K12Allergies

Katie (@Katiehollcreative – 9 years old)

k12allergies — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 18:28:00 +0000

Our first experience with food allergies was when our oldest, now nine, had her first reaction at 6 months old at daycare. There were certainly symptoms she experienced prior that could have alerted us to food allergies, such as eczema and excessive spitting up after eating, but it was initially always diagnosed as reflux until she had formula mixed with her oatmeal. That’s when we had her tested and found out she was allergic to milk, egg, peanut, and tree nuts. Fast forward, all three of our children have multiple food allergies, some anaphylactic. Between the three, we manage milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, and shrimp. We’ve done some oral challenges and have been able to cross some off, but each has epipens and also our oldest two have asthma.

We didn’t get a lot of information from our allergist apart from “avoid these foods” so it was a big learning curve navigating this new lifestyle. I found lots of useful information on the Food Allergy Research and Education’s (FARE) site and after a few years, found some great Facebook groups to connect and learn from others in the community. Other useful sites were FAACT and Allergic Living. I also wrote a children’s book about multiple food allergies to help educate and bring more awareness to the community in general.

Meryl (@merylottenstein1 – 18+ years old)

k12allergies — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 18:20:00 +0000

I had a reaction to nuts when I was 2 yr’s old. I saw many doctors as back then allergies were not very common. I was tested and was allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, and tomatoes. I also have asthma and oral allergy syndrome. I was on different medications and basically made sure not to eat anything with nuts in it. As I’ve gotten older my allergies have increased and I am now ana to eggs and allergic to wheat and many additives. I make sure to read all labels and have started cooking more. It can be very anxiety provoking and I am learning to do meditation and yoga. If I am in social situations where there is food I do not eat it if I feel uncomfortable. Many people don’t understand but I have to put myself first. We need to be our own best advocates. I use Flovent, Proventil, and Singulair medications.

I use FARE for information and many Instagram accounts that provide recipes and support. I believe in research and advocacy and hope that there will be a cure soon. Many more people have allergies today and it seems that there have been a lot of good changes. Social media is very helpful as well as the apps for eating out. It’s important to find a good doctor and always pay attention to symptoms. Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to speak up about it.

Iya (8 years old)

k12allergies — Sat, 21 Jan 2023 18:10:00 +0000

When my daughter was about 9 months, her preschool teacher called to let me know she was fussy and was tugging on her ears. I recommended some Tylenol since it sounded like an oncoming ear infection. Five minutes later she called and said my daughter’s face was swelling and they had to call 911. This obviously was very terrifying. I worked about 25 minutes away, so called my husband who worked locally to head that way. Luckily, our daughter was breathing fine. We took her to urgent care and gave her benadryl which helped with the swelling and itching. We believe she ate eggs for the first time that morning. This prompted allergy testing where we found out she was allergic to peanut, tree nuts, eggs, sesame. We later found out she has an allergy to green peas. She can now have baked egg. We think we will be able to challenge egg and sesame soon. We use epinephrine and benadryl as needed.

At first, we relied on our allergist and pediatrician for resources. When she was younger, I used relevant FB groups to see how other parents navigated certain situations. I’ve used the Food Allergy Fund and FARE as a resource.

Ellery (@wildnsun – 18+ years old)

k12allergies — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 22:47:00 +0000

I found out about my peanut allergy at 13 months old when I had my first anaphylactic reaction. Luckily, I’m currently working on overcoming my allergy through the Tolerance Induction Program! I currently eat 18 peanuts/day successfully

I don’t know what my resources parents used because I was so young, but the Tolerance Induction Program (aka TIP) can be found at https://socalfoodallergy.org/tip/

Zoe (@invisiblyallergic – 18+ years old)

k12allergies — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 22:45:00 +0000

I was first diagnosed at age of 2 confirmed to peanut. I was born with eczema and so they warned my parents I may have a food allergy and to avoid peanuts, at the age of 2 my dad unknowingly gave me a peanut butter cookie and that’s the only time I’ve eaten my life threatening allergen. I’ve avoided ever since and got official testing done as an adult where I’m off the charts to peanut and went into a anaphylaxis at the allergist to the peanut test.

We didn’t use any resources, when I was little it was the early 90s, we didn’t even have computers! Haha. There really weren’t any book or any other resources, either, at this time.