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Celebrating Easter and Passover with Allergies

Will your family be hiding Easter eggs or preparing for Passover this weekend? Holidays can be fun for the whole family, but they can also be challenging to navigate due to hidden allergens and the focus on special holiday foods.

Whether you celebrate Easter or Passover, there are plenty of things you can do to ensure that your entire family has a happy and safe holiday.

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Here are some tips for dealing with Easter allergies and Passover allergies during the upcoming holiday:

Plan ahead.
Don’t wait to do your food shopping just before the big holiday. Plan each of your meals out in advance and be mindful of any recipes that may contain an allergen. You can switch ingredients for allergy-friendly alternatives, eliminate a recipe from the menu altogether, or take care to prepare allergy-friendly dishes separately from the other meals. Keep the kitchen and fridge stocked with allergy-friendly foods and snacks (and make sure to label all the allergy-friendly items).

Skip the eggs.
If someone in the family has an egg allergy, you can swap the traditional Easter eggs for dyeable ceramic eggs. While products like EggNots are inedible, they are nonperishable and safe for people with egg allergies to handle. If you want to skip dying eggs altogether you can buy colorful plastic eggs to use for decorations or an Easter egg hunt.

You can also replace the hard-boiled egg on the Passover Seder plate with a ceramic or plastic egg.

Read labels.
There are many tempting sweets during these holidays that can be hard to pass up, but chocolates and other treats may contain allergens like milk, wheat, eggs, and nuts. Carefully read ingredient labels, even if you have previously found an item to be safe. Companies can change their manufacturing processes at any time without warning. If you’re not sure what’s in something, don’t eat it. (The same goes for any homemade dishes on the table. If you don’t know what went into a recipe or if you suspect it could have been cross-contaminated, politely decline a taste.)

Kosher for Passover foods can be helpful for those trying to manage food allergies at Passover, but families should remember that KFP foods are not necessarily milk-free and may be cross-contaminated when they are manufactured. Like other manufactured foods, kosher items may contain traces of allergens.

Don’t forget to take your medication.
Easter and Passover both take place as the weather is starting to warm up and as trees begin to pollinate. Remember to take your allergy medication to avoid coughing, sneezing, nasal congestion, itchy eyes and other seasonal allergy symptoms.

If you would like more information on Easter allergies or Passover allergies, or have questions about resources are available to people with allergies, give us a call. Or, if you are looking for an allergist, we’d love to meet you. We can be reached at 212-729-1283 or send us an email at info@hudsonallergy.com.

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