Rare But Strong Together!

Tomorrow we celebrate a very important day, Rare Diseases Day! This is a world-wide day to raise awareness of rare diseases and support for those affected by them. FPIES is a rare disease and tomorrow as we join others in celebrating this day, FPIES children and families will be on our minds and in our hearts!

Since we are a crafty bunch around our house, I created a craft for B to do in honor of the day. It is a representation of the Rare Diseases Day logo. You can do it with your LO or with all of your LOs too! You can do what we did-- trace and cut out the handprints on colored paper-- or you can use paint for the handprints, or any other art media that is appropriate for age, stage and allergy. Here are the steps!

1. Trace and cut out three handprints of your child/children--- one print pink, one green, one blue. Trace a gingerbread boy/girl cookie cutter on white paper and cut out the shape.

2. Paste the green handprint laying on its side, fingers pointing to the left side of the paper. Paste the blue handprint slightly overlapping, with the fingers pointing in the opposite direction. For glue, we used those colored glue sticks-- looks purple until the glue dries. Love them!

3. Apply glue to the pink handprint and place it on the paper in the middle of the green and blue prints, but this print will be upright. Apply glue to the gingerbread cut out and place him/her in the middle-bottom of the pink handprint, upright.

5 Show off your craft!

So for all of you with small ones, this can be a fun way to celebrate the day with your kiddos. For siblings, you might want each child to contribute a hand print for extra fun, or have everyone make their own picture and then display them together, like a quilt. I made a big version with my handprints too, and B liked that we were doing them together. Solidarity, mamas and daddies!

For more information on how you can take part in rare diseases day, please visit http://www.rarediseaseday.org/article/get-involved

For more information about FPIES specific activities for Rare Diseases Day, please visit The FPIES Foundation's facebook page. TFF is an official partner of Rare Disease Day and is so pleased to be supporting such a worthwhile and meaningful cause!