A Teen's Voice

Emily Smith is a 16 year old teenager with severe food allergies to tree-nuts. I found her blog teenfoodallergies by accident when I was researching about teens with allergies. After reading Emily’s blog, I immediately liked her. She is a teenager who is going through her teen years with confidence and a sense of humor in spite of her severe food allergies.

In one of her posts “The Dangers of Chutney” she describes her terrifying reaction one Thanksgiving to some chutney that has walnuts in it. Emily describes her physical and emotional reaction to the chutney with such total honesty that showed a lot of courage. Emily writes “i panicked, texted my boyfriend that i was scared i was going to die.” She goes on to write “My mom and sister surrounded me and hugged me, trying to calm me down, and eventually i did. My mom then informed me that she would have to give me an epi-pen.” They then went to the hospital where she was given meds through an IV and was eventually sent home.

For most people with food allergies, their reactions to food allergens is few and far between, which is a good thing, but when a reaction does occur, panic sets in. It helps to have someone there to help you calm down and administer the Epi-pen. Emily has advice for those teens with food allergies.

1.  “Freaking out” is not a good thing. You should take deep breaths and stay calm.
2.  “Trust your gut.” If you think you are having a reaction, then you probably are having a reaction.
3. If you can, find someone to help you (friends, family members).
4. The Epi-pen does not hurt that much so do not be afraid to use it if you need it.

I read this post to my daughter and told her that I now have a better understanding of what she goes through when she has a reaction. I also told her to please listen to Emily’s advice if a reaction does occur. We need to have more teens expressing the struggles they go through on a daily basis. I hope Emily continues to post to her blog so that other teens, including my daughter, can learn from her.

How Are Allergies Like Getting a New License

The night our son got his license, he wanted to drive to his friends’ house to hang out for the evening. Yeah, I was so excited that he was starting to become more independent. This excitement lasted about 5 minutes and then the panic set in.

Admit it, those of us with driving age teens know what I am talking about. Or maybe you can still recall those years when your children started to lean to drive. You start out with this feeling of excitement. Imagine a fist pump here. Yes, now I can send someone else to the grocery store for milk or luncheon meat or a sister pick up from horseback riding.

Then reality sets in and you start realizing that your child will be driving by themselves or with friends and you are no longer in control. Thoughts like where are they going, will they be able to drive in this weather and is the other driver paying attention start bombarding your brain. It’s like a game of ping pong in your brain. Thankfully he and I both survived his first and many trips out since. Although, I no longer feel panic when he goes out, I still have a sense of worry I know will probably never fully go away.

That got me thinking about another time that I felt that total and complete lack of control and this brain ping pong of worry that comes with being a Mom. It was last fall when my daughter was invited to join her youth group to a corn maze and cookout an hour away from our house. Hot dogs, s’mores and a night time race through the corn maze sounded awesome to my daughter. It was the first time she was going to be that far away for close to 6 hours. She was truly on her own and would have to be able to check the food ingredients and make sure that she knew what to do in an emergency.

Katie was thrilled. She wasn’t thinking about the details, she was thinking about how much fun she was going to have. On the other hand, I was trying to figure out what foods she could and could not eat and how to make sure everything was covered for any kind of emergency. So I contacted her leader to tell her about the allergies, got a list of food they were having and where they were going. Next, I made sure she had her phone, Benadryl and Epi-pen and we made sure she was confident using them.

On the day of her trip, I sent her with her special buns, potato chips she could eat and her non-dairy chocolate for the s’mores. That’s when the panic started to set in. How was she going to do this all by herself? What if she eats something she is allergic to and they are in the middle of nowhere? How am I going to make it through the whole day without worrying?

I have to admit that I did text her a couple of times just to make sure she was having fun. That’s what cell phones are for, right?! As it turned out she had a great time and with no problems at all. As a parent we need to realize that, just like with my son, there are times that we are not going to have control of our kid’s lives and that’s okay. While it is our job to worry about them, we must also let our children have the opportunity to develop their own independence and confidence to make the right decisions on their own.

Three more years until Katie drives……urghh!!