Friday, November 7, 2008

Fairs & Festivals

I am struggling with how safe it is for us to attend fairs & festivals. The night before Halloween there was an animal festival for kids. They were to have booths of crafts, music, & fun and all the kids were to dress up like animals.

When I took B for her allergy testing they used a scale rating of 0-4 with 4 being most severe. She was a 4+. The peanut allergy we manage is severe. I was also told that she has a tree nut allergy, but it's not severe.

We went to the parade and I explained to her how she was not to touch anything without asking, and I stocked up on antibacterial wipes. I sometimes felt like a dope wiping down each table that we went to. I was very vigilant about our surroundings. At at the mask making table, I wiped down the table and the scissors. I don't want to explain it to every person at every booth because I don't think that it would be beneficial to B to have to listen to it over and over.

B participated in the parade, had a great time, and was really excited about the night overall. I want her to have the experiences, but am I being unsafe?

We also went to the Pumpkin patch/Corn Maze, which is also festival style with food booths, activities, hay ride, etc. The thing that got me here was the Turkey Leg... Before we knew of her allergy we'd shared many turkey legs at festivals, Disneyland...

I asked all the questions about ingredients and possible cross-contamination from on the grill, and he assured me it was plain turkey legs, showed me the package, and said he didn't grill anything else on there, ever. We kept talking, now about the weather, the view... I asked if he ever used BBQ sauce on the grill, he said no, it burned the meat. We continued talking, and then he casually mentioned that he used pecan wood to grill. I don't know if this could be dangerous or not, but I was shocked by the fact that had I not ever considered to ask what kind of wood was used to grill. Is using tree nut wood a danger when grilling?

No comments: