When you have allergies, most of the time you go to a doctor called an allergist.

My allergist is a very nice man, who I have been seeing since I was diagnosed with my allergies when I was a toddler. I go about once a year. Each time they talk to you about your allergies, they ask if you have had any mishaps or reactions in the past year, and they sometimes refer you to get blood work done to monitor your antibody numbers. This is also the place where I had my “food challenges.”

One time when I was there my mom brought up something I had mentioned to her as a joke. I had told her that I wanted to cut up a muffin, with eggs, into super small pieces, and eat it little by little, and maybe over time I would grow a tolerance. I would never actually do that because I know how potentially dangerous It could become, but there’s that one part of me that just really wants to try it. He laughed and said, “We are not cowboys, we don’t do things like that.”

Now I know my method would never really work. It works in infants with products like Ready Set Food!, but because I am 17, and have had my allergy for way too long, it wouldn’t work for me. But I cant lie, some part of me really wants to be a cowboy!

Every time I see a pastry or something with eggs in it, I always think back to this moment. My friends and family always tease me for it. They say “we are not cowboys!” every time I say something about my proposed allergy recovery method.

This joke has gone on for a couple years, and I actually considered wearing a cowboy hat to an allergy appointment, but I thought against it.

Of course, I will never test my method, because I really don’t want to go through having a reaction, but I will definitely always joke about it, and in the back of my mind wonder, what if?

I think its nice to find the fun and silly parts of having an allergy, I even have egg socks that I wear quite often. Maybe I should get some cowboy ones too!

I’m sure your school has it, a table that is designated for people with peanut allergies. I think it is very considerate that schools have peanut free tables for students with severe allergies, but some schools, including my own, have taken it too far.

Yes, I am very glad my school has a peanut free table, and I’m sure the staff has the students best interest at heart, but man, do they like to advertise that table.

The peanut free table in my high school has a big black picture frame, probably over a foot long, with a bright purple paper inside, and the text states”peanut free area.”

You can see it from a mile away.

As someone with an allergy, I would not want to sit at that table. Its uncomfortable to be singled out, and frankly, high schoolers are mean. If I saw someone sitting at an allergy table, of course I would never say anything rude, but there are plenty of ignorant kids that are bound to make jokes.

In elementary school the peanut free table had a sticker on either end, saying that it was a peanut free area. I think this is a great way to discreetly let students know that if they need so sit there they can. When I think about it, the way my elementary school handled the issue should be what the high school does. A simple, quiet and discrete sticker is enough.

There is definitely no need for a bright purple sign!

When I was first diagnosed with allergies, the doctors told my parents I would most likely outgrow them by the time I got to kindergarten. Once I was in kindergarten, and my allergies were still there, the doctors told my parents that the science behind allergies is still changing, and now its looking like I will most likely outgrow my allergies around 5th grade. When I got to 5th grade and still had allergies, the doctors said I would probably outgrow my allergies anytime now. Between then and now, I did outgrow my peanut and milk allergy. I am still allergic to eggs, and it is likely that I will never outgrow that allergy.

The process of actually outgrowing an allergy is a crazy one. It starts with a blood test, which gives you a number. That number is the amount of IgE antibodies in your blood. When that number is high, it means you have a lot of antibodies to that allergen and most likely have an allergy to it. If your numbers are high, there is a chance that they can decrease. This happens over time, and you have a much higher chance of outgrowing an allergy before the age of 16. If you are tested and the number is low enough, your doctor might feel comfortable doing what they call a “challenge.”

For this challenge, they bring you into the office and orally give you an extremely small dose of an allergen. Then you wait 20 minutes, they come back, and if you haven’t had a reaction they give you a little bigger dose. This goes on and on and if you don’t have a reaction after a set amount of the allergen is consumed, then you are declared allergy free.

When I did this with both milk and peanuts, it was really scary. Its almost like your just waiting for a reaction to happen. Of course you are surrounded by doctors, but its still pretty nerve racking.

