Posted: January 6th, 2011 - 1:20pm
Source: Chicago Tribune

I was feeding my kids pistachio nuts right out of my mouth when my 2-year-old daughter Sawyer starting coughing. She coughed a lot, but then settled down. So we piled in our minivan to go have Christmas lunch with my in-laws. Sawyer coughed more en route and eventually threw up. We pulled over, cleaned her and she was happy again. With no other signs of sickness, it seemed the excess coughing must have caused her to vomit.
During lunch, however, Sawyer threw up six more times. I know this makes me sound like a negligent parent, but as soon as she was done coughing, then gagging, then vomiting, she would happily race back to the other kids and play. Finally, on the umpteenth vomit of the day, I remembered the story of an adult who got a nut stuck "in his lung."
I ran out of the restaurant with Sawyer, fearful she had "aspirated" the pistachio nut. The hospital rushed us in because by the time we reached the E.R., Sawyer had passed out for a few seconds after a coughing fit. Once in an examination room, a nurse asked me a lot of peanut questions. Mostly about peanut allergies.
You know, up until this point, I found the "peanut-police" annoying. There are so many allergies among children now that I have often wondered if parents are putting labels on things too fast -- or if current manufacturing practices have absolutely destroyed our food. Milk, soy, nut, wheat and gluten allergies abound in preschools now. Serve your kid peanut butter on a playdate and you will be a pariah in mommy society.
This was all somewhat annoying to me, until I had a run in with a food group that could have killed my kid -- the same food group that is the captain of deadly allergens.
More information: http://bit.ly/wrongpipe .
(Diane Farr is known for her roles in "Californication," "Numb3rs" and "Rescue Me," and as the author of "The Girl Code." You can read her blog at getdianefarr.com, follow her on twitter.com/getdianefarr or contact her on facebook.com/getdianefarr.)