My son was diagnosed with his first food allergy – to dairy – through breast milk at three months of age. Egg followed shortly after that. At seventeen months, he had a full body reaction to a tiny amount of cashew. Our physician told us to clean out all dairy, egg, tree nuts, and peanuts from our home. We lived that way for nearly six years. Food allergies can be isolating and overwhelming. I’ve explored many options to make things better for my son. We’ve seen five allergists, including two at top academic centers before we finally found a team that is right for us. Using sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), we successfully desensitized him to egg, cooked dairy, and are on maintenance for cashew and pistachio. His nut allergies were so severe (IgE scores >100) that we didn’t expect him to outgrow them – our hope with SLIT was that he would simply be able to survive an accidental exposure. We’ve had much better success than expected, and as of 2023, he is currently able to tolerate the equivalent of 4 or 5 cashews or pistachios.

On April 21, 2015 my son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He had classic symptoms...excessive thirst, increased urination...and weight loss that we didn’t notice because we thought he “leaned out” from a growth spurt. Over the phone our pediatrician tried to ease my concerns: “It’s probably behavioral; I diagnose less than one child with Type 1 Diabetes in my practice every year.” I’d had gestational diabetes and had a glucometer at home so our pediatrician suggested we do a finger stick. When it read 412, we knew something was wrong. We packed up our bags (and a cooler full of allergen-free food) and spent the next five days getting a crash course in diabetes management at our local children’s hospital.

Everyone told me that we would have things “dialed in” within six months. But we didn’t. We had rapidly plummeting blood sugars (once it dropped from 330 to 43 in about half an hour), tried to guess at what 1/4 of a unit of insulin was in a syringe, and struggled tremendously. I called in a lot of favors in the healthcare community – and the consensus was that we needed to get another opinion because our situation seemed unusual. It turned out that my son was more insulin and carb sensitive than “average” - needing diluted insulin for nearly three years. In the early days, one Skittle would raise his blood sugar 10 points! Over time we’ve embraced technology, attended educational programs and diabetes camps, participated in clinical studies, and helped other newly diagnosed families.

For a long time, I thought life would never return to normal. Having a child with two life-threatening, chronic medical conditions is stressful and exhausting. I was overcome with fear about so many things. Slowly but surely our lives have resumed and the health issues have become background noise - on most days. Each thing we overcome builds my confidence for the future. And really, life it isn’t exactly like it was before. We moved to a different state in search of more sophisticated medical care. He has a 1:1 nurse at school to manage his health needs. And I’ve built the courage to travel – we’ve done several road trips during which we’ve visited multiple states and a ton of national parks!