Whether you are nursing, starting solid foods with your
child, or simply looking for a way to learn more about your child's responses
to foods in his/her diet, a food journal can be a helpful tool in figuring
out safe vs. unsafe foods for your little one.
When their little ones initially receive an FPIES diagnosis,
many parents find journaling helpful for
learning what their little one’s “baseline” or “norm” looks like. Charting
their little ones' responses to foods, both positive and negative, can be useful
in sorting out and identifying potential reaction symptoms, if and when they
occur.
On our website, we provide you with some helpful sample food journals. Whether it is structured, open ended, a combination of both, or even a more
detailed “hour by hour” food and symptom journal, you can find examples and
blank templates on this helpful page.
Today, we’d like to feature a specific type of journal from
a fellow FPIES mom! Krissandra Cox recently shared a colorful picture of her
version of a food journal. It is color
coded for types of symptoms observed, and it is graphed to show frequency of
those observations. Krissandra shared this with us about her journal, “I created it after asking myself what her doctors seemed to really
care about: what food did she try, and how did she react? They never asked me
for specific dates, or at what time of day I fed her something, or how long the
trial lasted; that information was useful to ME, but not [necessarily as much]
to her doctors. In the end, the only important factors [they needed] were
Food:Reaction. So, I made the chart using a sliding scale of symptoms that
someone could easily look at and see a pattern. The worst offenders fall into
the orange-red zone, which means a re-trial would happen much later for those
foods. Her allergist and GI loved it and made a copy!” This journal style
intends to give a “snap shot” of how each trial may be going. It’s no surprise that her doctors-- and other
FPIES parents!-- appreciate it!
In the true FPIES community fashion of families helping
families, we were thrilled to see another mom, Robyn Stojakovich, generously offering to put this
template into a printable/editable format for others to utilize and benefit
from as well! You can download your copy here, save it
and print it, or bookmark it online for a quick reference at your fingertips!
No matter what style of food journal that you use, you may
want to consider taking it to your child’s appointments! Some doctors
find it helpful to view the food journal periodically to track symptoms,
to check on the child’s diet, or for other reasons. The journal offers
them a window into what you as the caregiver are observing each day.
Can't quite find the right fit from the pre-made templates?
Food journals can be just as unique as our little ones! In case you would like
to create your own original version, here are some tips to get you
started:
Remember– whether it is written in a spiral notebook or
with a computer program, the key is making it work for YOU so that it can
be best optimized as another tool for the toolbox.
Need more tools for your toolbox?
For more tools and resources for day to day FPIES management, be sure to check
out The FPIES Foundation's Toolbox today!
This post was written by the Executive Board of The FPIES Foundation
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