Andrew's Food Free 8th Birthday

Wow! My baby is 8. Birthdays are always such a big deal for kids. They anticipate their party for months...the cake, who they will invite, what the theme will be, the cake, the treat bags, the games, oh, and did I mention the cake?

Well, cake means food, and this posed a challenge for Andrew's party this year due to his Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EE) and elemental diet. Did no food have to mean no cake? It is our tradition to have birthday parties at our house. The kids choose their theme, I frantically come up with activities and snacks that go along with said theme and of course bake and decorate the cake myself. Add kids, and voila...birthday party.

But what happens when you are celebrating a birthday for an 8 year old boy who has been taken off all food (except pure sugar). I have to say my husband and I were not entirely thrilled with the prospect of planning Andrew's birthday party this year. As we thought about what he could do, we mentioned having a bowling party to him. We thought this may be a venue that would be less focused on food with all the excitement and activity going on. Andrew was excited by the idea, especially when we mentioned that they would also be able to play laser tag. Okay, party planned for me...the bowling alley takes care of everything. Boy is that strange for me.

Now that the party was planned, I just couldn't stand the idea that Andrew wouldn't have a cake. So I decided that he would have a cardboard cake made out of individual boxes. I then painted the boxes the best I could to look like a cake. I found "Happy Birthday" candles attached to toothpicks that I inserted into the boxes so that he would have candles to blow out. Inside each box was a sandwich bag of home spun, plain sugar cotton candy. As I mentioned before, the only thing that he can eat is pure sugar. So he is lucky enough to have a cotton candy machine so that I can make him "safe" cotton candy.  (An alternative to using cotton candy if you truly want a "food free cake" would be to use the boxes as the "goodie bags" and fill them with fun treats for the kids.)

I did not tell Andrew I was going to do this. He knew he couldn't have a cake, and being the trooper that he is, he was okay with that. Andrew was excited when we finally revealed the cake to him, and he realized that he would have candles to blow out. I'm not sure all of his friends were thrilled with my creation and the contents of their boxes, although they were all polite and understand Andrew's diet. However, making my son happy and feel somewhat "normal" on his birthday was my main goal. If I accomplished that, then nothing else matters.

Happy Birthday (really tomorrow) Andrew! I love you!


Just another aspect of living with EE.