My allergy friendly picnic basket stays packed and ready in my garage during the summer.  I keep it loaded with plates, cups, forks, knives, spoons, napkins, wipes and a vinyl tablecloth.  I need about 10 minutes to grab some allergy safe food and I’m ready to go, just call me.  I’ll even meet you at the park with a box of cereal for a breakfast picnic.  Doesn’t take much.  In the spirit of staying allergy safe on picnics, I thought I’d share this cute little downloadable guide from the makers of Auvi-Q® epinephrine auto-injector: Mind your Bee’s and Q’s Summer Guide.  The Summer Allergy Guide included a few little gems, such as bring your own condiment packets-the kind you get in fast food restaurants.  Since we all have seen the knife in the relish jar touch burgers, hot dogs and other food items, the risk of cross contact increases.

 Just say the word…I’m ready for a picnic!

I enjoyed how the Auvi-Q®  Summer Allergy guide gave a few simple, yet important BBQ/Picnic food allergy safety tips, avoiding latex pointers and good protocol to avoid bee stings!   So often we stay focused on food allergies and insect and latex allergies get over looked.  I’m much more aware of latex  balloons and I have become a huge fan of the $1 Mylar balloons from Dollar Tree.  Another bonus of switching to Mylar is that the balloons last for days instead of hours for latex.  Of course, any sort of insect is on my list of things to avoid at all costs!  To be honest, I don’t know if my children are allergic to bees, so we avoid them as much as possible.

My 4th of July Dollar Tree Mylar balloons are still “alive” and kicking, another reason to move onto Mylar!

I hope you are enjoying a few summer picnics too this summer while staying allergy safe!