Cooking during Covid
When our March 2020 state-mandated lockdown began, there were stories in the news about both parents contracting the virus. The focus was about how parents were caring for their young children while isolating. I kept telling myself it was an alarmist, far-fetched thought but I felt this added stress in our already highly stressful pandemic surroundings – What if that happened to us? How was I going to feed our allergic son if my husband and I were both sick with the virus and isolated from our kids?
There hasn’t been an occasion wherein a family crisis we could ever feel comfortable having family or friends drop off meals or treats to ease the burden. Our son’s history of anaphylaxis prevents us from this comfort. I prepare and highly scrutinize ingredients of every meal, snack, piece of candy, personal care item, dental treatment, and then some – anything that can come in contact with his hands and then to his mouth, eyes, face. There was a part of me that didn’t mind the lockdown, I often had said in the past “…if only we didn’t need to leave the house, life would be easier to avoid reactions.” Not leaving the house sounds insane right? But I actually got what I had thought of as incomprehensible. Beyond covert trips to the food store and wiping down our food in fear of contracting the virus, all would be good because we were in our home, where we’ve always felt most safe from allergens.
Soon after the lockdown was in full swing my husband and I began to show covid symptoms. We both tested positive and went into separate bedrooms in our house to isolate for the recommended 21 days (the standard at the time). But what I hadn’t anticipated was prepping our boys to step up and manage the house and feed themselves independently. At the time the boys were ages 10 and 12, so while capable, they were not very comfortable yet in the kitchen. Depending on who was feeling better, either my husband or I would FaceTime with our boys from our rooms or stand in our backyard, outside our kitchen window and teach them how to prepare food. My obsession with utilizing our freezer of individual servings of safe meals provided a steady supply of dinners. We kept meals very basic and easy and they began to feel more comfortable in the kitchen.
After my husband and I recovered, we discovered many silver linings while sick with covid – we gained the knowledge that our son can and will one day be able to safely manage food preparation for himself now in adolescence and into young adulthood, we realized we have an abundance of family and friend support that are able to listen and absorb the small nuances surrounding food, and most of all we are thankful for all those heroes who have helped my son navigate all of his medical challenges pre-pandemic and those same heroes fighting the fight for those not as fortunate through this pandemic.