What dogs and trash have to do with kids and allergies

I was making some breakfast this morning under the watchful eye of our dog, Lucky. Apparently part of the job description for labs is to be continually hungry.

She was keeping very close tabs on me as I threw some scraps in the trash under the sink, and my mind wandered to our previous dog.


Lucky: "Give the dog your foooood."

Maggie, normally a very good dog, went through a period in her life where she started getting into the trash. And I don't mean just rustling around in there for tasties. I mean, she was relentless. We would come home to the kitchen trash, all of it, spread out all over the kitchen floor, shredded, the scraps eaten. We put a cover on the trash, and that didn't stop her. We put the trash in the cupboard under the sink, and being as smart as she was, she would find a way to open that cupboard, pull out the trash, and spread it all over again.

We were at our wits' end! You could tell she knew it was wrong, but kept at it.

At the same time, she was drinking water non-stop, and I took her to to vet to find out what might be up. It turned out she had Cushing's disease, which is a disorder of the adrenal glands. The excess drinking was one symptom and excessive hunger was another. It turns out she had such feelings of hunger she couldn't help but find anything to eat, even if it meant getting into big trouble later. Once we got her on medication, she went back to normal and ignored the trash.

What does this have to do with kids and food allergies? I'm getting there, hold tight.

As people, when we ourselves don't behave as we should, we tend to blame factors outside our control; we were late for work because of traffic! But when someone else does not behave as they should, we tend to blame their character. They're late for work because they're too lazy to get up on time! The car ahead of us sits through a green light and we think, "What an idiot," not imagining that maybe the person is trying to re-buckle up their toddler.

The first thing we assumed when Maggie spread trash all over the floor was "BAD DOG!" when in fact there was an external factor that she couldn't help.

Same thing with kids. I remember before I was a parent, looking down my nose at children who were misbehaving at a restaurant or at the store and thinking, "What a naughty kid. They must be bad parents!" Then years later, karma strikes and it's me in their place. I remember bringing Luke to Perkins, and by the end of the meal (eggs and pancakes, full of things we now know he's allergic to) he'd be unable to sit still, standing on his seat, getting out of the booth, banging with his silverware, talking loudly. I could just feel the eyes on us, thinking the same thoughts.

Today when Luke goes out to eat with us, we bring his own food and he's well-behaved, polite to the servers, and fun to be with. The only thing he can't tolerate is very noisy restaurants.

This is just a reminder that when you see "bad" behavior in your child or another's (or in your dog for that matter), keep an open mind and don't be too quick to blame character flaws. There may be external factors at play.



"It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world, that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you are not understanding it in the right light. Throw the burden on yourselves!" --Swami Vivekananda