Candies, popcorn, cookies and my beloved cupcakes always put a smile on my face. Unless you are someone who has an allergy to peanuts, treat nuts, milk, eggs, or sesame? Even if a cupcake doesn’t contain peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, or sesame chances are high it was manufactured in the same plant and the chance for cross-contamination are high. When my youngest was 3 weeks old he was admitted to CHOC hospital for a week. Since I was nursing I had to go on a strict diet. They had no idea what was going on with my son, it could have been a virus he caught or an allergy and I had to eliminate everything from my diet. For three weeks I couldn’t nurse my son he had to go on “rabbit food formula” The most expensive all natural formula until my milk was free of any potential allergy. I won’t go into what I couldn’t eat, I will say what I could eat, Lamb, chicken, some green veggies, fruit, brown rice and water. It was brutal however I wanted to be able to nurse and I was willing to do whatever it took, even if meant giving up cupcakes. My son’s pediatric office mentioned that DIVVIES would be a solution for me if I wanted a treat. I shrugged it off, I was already deprived of all goodies I didn’t want to invest money to eat cardboard snacks. No milk, no eggs, no nuts, NO problem? Please nothing can taste good without it! So I just wallowed in the fact that I had to do my time until it was over. Within two months I was able to reintroduce food back into my diet, and I never looked back.
My middle son has an ongoing allergy to red food dyes and that has been a huge issue in our family for school events, family events and parties. No one truly appreciates this until its your child who has a reaction. Valentines Day and Christmas are the hardest. For school parties my son is isolated to another desk away from the festivities and that breaks my heart. You would think they would try to accommodate him, however I get the response that the other children shouldn’t have to be burdened by this in so many words, or lack of. I know a handful of other moms who have issues with their children when it comes nut allergies and eggs. Reading the ingredients on the packing for food even if it doesn’t contain the product it was manufactured in the same facility. Almost all foods contain some sort of allergy for someone. So what happens to these kids?
That saying, treat others how you would want to be treated kept playing over and over in my head especially at kids parties. How do you accommodate everyone at a party so everyone can enjoy a treat and not feel isolated or be moved to a different table, especially those with a food allergy? As a mother who has a child with allergies I want to be compassionate and make sure going forward that all kids can enjoy a treat at my son’s party. Like stated before I was just hung up on red dye allergies however there are more and more children with allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, and milk. That has to be hard when trying to find a treat, a tasty one at that. I reached out to Divvies to see if their cookies were really that tasty and delicious, and if this could be a tasty solution for my son’s friends who have allergies. The cookies in a nutshell, no pun intended, were spectacular.
The packaging says 1 for you and 1 to share. I know as parents we encourage children to share and we lead by example. Divvies cookies were my downfall. I would have gotten away with if the crumbs on my face didn’t give me away. I was silently hoping they would not like Divvies cookies. They were that good I didn’t want any competition when consuming them. I like to be honest with my kids and in doing so I explained that these cookies didn’t have the necessary ingredients, such as milk, eggs, and peanuts, I was just going down the list. I was trying to find a loophole so they would back off the Divvies and eat the store bought cookies in the cupboard. They didn’t take my warning seriously and ever so ungracefully tore the packaging open and devoured them two at a time, those beasts! They were skipping and singing how delightful these gourmet cookies were. I slowly learned that these were the newest bargaining tools in my house. If you wanted a Divvies Choco-lot brownie cookie, you had to fold laundry. DONE! Darn-it!!!! Nothing could keep them from eating these cookies I so badly wanted to consume myself.
“Divvies is certified by their manufacturers to be peanut-, tree nut-, milk-, egg-free, and sesame-free and are packaged in Divvies Bakery. Divvies conducts routine testing to minimize the risk of any cross-contamination in their certified allergen-free ingredients.”
This is MOMMYJAM approved for taste, freshness, being wallet sparing, and an allergy safe snack to enjoy. Check them out!
I am going to be doing a giveaway so you too can enjoy your very own box of Divvies cookies.
To enter please like the following on facebook
Also you will need to leave a comment with your name and email so if you are the lucky winner I can send you your very own box of Divvies cookies. Warning, they are delicious and go fast. Be prepared to share, even if its unwillingly. Deadline is Sunday, July 8th at 11:59 PDT. The winner will be notified Monday, July 9th.
