake, flapjacks and ginger cake are all amazing. It was stepmum’s birthday so we had cake. I had rather a lot of cake 🙂

    We enjoyed some healthy grilled chicken with veggies and on Sunday the most amazing roast lamb dinner, all safe for me and we made some Ruth friendly gravy which was quite a success actually. And not an Oxo cube in sight hey Day 😉

    Gluten and dairy free brunch at The Lemon Tree, Teignmouth

    Gluten and dairy free brunch at The Lemon Tree, Teignmouth

  2. The Lemon Tree

    3. After the long drive down we needed some lunch and this little cafe was amazing.

    We just turned up with no pre booking, always a bit worrying as I hate to be a pain or put any establishment off us freefromers.

    We really aren’t that fussy. Well not all of us.

    I was able to order the Gluten Free breakfast straight from the menu which included sausage, bacon, hashbrown, mushrooms, poached egg and toast. The coffee was delicious too. Yum! Look carefully and you can see father caught in the act of stealing a mushroom!

    Paprika cauliflower florettes at The Coffee Rush tapas restaurant, Teignmouth

    Paprika cauliflower florettes at The Coffee Rush, Teignmouth

  3. Coffee Rush, Shaldon

    4. This lovely little tapas restaurant will be getting its own blog shortly. We phoned ahead and explained my allergies and they prepared me the most amazing special freefrom tapas.

    I was completely blown away but the tastes and variety. Not just the usual tortilla (I was a bit dissappointed not to get tortilla LOL) but wheat free flat bread with olive tapenade, crab cakes, courgette wraps, chilli cauliflower florettes and the MOST amazing expresso martini. I really cannot recomment The Coffee Rush highly enough but please do phone early. They have a tiny kitchen and do most of their prep before opening so they may not have anything suitable if you just turn up.

    Step-sis and I went back for more of the expresso martini the following afternoon but had to console ourselves with a few cheeky proseccos. It’s a hard life 🙂

    Wheat free and dairy free mushroom ommelette at The Ship Inn, Teignmouth

    Wheat free and dairy free mushroom ommelette at The Ship Inn, Teignmouth

  4. The Ship Inn, Teignmouth back beach

    5. This is a proper old English pub with real ale on tap and delicious home cooked meal. I could have stayed in here for hours, but we had to get the ferry to Shaldon for another Coffee Rush fix 🙂

    If we had phoned ahead the chef would have made sure the oil was fresh and done me gluten free chips but since there was no planning involved in this trip I had lovely sweet new potatoes and loads of peas with a dairy free mushroom omelette. Delicious, perfectly cooked and seasoned and accompanied with a lovely fresh salad. Do phone and speak to them and book in. If you can do this and be flexible and book early you can enjoy proper chips! Will definitely be doing this next time I visit. Lovely pub and delicious pint or two of Tribute ale!

    If you are planning a visit to Teignmouth you may also enjoy reading “Teignmouth with allergies”.

    Go to Devon! It’s beautiful by the seaside and they appear to be very aware and friendly to allergy people. Big up Teignmouth.

    talkhealth Blog

When your friends invite you to dinner and cater for your allergies

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I would like thank ALL my friends. Not only are you my eyes and ears when we go out and my little saviours when I’m getting a bit blase, some of you really go the extra mile.

Some of you are total keepers. So this blog is for Fran who has fed me so many times and not just a quick meal. Fran gives me a proper meal to rival many restaurants. She is a very good cook. There area many of you who also do this, including my family on every family get together (but they have to be nice, they’re my family right?)

This week she cooked me seared seabass and poached pears 🙂

The main: Seared sea bass

This wasn’t just any old seared sea bass, this was outstanding. Such a delicate flavour and cooked to perfection. Our fish was accompanied with rocket salad and a balsamic dressing, chilli prawns, crisped aubergine and new potatoes. I love fish so this was such a treat for me.

