Longest 20 Minutes of My Life | An Epipen Experience
Originally published August 14th, 2014 Last night, we experienced our worst parental fears in the life of an allergy kid. I guess we knew it would happen. Eventually; we were just extremely proud of our 3-year track record of defending our little angel from the foods her body considers toxic. To set the scene, she […]
Shayla Explaining what Food Allergy Symptoms are like for a 7 yr Old
Shayla wants to do her part whenever she can to help teach other kids about food allergies. Here is a (rediculously cute) video of her explaining what symptoms feel like, in her own words.
We have kept her alive for 7 years!
On her seventh birthday we celebrate her, and give ourselves a tiny pat on the back for keeping her mostly safe for all these years. I always go back to this blog post and re-read my words and feelings from the night we felt the full wrath of living with food allergies. Last night we […]
What is the #1 Question We Get
What is the #1 Question we get almost daily? We partially answer the question most people
I Never Thought Dinner at Disney Would End in Tears | Food Allergies
When we booked our trip to Disney, I never thought that tears would be part of the Magical Experience. For nearly six weeks leading up to our trip to the Magic Kingdom, approx 3 to 4 times a day; Jen religiously checked the Disney World App for reservations to Be Our Guest restaurant. […]
Managing Shayla’s Allergies & Asthma on the Road
I remember vividly, some of our first conversations while starting to think about our trip. Our first and primary concern, had nothing to do with what we do with our house while we were gone. It didn’t even revolve around how to we run our business from 3000 miles away. Instead, our main concern centered […]
Middletown CT Tree Lighting | Trip to the Hospital
On the night after Thanksgiving, we typically attend the annual tree lighting in downtown Middletown. This year was no exception, but as anyone with an allergy kid knows, every social event is a ticking time bomb. The beginning parts of the evening went well. Lots of great songs and celebrations. After wandering down Main […]
Wheat Challenge Allergy Test Results
Today was the big day. The “CHALLENGE” at the Allergist’s office. What is a challenge, why is it done, what can we learn from it and what will it do to change our life or not?
Memorial Day 2012 Camping and Another Allergy Mystery Solved
Memorial Day Camping 2013 Our next camping trip was Memorial Day 2013. We chose to stay in Connecticut so that we can travel quickly and enjoy a short holiday weekend stay. We chose a great little family campground call Ross Hill Campground. It rained for a couple of the days, but we had fun regardless. […]
The Hits Keep Coming. More Allergist News.
We brought her back to the allergist in October for full followup. We introduced the questions about her asthma and he gave us a full nebulizer kit to keep on hand. At this time, and the main purpose for this appointment was a full workup and testing for the “top eight” allergens. Dairy, Soy, Egg, […]
Shaylas Kitchen
It was now the Summer of 2012 and I had booked a series of shoots in Cape Cod for a group of different families. We thought about making a mini vacation out of the time we needed to be there, but wait; what will we do for Shayla’s food? She can’t eat at any restaurants […]
Owning the responsibility.
As time progressed, we learned quickly if Shayla was around dairy, she would break out in hives. We didn’t know then but now just sitting in a Starbucks for more than 5 minutes makes her turn red, and begins to wheeze. So the days of making pizza in the house and going to restaurants, were […]
Are we alone?
At her 15 month pediatric appointment I explained to the doctor about her allergy diagnosis and asked if I could take her off the formula yet. The doctor responded with “Yes, of course; as long as you give her yogurt and stuff like that to supplement”. WHAT! ! ! I am pretty sure my mouth […]
The Allergist and the Process of Elimination
Finally the allergist appointment had come and we might finally get some answers. They skin tested our little girl for dairy and soy, to help determine what formula she could tolerate. We learned that day she had a dairy and soy allergy and they suggested we stick with the Nutramigen formula and then come back […]
The First Time (Shayla’s first Allergic Reaction)
At Shayla’s 6 month appointment; I again brought her symptoms up to the doctor and they said well maybe an allergist could give us some more answers. Well that was progress anyway. I immediately made an appointment with the allergist but was not able to get in to the office until late October. That meant […]
