Rice ice-cream and allergies

24th March 2012
Saturday

We haven't had much luck in terms of attendance at the kindergarten. The number of days that we have had a perfect register is less than the days with absences due to illness.

Outi, (I still feel wrong when pronouncing her name but it is close to how we say Audi) has been off because her kids are not well. She has it tough. Her kids have terrible allergies and suffer from seizures and reflux - she doesn't get much sleep. She is limited to six food stuffs she can feed them and has to spend a fortune on supplements.

She had an official day off work a couple of weeks ago and set off in the car with her husband and kids at 4.30 in the morning;

To go and see a doctor five-hours drive away.

Apparently, one of only two doctors in Finland who has experience in dealing with the type of problem her kids have.

The other day at the swimming pool with Minna and Esa and the boys, I had a rice ice-cream. I've never had a rice ice-cream before and I was quite excited.

I had tofu ice-cream at the school the other day because one of the kids whose birthday it was can't have milk products.

Both ice-creams were perfectly ice-cream like. Very nice in fact.

There has been a rise in the number of allergy sufferers in Finland over the last few years, more so than in neighbouring Russia. People here say it is because children's natural immune systems are weakened due to the greater degree of hygiene; Finland is too clean (i.e.; it's cleaner than Russia. i.e.; Russia is dirty).

Others say these problems have increased together with other illnesses since Chernobyl (i.e.; Russia is to blame).