Totally freefrom Seared seabass, cooked by my lovely friend

Totally freefrom Seared seabass, cooked by my lovely friend

The pudding: Poached pear

She also cooked me the most amazing poached pears. The juice these were poached in was just so tasty. There was all sorts in there and I am ashamed to say I can’t remember all the ingredients for this one but there was star anise and some kind of alcohol. It was sweet and intriguing and really indulgent. The pears were poached to perfection with some dark chocolate drizzled on top. Yum! Yum! Yum!

poached pears for the allergic diner

Delicous poached pears with dairy and nut free chocolate

If you would like the recipe for either of these let me know. I plan to request them for myself anyway because I am definitely trying this myself at home, though it won’t be half as good as Fran’s creation.

So I guess what I’m saying in this blog post is thank you. Thank you to Fran and to all those friends who look after me. Please don’t feel you always need to go to such lengths. I would be happy with a jacket potato and some tuna (although I o love seabass and poached pears) and equally happy to bring my own food. It’s you guys that are imporant and your friendship. I understand how hard I am to cater for because I struggle to feed myself sometimes. Many a meal ends up being crisps and humous – that’s healthy though right?

It’s your support and friendship that I value most, so don’t panic about inviting me over. And also, don’t worry if you’d rather not. I can totally understand. We can just go out for a walk or a cuppa instead 🙂 Love you all and love you Fran #BFFE

talkhealth Blog

Financial Stresses on families with eczema and allergies

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There are financial stresses on us all, and right now is probably the worst time to think about them; while we’re all planning Christmas – presents and celebrations, pantomimes, and open houses. It all adds up and can become excruciatingly expensive.

But for families with any sort of condition or illness to cope with, the normal, day-to-day expenses can be significantly greater than for the rest of us.

I thank my stars that our experience of both eczema and allergies are relatively minor compared to what some families suffer and yet the costs associated with the girls’ conditions do pile up. We can’t scrimp on treatments or choose not to do them until the next month, because it puts their health at risk.

There have been times when we have had to decide to focus on getting well and healing at the cost of something we would really love to have or do.  We are very lucky that for us, it has never meant resorting to borrowing or food banks, but I know that for many that is the case.

Before I had my children, it just wasn’t something I considered or factored in. I guess few people ‘expect’ to have a child with a condition like eczema.

I would estimate that we spend at least £500 a year on treatments, clothes, creams, and therapies.  It would be more if we tried everything that we thought might help, such as salt therapy, allergy testing and trips to Avene.

And of course, I own an eczema shop, so have access to some testers and lots of good information.

I know many families that simply don’t have the money for extras and are completely reliant on GP’s to prescribe all treatments.

Here are just a few of the extras that we budget for:

  • Creams – the ones that work for us are not available on prescription
  • Bamboo and Pure cotton clothing, and bedding
  • Allergy-free mattresses and pillows or dust mite covers
  • Specialist vacuum cleaners, that get the dust mites
  • Natural detergents for washing clothes
  • Extra electricity – air drying clothes in summer is no good if suffer from airborne allergies
  • Having a water softener installed
  • Chemical and allergen-free shampoos, conditioners, soaps, cleaning products,
  • Work days lost from nursery/school ringing you because child is unwell/itchy

What have we missed?  How do you do it?  Do you put aside something each month or just deal with it as it comes up?

I would love to hear how other families manage it.

Everything For Eczema

Managing Eczema and Allergies at Christmas.

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Most of us are absolutely used to the everyday differences that eczema or allergies can bring to family life.  But it’s very tricky at Christmas time to manage it all, for lots of reasons.  We might be away from our own home, and creature comforts.  There may be new environmental hazards that we can’t control.  We don’t have every treatment or potion right at hand.

We have also had to manage parties and events where children (and adults) are affected by other allergies than those that we are familiar with.  So, I thought it would be useful to put together a Christmas checklist of all the things we should check before hosting a family Christmas.  Useful for visitors and hosts alike I hope.

Get Togethers

  • If there are severe food allergies, it’s worth warning everyone in advance – for instance a short note to everyone explaining the allergy and its severity along with any absolute MUSTS, such as please don’t eat peanuts before our event
  • If you are hosting someone with food allergies, find out what is and what’s not okay – people are usually very happy to bring their own food if there’s something that wont suit them, but hang back from doing so as it can be embarrassing.
  • It may be that although someone can’t eat something, it’s okay for them to be in a room with it.  But this needs checking as it will depend on the severity of the allergy.
  • Is there a pet allergy?  Will family/friends mind shutting the pet in a separate part of the house for the duration of the visit?

