My Story & Lessons Learned the Hard Way

I'm the mother of two boys, one with multiple life threatening food allergies. I'm thrilled to be writing for PeanutAllergy.com and hope that my blog posts bring you the information you want and need.

My oldest son was diagnosed with multiple life threatening food allergies shorty after his first severe incident. He touched a cutting board I had chopped walnuts on and rubbed his eyes. He immediately had an anaphylactic reaction. Luckily it resolved with Benadryl.

Lesson 1: Listen to your instincts. My son had prior indications of potential allergies: mysterious cases of hives, spitting out food and scratching his tongue. Our pediatrician told us to keep him away from things that caused reactions. Never once did he suggest allergy testing.

At age 3 we took our son on his first trip to Disney World, flying on Southwest Airlines. We shyly mentioned his allergies hoping the flight attendants would make an announcement. Their response was that we could inform the passengers around us. Half way into the flight my son picked up a toy on the floor from between the seats. When he stood up he started to cry, cough, and rub at his face. We immediately gave him Benadryl fearing administering the epi pen on the plane. We told the flight crew we thought he was having an allergic reaction. He continued to cry and fuss until he passed out, luckily in a deep sleep. The passengers around us became agitated and the flight crew assured them their was just a tired and fussy child on board.

Lesson 2: Research airlines, cleaning policies, and allergy protocols beforehand. Don't be timid or shy about requesting accommodations. We now NEVER fly Southwest.

I enrolled my son in our school districts integrated preschool thinking it would be good for him to be in the school he would eventually spend many years in. Coming out of a nut free preschool, it never occurred to me to ask what the school or district allergy policy was. The school agreed to a nut free classroom but back pedaled after a parent complained that her child stayed full day and could not bring a peanut butter sandwich. The school determined that the classroom would be nut free half of the day since my son only attended half day. I immediately spoke with the teacher, principal, school nurse, and superintendent of schools and explained how severe my sons allergies were and the dangers of cross contamination. They made me jump through many hoops before agreeing to a plan. It was and still is my opinion that a classroom is either nut free/safe or not. There is no way to make a classroom nut free/safe part of the day.

Lesson 3: Before enrolling a child in school, find out what the school's policies are regarding food allergies. Find out if there is a full time school nurse, if the staff are epi pen trained, and get at minimum an Individual Health Care Plan in place before starting the school year.

My son is now well into Kindergarten and we have a pretty firm school plan in place. I have what I think is a good handle on his allergies and how to manage them. Since his diagnosis I've become interested in disability law, food allergy advocating, and helping others. I spent over a year working on an allergen free food business idea to eventually let that idea go in favor of spending more time with my family. I've since founded Best Allergy Sites-an allergy site and blog directory, and I volunteer as a support group team leader for a local chapter of the Asthma Allergy Foundation of America.

The above are just 3 of my allergy life lessons, I've of course learned many more that I hope to share with you in future blog posts.

Looking forward to it and happy to be here!
Ruth Smith