Update

Update:
It's been over a week since the peanut butter at school incident occurred.  The principal has still not spoken with me directly and Molly has encountered this substitute twice with no apology from her.  I feel like the issue is being avoided- which is so irritating.  When my child breaks a rule or does something wrong I make her apologize.  I think that adults should do the same.  By not apologizing you are giving kids mixed messages and they are less likely to do the right thing next time.  I also feel by not apologizing the school and the substitute teacher are showing total disregard for my child and her peanut allergy (and did I mention her 504 plan failed her in this instance?!).  The regular classroom teacher told me that the kids do not like this substitute pretty much based on this incident and her attitude towards them.  Maybe if she APOLOGIZED, the kids would see she actually does care about them, that she can show humility and empathy, she can admit adults can make mistakes too, and they would actually like her...just a thought.

SIDE NOTE:  I have told Molly that under no circumstance is she to be rude or unkind. I don't expect her to be overly friendly, because she seems to intimidated by this woman, but I will not tolerate her being rude.  If their is a problem from here on out she is to go to the office or go to the bathroom and call me on her cell phone.  I am also considering having these instructions put into a 504 plan, just so she feels more comfortable because this is causing her anxiety.

Barney Butter?! Who knew!?

In the last 10 years, our family stayed away from nuts and peanuts.  We kept a tree nut and peanut free home.  Matt and I did not eat nuts or peanuts away from home unless we knew for sure that we would not be seeing Molly.  It was fine- no problem for us to not eat them, no big deal. 

A week ago Molly had an almond oral food challenge and passed... HOORAY!!!  Not only can Molly eat almonds without having a reaction- Dr. Sugerman is encouraging her to eat almonds on a regular basis to avoid future reactions!  Life changing stuff here!  Honestly, it was nerve wracking for her, for me, for her dad, well really the whole family.  Most of her life (her first reaction to peanut butter was at 6 months old) we have been told to STRICTLY avoid ALL NUTS.  PERIOD.  Even if she had not had positive skin and  RAST testing to tree nuts, we would still have been told to avoid them as many nuts and peanuts are manufactured together.

Fast forward 9 years and we have seen many changes in the allergy world.  The availability of peanut and tree nut foods has grown as the presence of food allergies in the community has increased.  We were able to find almonds that were not processed around other nuts or peanuts.  Molly isn't crazy about them but will eat them.  We tried almond milk, but unfortunately she isn't a fan of that either.  So I started looking at nut butters.  I could not find any safe almond butter at our grocery store, all had peanut and cashew warnings.  I started looking on the internet and found other moms in similar situations talking about Barney Butter, an almond butter that is safe for those who have other tree nut or peanut allergies.  I ordered from Amazon, and thanks to Amazon Prime, it was here in two days! 

After scrutinizing and double checking the label, I tried it.... OMG.... my mouth was in heaven.  I had forgotten how great the creaminess of a nut butter could be (I don't care for sunbutter or soy butter to eat, just for baking).  Molly tried it.  It was okay with her although she wasn't nuts about it (no pun intended!). She decided it was better than almond milk or eating almonds.  Every couple days or so, she eats a BB&J sandwich or a spoonful.  And that was the goal, to find something she could tolerate eating regularly, but for me, it's hard to keep my spoon out of that jar... who knew it would be so good!!??