Baseball Games and Food Allergies

Yesterday we made our annual trek to Progressive Field in Cleveland to watch the Indians play.

Baseball games are a fun tradition but they're also very stressful for kids with peanut allergies.

Normally when we go to the game Olivia will get a hot dog and that's about it. She can't eat the ice cream. Or Dippin' Dots. Or the popcorn.

Yesterday though we were in the "club" level which meant unlimited food and beverages (talk about the best way to see a baseball game!).

Olivia was very excited about the hot dog stand - and the buns were safe too! (Buns are one of those 'must-always-check' items because sometimes sesame seeds are listed). And the buffet in the club lounge had salad, which is one of her favorites. And one of the other food stands was a "make your own" snow cone so Liv made THREE snow cones during the game.

The one thing about baseball games that isn't fun is the overwhelming presence of peanuts. And on the club level at Progressive Field there were BARRELS of peanuts - all self-serve. Fill a bag with peanuts as many times as you wanted and drop the shells everywhere.

To say this stressed Liv out would be an understatement.

We ended up sitting at the top row of our section (due to the fact that I'm currently on crutches) and she actually said "Mommy, I love sitting here because no one can eat peanuts behind us and throw the shells on the floor."

Eventually though we had to move to our "regular" seats further down in the section which immediately stressed Liv out. As soon as we sat down she saw the guy behind us shoving peanuts in his face throwing the shells all over the ground and she burst into tears.

She was seriously scared.

And then we saw the backs of the seats were coated in little bits and pieces of peanut shells, including on the cup holders. This meant Liv couldn't put her beverage in the cup holder without risking touching peanut shells.

We didn't stay in those seats very long. I wasn't going to make Liv sit there and be scared.

Whether an allergic reaction was going to happen or not isn't the issue. My kid was scared and that was enough to make us move back inside the lounge.

I just wish that baseball stadiums - major and minor league - had a designated "nut free" zone for families dealing with food allergies. Sure some of the teams have "nut free" nights but one or two nights during a season just isn't enough when the rest of game are full of peanuts and shells all over the ground.

I'd really like to see these stadiums work with food allergy families and national organizations to develop safe zones for kids and adults with peanut allergies.