Also, allergens like milk and eggs take the challenge one step further. When I had my challenge for milk, about three years ago, we started with baked milk (something like a muffin). When you bake an allergen it looses some of its properties and you are actually less likely to have a reaction. Once I passed this challenge, we waited about six months. During that time I was eating baked milk regularly in order to keep up my tolerance. Then it was time to test real, raw milk.

Even though that was the third time I did this challenge, as I had already passed the peanut and baked milk ones, It was still just as scary. Not only was I scared of having a reaction, I was really hoping I would be able to finally have ice cream!

I was so excited when I finally passed. My mom and I went straight to the grocery store right after the appointment. We bought ice cream, yogurt, chocolate, and basically everything you can imagine with milk in it. I didn’t end up actually eating a lot of that though because after the test, and for a few days, I felt extremely sick. My stomach had never dealt with milk before, and it did not like it!

Once my stomach settled down, I was able to tolerate a little milk at a time. I would have a small amount of milk products throughout the day. After awhile though, I was able to eat milk products pretty normally. Now I can enjoy a big bowl of ice cream anytime!

Its been a crazy experience but I am so thankful that I was able to outgrow my milk and peanut allergies.

When I was in early elementary school, probably around 2nd grade, My mom and I went to the school to sign up for intramurals. It was this huge ordeal, where we had to stand in line for over an hour each year to sign up for different intramurals the school was offering. My mom and I got in line and soon a couple other moms got in line right after us. I recognized most of them, as their daughters were in my class.

They started talking, and because they were right behind us it was pretty hard not to hear what they were talking about. It was one of their daughters birthdays next week, and her mom was talking about what type of snack she was going to bring in for the class. I wish that’s where her conversation ended, but it wasn’t.

This mom started to talk about how she thought it was annoying that they had to make the treats allergy friendly. She went on and on about how much she hated it, “I mean who cares if the kid cant eat it.” I remember being petrified. Little did this mom know, the kid she was complaining about was standing right in front of her.

My mom heard the conversation too, but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t know if I was listening to them, and didn’t want to bring it to my attention if I hadn’t even heard any of it in the first place.

I don’t have many memories of my allergies before that, but I think that was the first time I ever felt guilty about having allergies. I didn’t realize how much of an inconvenience I was to some people. In my own house, I never felt that way. Even at my friends houses, their moms always had an extra treat that I could have.

Something like this was bound to happen, so I’m sure even if I never heard those moms, I still would have feelings of guilt surrounding my allergies. Even now, as someone who is sensitive to others thoughts and feelings, I cant help but feel bad when someone has to go out of their way to make me something different or get me something extra.

Slowly though, I’m realizing that I don’t need to feel bad. If someone does something extra to accommodate me, most likely, they are doing it because they care and because they want to. I don’t have to feel bad about that.

I was recently watching the show Shark Tank and these three entrepreneurs came on. They own a company called Ready, Set, Food! and they claim that their product can potentially stop your baby from developing food allergies to milk, eggs and peanuts. Of course, I was intrigued.

They continued their pitch and explained their product. They sell a powder, which contains a very small amount the three allergens. You add this powder, which comes in portioned packets, into breast milk, formula, or solid food, starting when your baby is four months old. They claim that if you continue this for around six months, or until your baby is regularly eating these allergens in their diet, it can reduce the risk of your baby developing allergies to these allergens by 80%.

I was shocked, confused, and really interested to learn more about this product.

At first I was thinking, there is no way this actually works, but after learning more, I think that this company is going to have a lot of success.

The science behind this product is that newborn baby’s are not born with allergies. Their immune system’s have not fully developed yet, so if you introduce allergens little by little, then you can stop an allergy from developing. Ready, Set, Food! has developed their product around three clinical studies. All three of them report that introducing allergens at a young age has reduced the rate of developing an allergy to that allergen by 65% or more. The Immune Tolerance Network stated in its clinical study, LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy), that for decades allergists have been saying to avoid potential allergens, such as peanuts, until the child is older in order to avoid allergies. But this new research is saying the exact opposite. Its starting to become clear that the advice to avoid allergens was wrong, and may have contributed to the huge rise in allergies seen the the past decade.

