Color Coding for the Win!

Setting boundaries allows Kathryn Pasker Ineck to avoid pitfalls in dealing with allergies and vices. 

My Beloved Peanuts 

Living in a temperate desert means that the summers are hot and dry. In fact, in Boise we see an average of 200 days of sun each year and average two days of rain over the summer months. The fact that it was raining that day in August 2005 was already unusual, but I also — dramatically — thought that the raindrops rolling down the passenger side window matched my sadness. 

My husband drove the car completely unphased, unaware of my racing thoughts. We were returning from our first-of-many visits to a pediatric allergist for our two eldest sons and I had an impressive stack of folders and pamphlets in my lap outlining how to manage each boys’ multiple food allergies.  

Yes, I know.  

Food allergies don’t sound so scary. And really they aren’t. But I was an exceptionally apprehensive cook and the thought of removing so many basic ingredients in our family diet felt completely overwhelming. 

Milk. Wheat. Eggs. Soy. Tree nuts. Peanuts.  

My beloved peanuts. 

That also meant mixed veggies, snap peas, hummus, whole grain Cheerios, scrambled eggs, and granola bars were out, among other things. No French toast. No cheese.  

Hurdle Number One: New Recipes & New Systems 

One of the first hurdles was discovering new recipes: the allergy-friendly market had not yet been established, so all their meals would need to be made from scratch.  

Cutting out peanuts and tree nuts, while sad for Jim and me, was pretty simple. We just stopped buying them.  

The other allergens were less straightforward. Since Digit could not safely eat any foods with eggs, legumes, or wheat as ingredients, I began researching how to cook with alternatives like oat flour and egg substitutes. And since Duke could not have animal milk from cows, goats, or sheep, he was reliant on soy milk. 

But, wait. Toddlers drink milk.  

A lot of milk. 

I began color coding everything, beginning with their cups. Digit was always green, Duke orange. Digit’s milk was always strawberry-flavored, Duke’s chocolate. 

“The added sugar!” you may protest, and with good reason; coloring their milk meant that neither boy would have a life-threatening reaction since they were each allergic to the other’s safe food. A family member protested, trying to encourage me to “loosen up.” While they were in her care, she switched the lids of their cups … and Digit drank from the wrong one, causing an emergency.  

After that, I also added green food coloring to all of Digit’s food: pancakes, cookies, muffins, you name it, we colored it.  

“The dangers of food coloring!” you may protest, and with good reason; color-coding kept the boys safe, especially since they didn’t have enough safe foods in common to make one recipe for both. 

Hurdle Number Two: Life on the Outside 

The second hurdle? Leaving our home. 

It’s one thing to make our home completely safe from allergens, but it’s a whole ‘nother thing to maintain the same kind of control over what they touch when they are out and about. 

Case in point: at Sunday Mass, my sister took a restless Duke to the cry room. As she settled in with him, she noticed that there were a few peanuts on the floor, left behind by another family. She came marching out and later announced that we were never to take the kids back in there or let them play on the floor. I really had no idea that something as simple as heading to church was going to be tricky! 

Putting it All Together 

Today, a grown-up Duke points out that there is a remarkable resemblance between avoiding allergens and avoiding vices. He explains, “each one of us has a tendency toward certain vices due to our own wounds, as a consequence of living in a broken world. When one decides for him- or herself to combat these vices, their methods may seem extreme to others but may be necessary for that person to avoid sin.” 

What does that look like? 

Taking advantage of the Daily Examen, we can identify the circumstances under which we experience a tendency toward sin — or near-occasion to sin — and determine the best ways to avoid them, color coding them with different behaviors.  

A great example is the after-school pickup line at one of our local Catholic schools. The behavior of parents at this particular school is notorious; when I need to pick up a friend’s child, I will either arrive after the crush of traffic is gone or park at a nearby location and walk. Is it inconvenient?  

Absolutely. It means I have to get dressed in “real clothes.”  

Does it prevent judgmental thoughts and unreasonable anger on my part? Also yes.  

From the outside, it may look a little extreme rather than just dealing with the chaos but for me it is necessary to prevent sinful behavior … and the subsequent gossip that I will be tempted to engage in later.  

“Color coding” our lives can be a healthy way to establish reminders for us as we navigate life, not to limit us, but to find true freedom from the vices that take us away from peace. 

Share your thoughts with the Catholic Mom community! You'll find the comment box below the author's bio and list of recommended articles.

Copyright 2025 Kathryn Pasker Ineck
Images: Canva