help Us keep Julia safe//Managing her allergies:

• Julia is allergic to The Following (last update 10/6/25):

  • cashews, pistachios, walnuts, pecanS

  • Lentils

  • EGGS

• We are currently only feeding Julia her “safe foods” while we wait on IgE blood work results (blood work done on 10/9). Pending those results we will hopefully start to re-introduce or introduce other foods that are common allergens or potentially problematic for Julia given her food history.

• Do not feed Julia any of the foods she is allergic to. Read food labels carefully as nuts and lentils can be hidden ingredients in different foods (vegan foods, pesto, lots of asian cuisines, etc). Egg also appears under the names: ????,

• Do not bring any foods Julia is allergic to into our home. We are trying to ensure our home remains a very safe place for Julia, and given that she is at the stage of life where she explores by putting things in her mouth, keeping our home free of her allergens is very important.

• Please clean your hands/your child’s hands & face before you play with Julia

• Beyond these physical risks, the biggest other risk is social. Please keep loving, snuggling, and playing with Julia. She is a very sweet baby and she loves spending time with people who love her.

Epipen Jr—In the event of a major reaction

People can be afraid to use EpiPens because it can be unnerving to administer a shot, BUT if Julia is having an allergic reaction that includes ANY of the following:

1) Any signs of difficulty breathing—IMMEDIATE EPI

2) Any facial swelling

3) Vomiting + hives (more than a couple)

4) Full body hives

5) Major shifts in personality

6) Limpness or any changes in level of consciousness

THen GIVE HER the EPI PEN JR IMMEDIATELY

EpiPen Jr (adrenaline dosed for children) is THE treatment for a severe allergic reaction. It works best when given early in the allergic reaction. You do NOT wait until the symptoms have gone from bad to worse to give the shot. You give it when the symptoms first appear. EpiPens come in a two pack because there can be something called a “biphasic reaction” where the symptoms resolve but then return (this can happen in a matter of minutes or in a matter of hours). If you give Epi, symptoms resolve, and then reappear, go ahead and give the second Epi. Anytime you’ve given Epi you are also calling 911 and going to the hospital to be monitored (for possible biphasic reactions). Even if Epi wasn’t totally clinically necessary, it is much better safe than sorry. There are no major ill effects from using Epi.

Watch this video for a demo/information on EpiPens. Blue to the sky, orange to the thigh. Don’t pull the needle out too soon (or the medication won’t get in)… You’ll be nervous so sing a “Row Row Row your Boat” with the Epi Pen inserted to make sure you don’t pull the needle out too soon.

Our EpiPen Jrs are on the built in cabinet next to our dining table and inside our diaper bag.

Updates on allergen introduction and tolerance-last update 10/7/25

In essence Julia’s entire time of eating solid food has been under a shadow of food allergy. She had her first allergic reaction to cashew powder when she was six months old. Follow up skin prick and blood testing led us to hope that she was going to be able to tolerate the other tree nuts (beyond pistachio because a cashew allergy always means a pistachio allergy since they have such similar protein structures). We painstakingly introduced nuts—measured out doses each day, focusing on a new nut every week.

As we “cleared” a nut (which meant she’d eaten a teaspoon with no reaction and eaten the nut on five separate occasions, we added the nut to a “tolerated mixed nut butter.”

We had a major setback on June 10th where Julia reacted (face hives) to a teaspoon of mixed nut butter containing peanut, almond, walnut, hazelnut, and sesame that she had previously been tolerating. The feeding on June 10th was her 35th exposure to peanut butter, 29th to almond butter, 23nd to walnut butter, 18th to hazelnut butter, and 14 to tahini. 

Because the reaction on June 10th was a mix, we retested each of the nuts individually going even slower, starting with even smaller doses—working our way through these microdosing spoons the first three days, and then this miniature teaspoon set and then eventually to a 1/2, 3/4/ and full teaspoon. In this process, she reacted to a microdosing spoon of walnut (and walnut allergy means pecan allergy—they are sister nuts like cashew/pistachio).

She had a reaction to walnut on the afternoon of 6/14, which appeared to fully resolve without need for medication. But the morning on 6/15 she woke up early and started vomiting repeatedly and at one point a small rash appeared. Our pediatric urgent care line advised us that it could be a very delayed biphasic reaction and told us to give Epi and call 911 which we did. The ER doctor said it is unknowable whether this was a very ill timed, totally unrelated illness, or if this was allergy related.

