My friends and family all know no matter how healthy I plan to eat, cookies along with most sweets are a big weakness of mine.

But it wasn't until this week when I interviewed Julie Smith (see page 1) that I realised how much I took my sweet tooth for granted.

Mrs Smith's son Zachary has severe food allergies to nuts, dairy and eggs.

He is only age6 but has been on a special diet since he was seven months old.

When his mum told me what Zachary was allergic to I thought about all the things he would miss out on.

I can't imagine growing up without being able to drink milk or eat yoghurt, cheese, scrambled eggs and peanut butter.

He's obviously a tough kid and has very supportive parents to help him.

The family is also helping other children living with food allergies through their website, allergykidzware.com.au.

They have a range of shirts, bibs and food bags which they created to help stop cross contamination when children are away from home.

It would be an enormous responsibility for parents to ensure their child didn't share their food with other kids in the playground.

Last week was Food Allergy Awareness Week and with the help of Mrs Smith Wollondilly Anglican College held a Cookie Caper day to raise money and awareness.

The children had to guess what ingredients were left out of the cookies on sale at the school canteen.

More than 350 cookies were sold in 30 minutes which raised $250 for Anaphylaxis Australia.

Mrs Smith said she had a tear in her eye when every child in Zachary's class lined up with their gold coin. She said he was so excited that everyone was eating his special cookies.

It's fantastic our schools get involved to support individual children and their families.

Our photographer was treated to one of the cookies when he visited the school last week and said it was delicious.

It can't be easy to live with a severe food allergy but lucky for Zachary it certainly helps if your mum can bake a mean cookie.

mfenech@fairfaxmedia .com.au