Just an Ordinary Day
Valentine’s Day is a fun day in which most teens participate, whether they have a special Valentine or not. Everyone in school walks around during the day with happy attitudes about the annual holiday. However, for teens with food allergies, February 14 isn’t always the happiest day of the year. Inevitably, this day is spent trading candy that sometimes you can’t eat or hanging out with friends who are eating candy around you.
If you’re going on a date with your special Valentine, it’s important that your boyfriend/girlfriend knows all about your allergies, because if you want to have that first kiss, or any other kiss, they have to know that they can’t eat anything that you’re allergic to for a while before the kiss happens.
Last Valentine’s Day, my boyfriend came over. He knows all about my food allergies, but even when he’s unsure about something that he wants to eat before we hang out, he’ll ask me to make sure it’s OK to eat. I also let him know that if his family or friends at school give him candy with anything in it that I’m allergic to, that he can’t eat it for a few hours before we hang out, just to be safe. If your Valentine doesn’t think that respecting your food allergies is important and necessary, then obviously you are wasting your time.
A trick that I have learned about getting my date to avoid my food allergies is to eat the same foods together. On Valentine’s Day, my boyfriend and I ate at my house, so he ate exactly what I ate. This way, there was no chance that he could have been eating something to which I was allergic. When you go out to dinner with your date, it’s riskier because he/she has more food options that could contain your allergen(s). In this case, you should warn him/her in advance about which dishes not to order. If you’re looking for that first kiss or just to hang out and have fun, then educate your date about your food allergies and stress the importance of respecting them. Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be scarier than any other day!