She ended up clearing the other nuts that were in the mix, and we now feed those nuts individually—each 3x a week, 1/2 dose.

Unfortunately, history of tolerated food going the way of allergen repeated in September. One of the three meals we regularly fed Julia was kitchari. It is an Indian dish made primarily of lentils but other possible allergen ingredients are: peas and mustard seeds. She tolerated it—it was good baby food consistency—it was protein. It was food we all ate as a family. Then in September we noticed a few very small hives on her belly after she ate kitchari and then redness around her face the next time we fed it to her. This prompted going in for more skin prick testing on 10/2, which turned up the result of allergy to lentils.

Allergy to lentils brings a whole other class of food (legumes) into scary territory, because one legume allergy often means there are others. She did not react (skin prick) to soy or chickpeas or green peas—and she so far has tolerated eating peanut butter. But given our history of skin prick tests being negative, food tolerance for a time, and then allergy developing, we really don’t trust that any of these foods will remain in the clear.

On the morning of 10/3/25 Julia threw up three times after having a breakfast that included egg, cow milk, and hazelnut allergens, so we are now having to re-introduce those in small amounts and see if we are losing yet another food or foods. She was not otherwise ill and returned to seeming normal after that meal. We were advised to reintroduce these allergens separately in very small quantities to see if the vomit was random baby illness or connected to food allergy. On 10/4/25 I gave Julia 1/64 teaspoon of cottage cheese at 2pm and she began vomiting within 40 minutes. She developed a hive that resolved on it’s own. She continued to vomit, but would appear to be better for a while after each vomit. At 6pm another couple of hives developed on her forehead and she vomited again, at which point I gave her Epi and we called 911 and went to the ER in the ambulence. They monitored her for a biphasic reaction, but she was stable. We were advised that in some cases the biphasic reaction can happen after the standard 4 hour watch period, and that if she vomited again after we were discharged to return to the ER. At 3am on 10/5 she vomited again, so we gave her another Epi injection and returned to the ER where she was monitored and given additional antihistamines. We will be going back to see her allergist on Thursday for more testing.

Allergies are capricious. It is unusual to tolerate a food for a long while and then move into allergy, but Julia has shown three times now that she defies the odds. The truth is you can develop an allergy at any point in life, but Julia, given her multiple food allergies and having eczema is certainly at much higher risk of losing other foods. But we are also pretty profoundly worried about the fact that she is showing this unusual trend.

Additionally, keeping milk out of our house is a really big deal for Sylvie too as milk has been a regular part of her diet. It is feeling like a huge thing to manage Julia’s safety, Sylvie’s emotions, and our fear, stress, and sadness.

It is not hyperbole to say that thinking about allergies and her food occupies most of our brain space. We don’t want her relationship with food to be purely medicinal and prescribed, but given the reality of her allergies, it is hard for things to not trend in that direction. We also hate cajoling her into eating set quantities of foods, but that is our best hope for her long term allergy prognosis, so we are willing to deal with what we hope are several very hard food years if there is a chance that it will mean greater food ease for her later in life. Of course there are no guarantees, so this could be hard food years followed by a lifetime of hard food years, but we are going to try to retain hope that that will not be the case.

She is such a joyful and wonderful little human. We are so sad for her and for us that this is part of the reality. Food is so omnipresent and part of practically every social experience. It is hard that food feels so threatening and so stressful. There is something especially devestating about losing milk right before her first birthday. One of the ways I show love for my beloved children in my life is elaborate birthday cakes, and I had been imagining Julia’s for some time now.

We know this isn’t the hardest thing a parent could have to navigate by a very long shot, but nevertheless we are feeling very daunted by it at the moment. Centralizing where we share information is helpful because we are feeling snowed under by life in general + allergy, so we know we are not going to be the best at getting back in touch or sharing updates individually.

Beyond more hours in the day and more sleep— this video really sums up what we need most from other people in their communication about Julia’s allergy with us. Thanks for caring. Thanks for understanding that we are hanging on by fingernails and not at our best.

4) Pursue Immunotherapy

OIT for known allergens to help child develop a buffer against catastrophe