The Day Everything Changed: Our Wake-Up Call to Food Allergies

Let’s fast forward to May 2021. Theo was 18 months old, and I had just had baby #3. I was in a full postpartum fog, just weeks into my maternity leave. Our daycare had unexpectedly closed, and I was home with three kids: a 3-year-old, an 18-month-old, and a 4-week-old.

As life goes with a brand new baby, I was trapped on the couch nursing Brooklyn, while the boys were playing. The boys, being typical toddlers, weren’t playing with the pile of toys they had; instead, they were playing in the kitchen. They were right behind our island, and I could only see a glimpse of them playing in a box of baby bottles. Then Benjamin brought over a bottle, and it had something in it—I was confused. I laid the baby down and realized what they were doing… they had opened my protein powder and were putting it in the baby bottles. My first thought was, *OMG, what a mess.* Before I could even finish that thought, I saw Theodore rubbing his eyes and starting to cough—I figured he had inhaled some powder. Then I thought to myself, *I better check the ingredients in this stuff.* I had specifically switched to a dairy-free powder, but this was before we knew he was allergic to all soy and peas. Sure enough, as I checked the ingredients, my heart dropped—pea protein was one of the first ingredients.

By now, Theo was coughing and crying for Mama over and over; his voice was so raspy. I instantly panicked with a million thoughts, knowing what I needed to do but terrified to actually do it. I truly didn’t think I would ever need to use his EpiPen, but seeing his whole eye swell almost shut and hearing the constant coughing and wheezing, I knew this was actually happening and I needed to act. My hands shook as I dialed 911 and administered the EpiPen. The ambulance arrived very quickly, and he already seemed to be breathing better.

Meanwhile, Benjamin was running around with his protein-powder-covered hands. Picture those videos of kids playing in flour… except it was protein powder your child was allergic to, and it was all over the place. I hosed him down in the bath as fast as I could, and my amazing neighbor ran over to watch him for me.

I was able to bring Brooklyn with me, and we rode in the ambulance to the hospital. As they monitored Theo, I was wiping him down as much as I could to get any residue off him.

We spent the rest of the day at the hospital, hooked up to monitors and watching out for any further reactions. We were stuck there for hours, but thank God his hives were fading, the swelling in his face had gone down, and I could finally breathe again.

While we waited at the hospital to go home, my amazing in-laws went to our house to watch Benjamin. They deep-cleaned the house to get the powder disaster under control, which I was stressing out about bringing Theo home to. It took a whole lot of people dropping everything to come help us, and I am very grateful for them.

Looking back and knowing what I know now, I realize just how uneducated and unprepared I was for this scenario. No one really went over what an allergic reaction might look like. Besides what I had seen in movies, I didn’t really know. When Theo was diagnosed with these allergies, I was just told to eliminate the food. I actually had to ask for a prescription for an EpiPen. This life-changing, traumatizing experience really made me dig deeper into educating myself. Since then, I have done a lot of research on food allergies so I could be the best advocate and keep my son safe.

I hate that I have this memory, and his little raspy voice crying for Mama will never fade from my mind. It’s extremely hard to look back at these photos and think about that day, but this is the moment I became the mom Theodore needed me to be. The mom who will never stop advocating for him and searching for ways to change his life—which led me to this exciting path to food freedom we are about to begin!

The pictures below are from the hospital once things settled down a bit and his swelling was coming down a bit