A Safe Eating Guide (Template)

Relationships with grandparents and other caregivers are often highly rewarding for everybody, and we do want to encourage these - but ideally not at the expense of our children's health and this is where it sometimes can get tricky. In this day and age, not everyone is immediately understanding of food choices that sit outside the norm especially when love and and the desire to "treat" children become entwined. It's just such a shame that many of the modern treat foods actually contain the most inflammatory ingredients and the effects can actually be quite harmful - allergies or not.

 When my daughter was diagnosed with eczema and multiple food allergies, I knew her grandparents were really keen to get on board so that they could grow a great relationship with her, but given I was restricting EVEN MORE foods than just what she was technically allergic to, in my goal to heal from the inside out, I knew I needed to develop something to help explain it all. And I know that many out there struggle with how to relay similar food guidelines and/or preferences to others, so I created this template (albeit an earlier, less pretty version) and gave it to them.
 
 It wasn't designed to be an exhaustive master list of how she eats day to day, merely a good representation as a tool to give to grandparents or other caregivers so that they have a good idea how to feed them safely when in their care.
 
 Original versions were more allergy specific - this is the maintenance version! And now you can use this template below to create something similar for your situation.
 
 My suggestion is to keep it kind but be clear, be firm, be consistent and focus on what they CAN eat, rather than what they can't. It's all good saying "my child eats dairy free, gluten free, soy free, grain free, refined sugar free" but not everyone has a good idea on what that actually means, especially at short notice or when out and about!
 
 RAISED ON REAL FOOD - It's what this is about!

* Note this is just a template I developed for our own personal use. It is not to be seen as instruction for how to feed other children - seek professional guidance where necessary.