Julia Marino

My 15 month old daughter, Kelsey, is allergic to peanuts. We found out when she was given a little bit of peanut butter on a cracker at daycare. She got hives and red, swollen eyes that got a little better, and then got worse around dinner time. My pediatrician said to give benadryl and keep her away from peanuts. Luckily a friend advised me that this allergy can be very serious. I found this website and a support group in my area, both of which recommended seeing an allergist. A skin prick test confirmed the allergy, and we now have EpiPens, just joined FAN, and have started to process of learning to live with this. I'm an information scientist working in a corporate library, so I'm planning on digging up all the information I can find! Luckily Kelsey seems to love all food so we should be able to get her to eat a good diet w/o nut products. My 4 year old son, Christopher, is a recovering peanut butter addict who has been remarkably cooperative in our effort to remove all nut products from the house. Right now I'm most concerned with: 1) minimizing risk for Kelsey without overprotecting, 2) the fear of undisclosed nut protein in products, and 3) educating those around us in a positive way. This website has been a real lifesaver for us already and I want to thank everyone who works to make this happen. Julia