10 Powerful Tips To Simplify Food Allergy Management
Updated Oct. 2023
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As a food allergy mom, you have so many tasks that pull on your already crazy schedule.
From emails for birthday parties, and play date prep, to teaching about the EpiPen, to research for dining out, to finding a prepping safe food, the list is endless. Add the regular mom responsibilities, from new babies to caring for kids and the most loving mom into a stressed-out, impatient woman.
I strongly believe that lowering the mental load and saving as much time as possible are essential for protecting mental health as food allergy parents.
That’s why these strategies are so important.
If you’re the one responsible for food allergy management, then this post is for you.
If we haven’t met yet, my name is Corinna.
I help severe food allergy moms keep their kids safe while living their best life at home, school, social events, and traveling. I care and believe that food allergy families deserve safe, fulfilling life experiences & delicious meals!
If you believe this too, make sure to sign up for my free top allergy-friendly recipe ebook. You’ll get 5 days of recipes that kids love (including breakfast, snacks, and dinner) PLUS I’ll keep you in the loop about everything that’s going on in my community and ways to connect with hundreds of other food allergy mamas like you! Hope to see you there!
Now let’s get to those powerful (but EASY) ways to simplify food allergy management.
Simplifying Food Allergy Management For Parents
Use a planner.
I start with this because it’s one of the most powerful allergy management tips. If you don’t already use a planner, I want to encourage you to start right now! Have you ever heard the saying if it’s not in my schedule, it’s not real?
Well, there’s a reason.
Having one main place to organize and manage your life is essential to remember it all. The mental stress of trying to keep it all straight without somewhere to write it down or record it is way too high.
You can use your Google Calendar, or if you’re like me and you like to have a paper calendar, try these an Erin Condren-style calendars. Whatever you choose, start using one today. I promise you will notice a difference in your stress level!
Click here for some of the most beautiful planners that are well laid out and easy to use.
2. Create a schedule for meal planning.
Now that you have your planner figured out, the next tip is to schedule 20-30 minutes EVERY week to meal plan. Alternatively, you can schedule 2 hours at the beginning of every month to plan for the entire month. Both will work, and you may want to try both to see what you prefer.
The mental drain of constantly thinking about food is crazy. The mental load is real. I can’t tell you how much meal planning helps me to stop thinking about food ALL. THE. TIME. and instead keeps my thoughts about “what’s for dinner” to the specific time period I’ve scheduled. Overall, this takes a huge weight off my shoulders.
If you’re not sure if meal planning will help you,, and you need a bit of reassurance first, check out the 90-Minute Variety Booster. (Psst! It’s 44% off using this link)!
3. Schedule 2-3 days per year where you’ll bulk bake for special occasions (This is called BATCHING).
While you’ve got your planner out, take a look at your yearly schedule. Are there special occasions that you know you’ll need to bake a big batch of cupcakes or treats for? Maybe you’ll need safe treats at daycare or school. Or maybe you want to pre-make treats so your little one has safe cupcakes during birthday party season. Don’t forget the all-important Christmas or holiday times when you need lots of special baking at the ready.
PRO TIP - Don’t forget that many allergy-friendly cakes are actually easier to frost if you’ve frozen them which means you’re going to get a better result when you bulk bake too!
Schedule 2-3 days per year where you’ll bulk bake for these occasions so you don’t find yourself up all night trying to bake 24 mini cupcakes for school the next day. Need I say more?
Don’t forget, the freezer is our friend and it will go a long way to helping you feel prepared and ready for all those special occasions. Bulk baking is an essential way to simplify food allergy management.
4. Schedule 2-3 days per year where you’ll bulk cook food allergy meals (again, Batching at it’s best).
What better way to simplify food allergy management than pre-cooking meals? It’s along the same lines as bulk baking. Given the time savings, bulk cooking is another must-do.
By making BIG batches of meals like chili, soups, stews, and pasta sauce, you’ll have a store of meals that you can pull out on a whim when you need them most. I call them Freezer Frenzy meals, and they can be a huge lifesaver for food allergy moms.
The cool thing is that you can make meals you know your kids will like (so you know they’ll eat them), and you can make them healthy too. That’s a better option than the pre-made allergy meals that are expensive to boot!
I have some amazing Freezer Frenzy Recipes in the 90-Minute Variety Booster. I’ve organized them into a week where you cook once, and eat twice so you can take a break from cooking every once in a while.
5. Clean your fridge, freezer, and pantry at least once per year.
Have you ever gone into your fridge and even though it’s overflowing with food, you can’t actually find ANYTHING to make?
