The Inspiration Behind The Next Best Cupcake
Today I wanted to share the inspiration behind my forthcoming children's book, The Next Best Cupcake, which is a story about coping with food allergies. This book is the first in the Fearless Food Allergy Friends series. I wanted to write this story because I spent years looking for good picture books explaining food allergies that had entertaining storylines. Unfortunately, there are very few of them out there. This deficiency surprised me because so many kids today have food allergies. I had thought there would be lots of children's books written about food allergies because nearly 1 in 13 children have a food allergy.
Since I could never find the kind of picture book I was looking for, I decided to write my own based on our food allergy experiences. When my son was 2½ years old, we learned that he had an allergy to sesame. I will never forget that hot August day when we had planned to spend the day at a county fair but ended up in the ER instead. We were sitting in a restaurant eating dinner when my son was trying hummus for the first time. After the tiniest taste of hummus, all of a sudden he had a full-blown allergic reaction. At the time, we didn't realize exactly what was happening, but we rushed him to the ER. There they said he was definitely having an allergic reaction, most likely to hummus. This diagnosis really surprised me because we have no history of food allergies in the family. I was kind of in disbelief. But the next day we saw a pediatric allergist who did skin testing and diagnosed him with a sesame allergy. A few years later my son was also diagnosed with a tree nut allergy. Since that time, I have been very diligent in reading food labels and making sure that my son's classroom environments are safe for him.
I've also done a ton of worrying because once you're diagnosed with a food allergy, everything that involves food becomes a source of anxiety, especially birthday parties and classroom snacks.
Children who have food allergies often feel different. At birthday parties, they usually have to bring their own special snack from home because they can't eat the birthday treats. In the classroom, they might feel left out because everyone else can eat the classroom snack except them.
Since kids who have food allergies feel often feel different at school and with friends, I wanted to create a children's book series where they feel included and can identify with the main characters. In my book series, The Fearless Food Allergy Friends, seeing other kids with food allergies overcome challenges and advocate for themselves will hopefully raise their self-esteem and build their confidence. I hope my book series inspires both kids and parents and promotes an environment of inclusion and advocacy for all kids with food allergies.
