Do you remember your first kiss? I do. It was messy and awful, but I still couldn’t wait to tell my friends. I never shared this milestone with my mother though, as we did not have that kind of relationship at the time. I knew, however, that if I ever had children, I wanted to be the type of parent who shared these life milestones. After my first daughter was born, I thought about how I would react in these moments. I pictured us giggling together over the awkwardness and excitement, then sharing my awkward first kiss story with her. However, when my daughter told me about her f ..read more

    As an allergist, the number one question I get from patients and friends is: "Why are food allergies on the rise?” I always get excited when asked this, because it is a topic we do not discuss enough nor have general awareness about. With food allergies more than doubling over the last couple of decades, we have an epidemic on our hands, but the reasons for this rise are not well known. There are a few leading theories behind the rise in food allergies. One is the “hygiene hypothesis,” suggesting our children’s increasing lack of exposure to germs (including bacteria, viruses, a ..read more

    It goes without saying that the food allergy community loves a good acronym—OFC (oral food challenge), IgE (immunoglobulin E), GF (gluten-free), and OIT (oral immunotherapy), to name a few! ?  Today we’re digging into a relatively new acronym that’s quickly gaining popularity: SLIT (or sublingual immunotherapy). This one is of personal interest to me because my daughter recently started SLIT drops for her seasonal allergies after years of navigating the stress and pain of weekly allergy shots. What is SLIT? Sublingual immunotherapy is a fairly new way to treat allergies. Th ..read more

    Have you ever thought you planned for every worst-case scenario as a parent, only to find there was one critical item you left out? In the summer of 2022, our then-11-year-old daughter Adina came down with strep throat while at sleepaway camp, almost three hours from our home near Minneapolis, Minn. Fortunately, the camp staff were well-informed of her celiac disease, eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), and various food allergies, and knew not to administer any medications without parental approval. However, we still found ourselves in a situation neither we nor the camp medica ..read more

    Eating out should be a pleasurable experience—a chance to unwind and savor a delicious meal while leaving the cooking and cleaning to someone else. But when you have food allergies, dining out can be anything but.  Managing a food allergy means worrying about the safety of your food virtually any time you eat foods prepared by others. Often, it means relying on waitstaff to inform you as to the safety of your food. But what if they get it wrong? Fear not! We're here to help you navigate the restaurant scene with confidence. We’re sharing our top tips for communicating your needs ..read more

For at least 14,000 years,* humans have been baking bread. A recent archeological dig in Jordan revealed that our early ancestors appeared to make a kind of flatbread from barley, wheat, oats, and the roots of a flowering plant called club-rush tubers. We were indeed bakers before we were farmers and hunters! This means that despite the popular notion of the pre-historic meat-eating man, our earliest ancestors were probably nibbling on crackers. ? Bread’s universality lies in its simplicity. With just a few ingredients you get a vast assortment of shapes, sizes, textures, and flavors: pita, n ..read more

    We were on our Hawaiian honeymoon, savoring a sunset meal, when I reached for the last onion ring in the basket. It was not until I had completely polished it off that I remembered onions are a major FODMAP—a big no-no if following a low FODMAP diet—a protocol I started two weeks prior. The low FODMAP diet began as a last-ditch effort (after countless other elimination diets) to manage the gastrointestinal discomfort that I experience virtually every time I eat. Having experienced this misery since birth (my parents still recount my screaming and crying after each meal as a baby ..read more

    These can be dreaded words to hear when you have a food allergy or a food intolerance. As someone who has managed multiple intolerances for years—and who has a daughter with nut allergies—it’s a question that pops up frequently when I’m eating out. Here are my first thoughts when I get this question: Do they treat intolerances less seriously than allergies? If so, should I worry about the degree to which they will ensure my food is safely prepared? Why don’t restaurants maintain the same protocols for both?! Before I share a personal story about this topic, let’s do a quick food ..read more

    If you’ve been part of the food allergy community for a while, you likely remember the EpiPen pricing controversy. If not, here’s a quick recap: Between 2009 and 2016, Mylan (the owner of the EpiPen epinephrine auto-injector) increased the price of this life-saving medication from $103 to $608 (a 590% cost increase!). Back then, there was only one alternative on the market, giving Mylan an effective monopoly. Unsurprisingly, many could not afford the medication at this higher price point, and frustration among consumers, healthcare workers, and lawmakers quickly spread. Then wha ..read more

    Most experts agree: gut health is important for a healthy pregnancy. What we’ve learned in recent years, however, is just how important that connection is. Research is increasingly showing that the gut microbiome during pregnancy plays a pivotal role in a baby’s early health trajectory.   What is Gut Health Anyway?  Gut health is about fostering a healthy community of bacteria in the microbiome. Factors like diet, exercise, medication, and genetics can all play a role.  Different aspects of gut health—i.e., inflammation, immune responses, and barrier strength ..read more