If so, you need to do a cleanout.
Once you get rid of the rotting orange at the back and get rid of the extras, you’ll be able to SEE what’s there without searching. Because who wants to waste precious time searching through rotting food? You’ll find SO MANY additional benefits to keeping your food storage areas clean and tidy. It will help you save money, feel inspired, and give you more variety too.
So much so that you should schedule an hour this at least 1-2 times per year.
6. Prioritize what matters.
There are so many things pulling at us for attention. As food allergy moms, we need to be STRICT with what we allow to grab our attention and what we let slip. You don’t have the luxury of taking on too many things at once or it could be a life-or-death situation.
I want you to know that it’s okay to protect your time and your focus.
You can feel confident focusing on your family and your food-allergy child and nothing else; if that’s what needs to happen. I’m giving you permission right now (not that you need it, but here it is).
7. Schedule time for food allergy empowerment.
Empowering your food allergy child is a surprising tip for simplifying food allergy management. But the time you put in now is worth the time saved later (not to mention the added safety)!
As your food allergy child grows there are important things that you need to teach them so that they can slowly start to become independent and keep themselves safe.
For example, teaching them to consistently wear their epinephrine injectors, and teaching them to read labels before eating anything.
These skills don’t happen by themselves.
By scheduling them into your year, and managing your time to include them, you’ll be able to prioritize and focus on specific goals one at a time instead of getting overwhelmed.
If your child is 2-7 years old, grab the FREE Food Allergy Kids Empowerment Guide so you have a specific checklist of food allergy skills and fun ways to teach them to your child!
8. Buy fresh, whole foods, and skip processed meals.
Stick with simple ingredients as much as possible, and you’ll find that grocery shopping takes less time and energy. The more you cook from scratch, the fewer ingredient labels you have to read, and the more time you save!
This means way less time shopping and searching for safe products.
Don’t worry, doing your bulk cook from #4 above, you’ll have some delicious convenience meals ready and waiting in the freezer for those days you need to take a break from cooking or you don’t have the time.
I give you some great tips to get started with cooking simple meals in the 90-Minute Variety Booster.
9. Delegate jobs to your spouse and kids.
Simplifying food allergy management means sharing the load. Find jobs that your spouse and kids can help with. Don’t do it all alone!
As food allergy moms we’re so busy just keeping our kids safe. The best way our family can help is by making food prep, organization, and cleanliness a team event.
If you have toddlers or babies, then you may not be able to delegate very much now but focus on imperfect action so they become confident with helping you and they can take more on as time goes on.
Then delegate to your hubby as much as possible. But remember that he’s likely drowning too. Sit down and talk about each of your responsibilities and see where you might both be able to streamline tasks or share tasks so you can keep your head above water, together.
10. Create Templates
If you’re doing something often, it’s a sign to create a template so you can reuse your work over and over instead of reinventing the wheel every time.
For example, weekly meal plans are a template and you can reuse them once a month or once a season, whatever works for you.
Reusing the work you already did is an amazing way to simplify food allergy management and meals. Need Help with this? Check out the 90-Minute Variety Booster for some pre-made, allergy-friendly meal plans.
Another example is birthday party RSVP emails. Once you create one that’s clear and easy to understand, reuse it over and over to save time.
Need help creating a birthday party RSVP email that you can feel confident will explain food allergy needs without feeling demanding?
Check out my Get Others To Take Food Allergies Seriously Workshop.
Not only will you get a simple roadmap for helping everyone around you understand food allergies, but you’ll have the opportunity to grab the Birthday Party Success Pack with RSVP templates that will save you SO MUCH TIME and effort over the many years that your child is going to birthday parties.
I also have pre-made templates that I’ve tested over 16 years that you’ll love for your school food allergy meeting and even food allergy packing lists and meal plans for vacations.
Templates make a massive impact on your quality of life. How will you try using one today?
11. BONUS TIP - Learn from someone who’s gone before you!
Pick someone who has tons of experience and can show you the BEST way forward. Remember that trying something once or twice doesn’t mean it’s the best way because strategies should be tested multiple times to know that they work.
I invite you to check out my free and paid resources to see how they can be game-changers for your life TODAY. Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @friendlypantry.
I want you to know that you’re not alone, and I’m cheering for you!
You can simplify food allergy management so life is easier.
Simplifying food allergy management means becoming efficient and saving hours and hours of work every day, week, and month. Not only will this protect your mental health and dissolve your food allergy stress & overwhelm, it will supercharge your quality of life!
What about you? What tip will you use to simplify food allergy management? Let me know in the comments!
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