Gifts

I appreciate that this is a hard one, as no-one wants to appear grabby, but I know that our family not only want to give gifts to the girls, they want them to be good ones that they will enjoy, so they do appreciate a little guidance.

  • Avoid anything but natural fibres if you are buying clothes or textiles for people affected by eczema or skin allergies.
  • Don’t buy perfumes, soaps, cosmetics, bubble baths, face paints or lip-balms for people with eczema.
  • Clays and crafts can also be allergens – these are probably worth just checking with the parent.
  • Foods, especially high sugar or very processed food are often not good for children with eczema and very difficult for a parent to take away.
  • Avoid selection boxes, chocolate boxes or chocolate ornaments for people with food allergies – any sniff of a nut in there for someone with a nut allergy, and their Christmas is all over.

Decorations

We all love to make our house ‘Christmassy’ but this can be a minefield for someone with severe allergies.  Be careful with:

  • Natural table decorations which may include nuts seeds and other allergens.  I know some us are even allergic to pine…
  • Check before using plug in perfumes or diffusers
  • Check before using any sprayable decoration, such as window ‘snow’.

Just in case

  • Make sure your medical kit is well stocked and includes an antihistamine
  • Double check that you’ve packed 2 epipens.

Image detailing the things you might want to consider if hosting or attending a party where there's an eczema or allergy sufferer

 

Everything For Eczema

Jun 2, Sublingual Drops Being Used To Help Reduce Allergies

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A network of allergy clinics, known as AllergyEasy, are using sublingual drops to help reduce food allergies. Sublingual drops are put under the tongue. Here they are absorbed into the bloodstream through certain cells in the mouth. Food allergies can trigger the symptoms of eczema. These drops maybe the only other way of helping to reduce food allergies, apart from simply avoiding the offending food. It will be very interesting to see how effective these drops are
Eczema Blog

Jun 29, Milk and Egg Allergies. A Parent’s Concern

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A study in the US has found that parents of children with allergies, are more concerned about milk and egg allergies, than peanut allergies. Peanut allergies can have severe complications to a sufferer. But parents say that as milk and eggs are contained in so many food products, they are much harder to avoid. Milk and egg allergies and intolerances can be a real issue for eczema sufferers. Dairy products contain sugar and proteins that can irritate your skin, and make your eczema symptoms worse You can read more about this, in TIME magazine
Eczema Blog

Oct 3, New Fabric That May Help Dust Related Allergies

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Polish scientists say that they have been testing a fabric that helps with controlling dust mites. When you have a dust allergy that makes the symptoms of your eczema or asthma worse it can make for sleepless nights. Dust mites pass through the pores in normal fabrics used on your bed. The new fabric stops them getting through, but does allow air to pass through. When you have eczema this can help to stop your skin from getting too hot. Tests have shown that the fabric improves the symptoms of a dust allergy by up to 70%. After additional testing has been done the scientists think that the product will be available to buy. You can watch a short video about the fabric by clicking on the link below
Eczema Blog

How Home Renovation Affects Allergies and Eczema

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By Bryn Huntpalmer (bio below) Those two words you’ve been dreaming of may also come with a sense of dread: home renovation. Can you really update your home if you have allergies and eczema? The good news is you can, and it may actually improve your allergies in the long run to update your home now. […]
It’s an Itchy Little World

Jan 14, Link Between Immune System and Food Allergies

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A research team in Australia have discovered that there is a link between children who have an over-active immune system, and the development of certain food allergies. They found that children who have an over-active immune system are more likely to develop food allergies in the first few years of life. They aren’t sure why certain children have hyperactive immune cells, though they have found that certain cells are activated before or during birth. Why it happens is unknown. They are going to carry on the research to look for answers that may help to lower the risk of children developing these food allergies.
Eczema Blog