Dealing with food allergies in Beacon

This year Jean and I helped start up a local group for families dealing with food allergies. We organized under the name Hudson Valley Food Allergy Support Group (I know, catchy) to talk to schools, educate parents, and generally raise awareness about food allergies. Our big focus now is on organizing a panel for area school nurses and other heath providers working with kids.

The below is from a blog post I wrote for the HVFASG web site, about how we discovered and firsst dealt with Shepard's food allergies:

Here’s how we found out about my son Shepard’s food allergies. One day in fall 2005, when he was one, he tottered up to my chair and grabbed at the peanut butter sandwich I was eating. I gave him a tiny piece of it and jean took him off to his crib for a nap. Two minutes later he was screaming, badly swollen and bright red. We called 911 and ran for benadryl. I was terrified he’d stop breathing, but he never did and the swelling went down while the medical responders stood by with oxygen. We took the ambulance ride anyway just to be safe.

Every parent of a child with food allergies has a similar harrowing story of that first exposure. After the discovery, life is never quite the same. But we were slow to react fully to our new reality. Oh, we took important steps — carrying epi-pens and ridding the house of peanuts — walnuts too when we noticed they made him break out. But Shep continued to suffer from moderate to severe eczema and we suspected more allergies. It took us another year to get him to a specialist — in retrospect an obvious move we should have undertaken right away. The doctor ordered blood tests and found he had many more allergies: to pecans and other tree nuts, soy, egg whites, shellfish, dust mites and dogs. All were minor relative to the peanut allergy, but we phased them out anyway and started washing his sheets each week for the dust. Since then his skin and problems have cleared up.

There are some important steps in caring for an allergic child that may not be obvious to some parents. That’s another reason this group exists — to help people learn from others who have been through the same experience. If you live in the Hudson Valley and would like to attend our next meeting, please email hvfoodallergy [at] yahoo.com.

copyright wars made personal

My friend Pete keeps a great blog that's mainly about his bike riding, training and racing exploits in Northern Michigan. He just put up a post that makes copyright law a whole lot more tangible for me. Pete writes:

I was able to cobble together a couple minutes worth of raw footage that I've shot since getting the new video camera last week... Unfortunately, YouTube busted me for copyright violations and wouldn't let me publish the video with the song I'd picked out. I had to go through their authorized music library (which isn't very big), and this tune was the best one I could find.

Lawrence Lessig is right. It's time to rewrite the rules of enforcement copyright holders to protect amateur creators.

Kel prodded me for a progress report on the pumpkins, so I thought I'd post the dismal summary here. Things started well enough. I planted around mid-May and had seven foot vines by the end of June. then a fungus set in and wiped out one of the plants in mere days. The other vine was doing alright until a critter made off with the only pumpkin on it, a yellow orb of about three pounds. I found it under a bush with a few gnaw marks in the side, evidently deemed insufficiently tasty. I suppose it was the comeuppance I deserved after the hubris of pointing my bat to the bleachers, so to speak.

Other garden crops have thrived, especially carrots, tomatoes (sungold & green zebra), eggplant and broccoli. Made a ratatouille on Sunday with basil, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and herbs from the garden. Only garlic and onions were store bought.

Head on over to Flickr for photo documentation of our family travels in Michigan. We spent a week with extended family at my folks house before heading to Beaver Island for our first-ever nuclear vacation -- just Ruby, Shep, Jean Marie and me. A couple shots:

planted

The garden's in: tomatoes, peppers, carrots, pumpkins, squash, beets, broccoli, spinach, chard and assorted herbs, plus heirloom gourds. I'm heavily invested in the pumpkins, a variety called Big Moon that can grow to 200 lbs. My goal is for Ruby & Shep to have one 30 pounder apiece to carve/make pies on their birthday, as well as one insanely large heap of pumpkin that passersby will want to photograph with their kids in the foreground. Probably entirely unrealistic but what the hey. These are heavy feeders however and will need more than rain and sun to reach anything near prize-winning size. Fish emulsion anyone? Below, one week's harvest from last year's garden.

Upcoming in Beacon: Electric Windows

neighborhood views

Spring is on.

Climate Alliance Story

And here's the Climate Alliance story, in case you're interested.

Al Gore's Climate Project: $300 Million in Ads

How many non-profits have spent so much? The quality of the work reflects the sum, as you can see below.



The Web site is WeCanSolveIt.org. WaPo coverage here. I'm pursuing a story now on the digital component, so stay tuned.

porch-side with grandmas

Administrator Robson Reports for Duty

Beacon finally has its new administrator. Meredith Robson doesn't live in town and has no history here, which feels sort of ominous to me though maybe it shouldn't. Her predecessor Joe Braun was a divisive personality who got things done but made enemies and alienated citizens along the way. People seem to feel Braun was the real mayor of Beacon during much of the Clara-Lou Gould era.

Braun's ouster and Robson's hire were direct results of Steve Gold's decisive mayoral victory. During his campaign Gold was pretty clear that Braun's removal would be the first order of business for his administration. Braun saved him the trouble and quit.

Once more unto the WFMU pledge drive

What's that you say, you've never listened to WFMU? Fie on you and your Jack FM station! Even your local NPR affiliate, all due respect, I still say fie on it.

Let me sum it up: WFMU is freeform radio, the tagline goes, the way it oughta be. It's that rare combination in radio: a broadcaster that's grown its audience (It's now streamed globally) without shedding its local identity, it's completely DJ centric values or its heart-felt scrappiness. If you wish for the continuance of original (and good) musical expression, you should be listening to WFMU. And if you like what you hear, you should give them some money, since the pledge drive is happening right now. I give $75 a year and it really is the gift that keeps on giving.

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