This is huge news and can shape the future of allergies. When I was little there was nothing like this around, in fact my doctor, like many others at the time, told us to avoid all allergens until I was a toddler. I cant help but wonder what would have happened If this product existed back then.

Ready, Set, Food! got a deal with Mark Cuban on the show, and I am excited to see them expand. This could help end allergies, and I think that that is really exciting!

Ready, Set, Food! : https://readysetfood.com/pages/home?utm_expid=.rJYX_LmtRL6-GFCcoZS9AQ.1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

LEAP Study: http://www.leapstudy.co.uk/

I love chocolate chip cookies! The taste the smell, basically everything about them. I mean, who doesn’t?

Even having allergies its still possible to have great deserts and meals! This is one of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes. Its adapted from The Simple Veganista, a vegan blog site. (They are linked below)

When making these cookies you can use gluten free flour, different types of milk, and whatever other substitutes you would like. This recipe can be made totally vegan and it can switched up to fit your needs. I even added some extra espresso chocolate chips to mine!

Here is a short video on how to make these great cookies! Enjoy!

This recipe makes about 20-24 cookies.

Recipe Credit: https://simple-veganista.com/

Having allergies, I am always on the lookout for restaurants and bakeries that are allergy friendly. They don’t have to be totally vegan, they just have to have some good allergy friendly menu items, or even just have good service.

 Here are some of my favorites!

5) Any restaurant that has an allergy menu

I know this isn’t any specific restaurant, but  I wanted to start off by mentioning these places. It seems so simple, a list of allergens and what foods at that restaurant have them, but so many restaurants don’t have these menus. What I’ve found is that fast food and more casual restaurants tend to have an allergy menu. So this applies to chains like McDonald’s, Moe’s, and even places like Outback Steakhouse. Most likely if they are a bigger chain with a website, they have an allergy menu. It’s such a simple yet beautiful thing. 

4) Clementine Bakery, Brooklyn NY

Clementine Bakery in Brooklyn New York is a great vegan bakery and they serve all sorts of desserts and sandwiches. They are not 100% allergy friendly because they do use soy and nuts in some of their food, but it’s a great place where you can be sure to find something you’ll love. 

3) Disney Restaurants

The restaurants and food stands at Disney World and Disneyland are very accommodating. In my experience, If you let your server know that you have an allergy in your party, they are more than willing to accommodate you. Their service is very good and it leaves you confident that you are in good hands. Disney is also starting to add more vegan meals to their menus!

2) Dun-Well Doughnuts, Brooklyn NY

As someone with a milk and egg allergy, I had never had a real doughnut, until I went to Dun-Well Doughnuts. They are an all vegan doughnut shop, who serve great coffee too. They have tons of flavors and the doughnuts are beautiful. This bakery is warm and inviting and I had a great experience here!

1) Erin McKenna’s Bakery NYC, Orlando, and LA

Coming in at number one is Erin McKenna’s Bakery. This is the first vegan bakery I ever went to and I’ve been back multiple times. I still remember walking in that first time and thinking, “Wow, I can have everything in this store, there is nothing I’m allergic to in here!” It was a great experience. The NYC location is small but very cute. I have also been to the Orlando location, which is a lot bigger, but has the same great treats! For anyone with allergies this bakery is a must. 

I should clarify, Whole Foods is a great place. They carry many vegan and allergy friendly brands, which is really awesome. I just have one issue, their made in store items.

I first went to Whole Foods about five or six years ago. I don’t live super close to one so its not that convenient to go, but when my mom heard that they had a good selection of allergy friendly foods we made the trip. It was cool to be able to go and have pretty much a whole section where I could have mostly everything.

Over those past few years, my mom has gone about once every four to five months and picked me up some vegan desserts and snacks.

Around a year ago, my mom was there and she found the Whole Foods brand made in store section. They had a selection of vegan treats we never knew about. My mom would always buy the Abe’s or Divvie’s (two great allergy friendly brands) desserts that While Foods supplied, but she had no idea that Whole Foods had their own vegan deserts too. So of course she bought these two beautiful chocolate cupcakes.

When she got home I was so excited and I ate one of the cupcakes right away! It was great and it was cool to find anther desert I could have!

