dogs

Lei (18+ years old)

We found out about our daughter’s allergies when she reacted with hives to peanut butter at 5 months old. We saw an allergist, who found allergies to peanut, dog, dairy, and egg. Since then, she’s also reacted to flax and cashew. We’re still in the thick of it and learning fast, but we’re on a list to start OIT (oral immunotherapy) and are working on egg and dairy ladders.

I’ve found it helpful to follow content creators of food-allergy kids, as well as joining allergy parent groups on Reddit and Facebook. The biggest help has been finding people who can relate, since I don’t know anyone in my life who deals with food allergies.

We used Rupall medications.

Ham (1 year old)

I knew from birth since he was born with a weird rash all over his face and body. I knew that allergies would play a part in these skin issues since I myself have skin issues related to foods and so does my other daughter. Months go by and we start experiencing worsening eczema and vomiting… although my breast milk was 100% dairy free, he was still having severe reactions after drinking breast milk so I decided to find a formula option that might help him. I switched to a soy formula so I could allow dairy to completely leave his body which cleared up the vomiting issues we were having but the eczema still persisted especially around his eyes, arms and legs. At 4 months we were able to get a scratch test done which proved a dairy allergy and a severe egg allergy as well. I was cooking and consuming eggs daily in our home and he was exposed to them via breast milk and through skin contact. That day we became a complete egg free home and much of his eczema started healing. From then on we have been on the allergy journey slowly introducing foods one at a time mostly with negative results but luckily we have a handful of good safe foods. We fight allergies and eczema daily in our home and continue on our journey figuring out what this little one can and cannot be around. Currently he is allergic to eggs, dairy, peas, dogs, clover, bananas, and other fruits and veggies that we suspect could be a form of oral allergy syndrome. We hope our journey can help spread knowledge and awareness about how people living with allergies face life everyday from birth and beyond.We use topical steroids, Benadryl when needed, and an EpiPen prescription.