Dd will be going to a fall gathering for one day coming up soon. It will be all day, into the evening. They bring a sack lunch, but dinner will be around the campfire. They will be roasting hot dogs.
Dd has some pretty severe food intolerances. She is on an all-natural diet. We do allow exceptions, but are careful that if she "indulges" that it is spaced out and she doesn't eat a lot of trigger ingredients close together. Also, she knows well what the result will be when she eats her trigger foods. She is beginning to take some responsibility for it. For example, she can eat some candy with artificial flavoring on the weekend, but the rest of the week, we are careful that she doesn't get any more. Artificial colors and preservatives result in more severe reactions... mainly horrible itchy eczema, night terrors (restless sleep), headaches and lethargy. She never eats fast food and we don't eat things like hot dogs and bologna at home, as we pointedly avoid nitrites and nitrates.
For starters, if she has the hot dogs, she is going to be miserable that night. I don't want her to be miserable. I don't want her to associate this fun event with being miserable. Secondly, she has never eaten hot dogs and I don't want her to even taste them. Yeah, I know they taste good, I ate them as a kid. Dd actually likes pretty sophisticated foods for her age (7.5) because we've been traveling all over the world with her since she was 5 months old. She loves mussels, shrimp, ethnic foods, gourmet cheeses, exotic fruits and vegetables. I don't *want* her to eat hot dogs and start to ask for them, even with consequences.
However, I realize that roasting hot dogs around a campfire is a cultural experience that is part of growing up in rural America. I don't want her to feel left out. I am going to talk to her about it, as she has a lot of common sense. In the meantime, what are other people's thoughts? Let her have the hot dog and deal with a sleepless night helping her through the misery of nightmares and itching or send something separate and risk her feeling left out?
Dd has some pretty severe food intolerances. She is on an all-natural diet. We do allow exceptions, but are careful that if she "indulges" that it is spaced out and she doesn't eat a lot of trigger ingredients close together. Also, she knows well what the result will be when she eats her trigger foods. She is beginning to take some responsibility for it. For example, she can eat some candy with artificial flavoring on the weekend, but the rest of the week, we are careful that she doesn't get any more. Artificial colors and preservatives result in more severe reactions... mainly horrible itchy eczema, night terrors (restless sleep), headaches and lethargy. She never eats fast food and we don't eat things like hot dogs and bologna at home, as we pointedly avoid nitrites and nitrates.
For starters, if she has the hot dogs, she is going to be miserable that night. I don't want her to be miserable. I don't want her to associate this fun event with being miserable. Secondly, she has never eaten hot dogs and I don't want her to even taste them. Yeah, I know they taste good, I ate them as a kid. Dd actually likes pretty sophisticated foods for her age (7.5) because we've been traveling all over the world with her since she was 5 months old. She loves mussels, shrimp, ethnic foods, gourmet cheeses, exotic fruits and vegetables. I don't *want* her to eat hot dogs and start to ask for them, even with consequences.
However, I realize that roasting hot dogs around a campfire is a cultural experience that is part of growing up in rural America. I don't want her to feel left out. I am going to talk to her about it, as she has a lot of common sense. In the meantime, what are other people's thoughts? Let her have the hot dog and deal with a sleepless night helping her through the misery of nightmares and itching or send something separate and risk her feeling left out?
OTOH, she raves about my homemade meals, ethnic food, and oyster casserole (a holiday treat around here) 
