How to Prepare for a Storm When You Have Food Allergies and Asthma
“French toast alert!” That cracks me up. It refers to the panic before snowstorms where everyone rushes to the store to buy bread, milk and eggs. With our food allergies, my storm shopping list is a little different! Also, having a child with asthma has its own concerns in the face of a nasty Nor’Easter.
A blizzard is heading this way tonight and people are practically killing each other in the parking lots and aisles of grocery and home improvement stores to get prepared. I shopped in case we get snowed in or lose power for a long time, especially for my son with food allergies. But when I got home, I realized that I didn’t have much for me to eat which didn’t require cooking or heating of some sort! Sure there are lots of safe foods stashed in the freezer, but if we lose power, I won’t be able to heat them up.
My son is allergic to milk, eggs and tree nuts, and we always keep plenty of food for him in the pantry. My super-sensitive self can’t eat anything with gluten, soy (which is in EVERYTHING), sunflower/safflower, tapioca starch, flax, sesame, and various other things. Some of those ingredients may seem easy to avoid, but so many gluten-free products on the shelves contain one or more of them. So I cook or bake almost everything I eat. This results in having almost nothing ready-made in the pantry.
So what did I do? First, I baked a bunch of gluten free vegan biscuits and did not put them in the freezer. Next, I braved the masses at the grocery store a second time to buy bags of the two of kinds of potato chips which do not contain gluten, soy, sunflower or safflower oil. (A blizzard is a great excuse to gorge on chips, right?). Then I took some delicious homemade chocolate cupcakes out of the freezer to thaw in case I needed them. And the last thing was make sure there were a few bottles of wine in the house. This storm will be fun! 🙂
Other than those things, how do you prepare for a storm when you have food allergies and a child with asthma? In addition to the usual preparations (like having flashlights, batteries and water on hand), here are some ideas:
Medication: Make sure you have enough Benadryl, asthma medications (albuterol, saline, steroids if you use them, maintenance medications), and pain relievers at home. Check the expiration dates on your EpiPens and other meds.
Foods: As noted above, make sure you have allergy-free foods that don’t need to be cooked or defrosted to eat. This is important in case you lose power for an extended period of time, or need to evacuate to a safer place.
Pack a Bag: If there’s a chance you may be evacuated during a storm, you might want to pack up a bag with your important medications, nebulizer, inhalers, and safe foods. You won’t have time to gather everything in an emergency evacuation!
Phones: In addition to charging up your cell phones, get a rechargeable backup battery to keep handy in case of a medical emergency. Also, if you have a land line at home (some people still do!), you may want to get an old school corded phone that plugs into the wall phone jack and doesn’t plug into an outlet. This way, you can still make emergency calls in case your home loses power and your cell phone dies.
Generator: If you own your house, and have a child with breathing issues who uses a nebulizer for asthma medications, you may want a generator. Yes, they are expensive and not an option for everyone, but if you can afford it, have a child with serious breathing issues, and live in an area where power outages are likely, you might consider it.
Hopefully you won’t experience an extended power outage or have to evacuate during a storm, but if you do, you’ll be prepared! Stay warm, Northeast peeps – this blizzard is gonna be a doozy. Thanks for reading!
