(Read part 1 and part 2 off this account first.) The aftermath of discovering my son’s food allergies was a blur of research and education. I was not only educating myself on the details of cooking and eating around a food allergy, but I was educating everyone in my son’s life that would be remotely involved in feeding him. If we went to a potluck, everyone there had to know that he could absolutely not have peanuts. People offer kids treats and cookies all the time at parties. I can tell you that I will never give a child food … Continue reading →

Read part 1 of this account of my son’s first major allergic reaction here. After about 24 hours and multiple doses of Benedryl, the last of the hives slowly disappeared, leaving us only with a frightful memory of the allergic reaction and a mission to find out the severity and scope of his allergies. We wondered, what else was he allergic to? Could the next reaction be fatal? Fortunately, his one-year well baby visit was that week, so we decided to deal with it at that visit. His pediatrician referred us to an allergist. The wait time was over a … Continue reading →

There is a lot of conflicting advice out there concerning when to introduce high risk foods like peanut butter to your child. The recommended age ranges from 1 to 3 or 4 depending on who you talk to. When we were deciding on a time line for our family, we considered our family history with food allergies. There is none! I decided to go ahead and do a small trial run with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which was made with a very thin layer of peanut butter. Immediately I noticed he did not seem to like the peanut … Continue reading →