A couple months later, my mom went back and picked up some more Whole Foods brand treats. They were marked as vegan and I was really excited. When she got home I took a huge bite and it was great, until I realized something wasn’t right. I was having a reaction. We double checked the packaging, but it claimed the cupcakes were vegan, meaning no eggs, no milk. I should have been fine. We treated the reaction and I was OK, but it was frustrating, where did someone mess up? We ended up calling the store, just to explain what happened in hopes of helping other people who were possibly about to be in our situation. They weren’t sure exactly what happened either, but most likely the cupcake was mislabeled.

If you are selling food, your ingredients and labeling must be correct because that could have been a lot worse. Imagine you gave that to an allergic toddler who cant speak for themselves when somethings wrong.

Even after this experience, I still love Whole Foods. I think its really cool that they carry vegan brands that a lot of normal grocery stores don’t. I just don’t buy their made in store treats anymore. I’m sure it was a one time thing, but why take the risk. I’d rather get what I know is safe, and enjoy that.

I’ve had the conversation hundreds of times. “Do you know if the hamburger bun has eggs in it, I am allergic to eggs” i’ll say when ordering. “The bun is gluten free” the waiter replies. What?!?

That’s not even close to the same thing, but you wouldn’t believe how many times that has happened. After reading through many different allergy food blogs, I know i’m not the only one this happens to.

I was in New York City visiting family and we decided to go out to dinner. I asked the waiter about the bread on the BLT. Once again I received the, “Oh i’m not sure, but we do have gluten free options.” I took a deep breath and replied that it doesn’t matter if it’s gluten free or not, I’m allergic to eggs. “Oooh, ok. Well I’ll go check,” was her response. She came back and said no egg in the bread!

Or so we thought.

When the sandwich came it looked great, and I started eating. I was three or four bites in and I realized something wasn’t right. My throat and back were getting itchy, and my lips were starting swell. My parents didn’t even have to ask what was wrong, they could tell by just my expression. I quickly took benadryl and we had the epipen ready, although lucky the benedryl was enough. I’ve been in that situation one too many times, and it can be really scary. My dad ran over to the waiter and the manager and told them what was happening. They apologized profusely and took the sandwich off the bill. In the end who knows if the waiter really checked the bread, or she if she made a mistake, or what happened, but that could have been life or death. Sometimes I dont think waiters understand the importance that they need to be correct in what they say, especially with allergies.

Restaurants aren’t all bad though. Sure you run into some bad waiters more often than not, but every once in awhile you get some great service. I’ve had waiter tell me that they too are allergic to eggs, and they will tell me what they like to get at the restaurant. We’ve even had the manager come to our table to check up on us and make sure everything was working out. Especially at places like Disney World, the staff is incredible with allergies. I’ve had them make something that wasn’t even on the menu so that I could have a meal close to what I originally wanted.

Service like this is so heartwarming and kind that most of the time, it can make up for the bad experiences elsewhere.

My name is Anna, and I have had food allergies my whole life. I was born allergic to milk, eggs, and nuts, but now I am only allergic to eggs. I outgrew my milk and nut allergies around the same time about 4 years ago. According to FARE, food allergy research and education center, one in thirteen children have allergies, which is about two in every classroom. They also state that each year 200,000 Americans require emergency medical care for allergic reactions.

Of course allergies aren’t the worst thing in the world though. Avoiding certain foods is possible, and if you take precaution then you can be just fine, but that doesn’t mean that they are easy. Especially when I was younger, it wasnt that I couldn’t physically eat the birthday cake at a friends party, it was that everyone else was eating it and I was the odd one out. Even now, especially as a shyer person, it’s hard to be singled out in situations like that. But, having allergies has definitely helped me grow. It has forced me to learn to speak up for myself, and to always be prepared. I’ve also learned that sometimes being the odd one out is not always bad. There are entire bakeries and brands made just for people with allergies and food sensitivities, in my opinion, that makes us pretty special.

I’m excited to share my perspective on allergies and talk about some of my favorite, and least favorite experiences, restaurants, brands and more!