Having allergies all my life, I am used to people saying things to me like “How do you eat?” or “ No wonder you are so skinny,” or “What do you eat?” This response always comes when people learn of my food allergies. This, Allergic Traveler, has severe food allergies to eggs, nuts, peanuts, mushrooms, shellfish, chicken, pork, garlic, soy, corn, celery and sesame. I also have the OAS, or Oral Allergy Syndrome to most fruits. The reason why I bring this up is because this past week end I had the opportunity of attending a concert thrown by NC FACES. They had a special guest there, Kyle Dine from Canada. If you don’t know Kyle, he is a singer of children’s music with a special twist – he sings about food allergies.
He opened up his segment by asking everyone if they were allergic to nuts and “x” amount of kids raised their hands. He then proceeded to ask about all the other top allergens and who was allergic to what. It was a great way to unite the children. And of course I participated and kept my hand up for most of the time.
Kyle’s music is informative and fun. His songs teach about allergic symptoms, about accepting your allergies and educating others on how to feed allergic kids. Kyle also did skits with his heroic character Epi-man! At the end of the concert, Kyle let every child step up to the microphone and had each of them tell their name and their allergy. I was thrilled that every child in the room got to tell ‘their story’ and no one said “so how you eat?” If you have an allergic child, I highly recommend Kyle Dine’s music. Please get yourself a copy of either one of his CDs. He is making a difference in the industry and in children’s lives.
Thank you Kyle!