I’ll never forget Veterans Day, 2017. The day that my husband and I had to give our 6 year old son an epipen for the first time since we found out 5 years and 4 months ago he has food allergies.

Dealing with food allergies on a daily basis is not an easy task, and it’s especially hard when dealing with multiple food allergies. From what we know, our son is allergic to:

-dairy
-eggs
-soy
-peanuts
-tree nuts
-seeds
-and now, pea protein

I get so many questions as to how and why these things happen, and to be honest, there is no TRUE answer as to why food allergies are so prevalent in modern times. I have my theories, but that’s for another post.

So to tell you how and why we got to the point of the epipen being a necessity, I’ll just tell you what happened.


My husbands whole family was in town for the weekend to visit. Since my youngest son’s (Gabriel) birthday was the following weekend, I decided it would be a fun idea to get him a cake to celebrate his birthday with everyone. For my son, Leo, who is allergic to everything listed above, this is a normal occurence unfortunately – to have treats around he can’t eat. But I’m always prepared with allergy safe cupcakes in the freezer for him to enjoy when other treats are around.

I was attempting to make my own frosting for Leo while my husband was getting a cake, but unfortunately, the can of coconut milk I had wasn’t great and the fat hadn’t separated properly from the milk. So I thought to myself, “luckily I snagged a tub of the So Delicious Coco Whip and it’s sitting in the freezer.” I had given Leo a lick of it a few weeks prior, and usually a crumb sets off a reaction, so I thought it was safe since he didn’t react to that lick and I used it as the frosting for the cupcake I had for him.

It was not safe.

Within 5 minutes of eating it, Leo came to his dad and myself while we were in the kitchen serving cake and said his throat hurt and he couldn’t swallow. These are NOT things any parent wants to hear.

We immediately took him to the bathroom to get him out of the hustle and bustle of the kitchen so we could check him out. My husband asked Leo to open his mouth so he could look inside and it was too painful for him to open it. I ran back to the kitchen to grab the Benadryl, epipens, and a bowl for Leo to vomit into (a usual reaction as it’s the bodies normal response to “rid” itself of the food it’s combating).

I poured the Benadryl and told Leo to drink it, but he fought us on it slightly as his throat hurt too bad. He finally drank it and when my husband simply touched Leo’s throat, he winced and cried even harder than he already was. We looked at each other and I immediately said “I think we have to do it.” My husband agreed right away and we calmly said to Leo, “buddy, we have to give you the epipen. It’s the only thing that will help you right now.”

Leo HATES needles to the point where he tried running out of a doctors office once without his pants or shoes because he didn’t want a shot. But I will tell you – HE DIDN’T HESITATE FOR A SECOND.

He is only 6 years old, but I think even he knew in his gut, this was not an option. I took his favorite yeti pajamas off him, knowing he would want to wear them when we got home from the hospital. I laid him across our bed and laid down next to him, wrapping my arms around his little body and pulling his head into my chest. I laid my leg on top of his, and my husband grabbed Leo’s thigh and put the pen in. Leo screeched but didn’t even try to pull away. I laid there for a few seconds crying softly and shushing him as he cried. We then immediately threw some clothes on him, and my husband took him to the car. I grabbed my purse, the epi we used, the extra epi, the tablet, and a water for my baby boy.

Where we injected the epipen.
The epi we used.

It’s recommended that after you administer an epipen, you should go straight to a hospital for further evaluation in case the epi dose isn’t enough, to monitor the heart rate, oxygen levels, swelling, stomach, etc. Luckily, the hospital ER we went to was very nice and accommodating and got us in a room immediately.

Leo was flustered and wasn’t really registering everything that happened, but he was okay. The swelling had gone down about 90% by the time we got to the hospital. Thank God he was okay.

I’d like to take a moment right here to also acknowledge the fact that just because someone who is having an anaphylactic reaction is given an epipen, it does NOT mean that they are safe. I know many people think epi’s are a guarantee, and though they are amazing and life saving, even an epipen is not 100% guaranteed to work.

The nurse and doctor looked him over thoroughly, and gave him a steroid to drink. Then we waited. We had to wait 4 hours after the administration of the epipen and we had gotten to the hospital within 30 minutes of giving it to him.

Leo was so bummed he had to wait at the hospital, but when I pulled out the tablet, he was consoled a little! My husband was also thoroughly impressed I grabbed it, but I reminded him I’m always having to think ahead with Leo’s food allergies and this was no different.

He ended up playing Mario for a bit and then binge-watched Pokemon and drank apple juice. My husband ended up going back home for a bit to get Leo some food since the adrenaline and steroids made him extremely hungry. And with his food allergies, there was nothing we could get for him AT the hospital to eat.

As it was getting time to get released from the hospital, the doctor was doing another once over on Leo. He admitted that he didn’t appreciate the swelling in Leo’s throat upon arrival (since most of it had gone down by the time we got there) because his throat was so much more open and clear 4 hours later. He also said that he felt we did the right thing by giving him the epi, to which I said “I have full confidence and don’t question one bit our decision to give it to him.”

Happy to eat and go home soon!

Now this week we have to be even more vigilant than normal (is that even possible??) of the food’s he is allergic too, because after a reaction like that his body is on high alert to react to anything in his system that it feels should not be there.

I tell you what, though. As a mother, it was a crazy emotional rollercoaster. Though we were calm, I cried a lot because it was something I never wanted to happen to my son. And I never want it to happen again, though the likelihood of that being the case for the rest of his life is slim to none. I was scared, calm, frustrated with myself, happy he was okay, praying to God, exhausted, and felt broken and put back together all in one night.

But now that it’s over, the next steps for us are to get him to the allergy doctor and have him tested for this new allergy and to share this information with everyone we can so they know how serious and scary food allergies are.

I encourage you to share this blog and comment with your own experiences below. It’s only through our stories that we will make a difference and be able to join hands to educate the world on food allergies.

p.s. I spilled water all over myself in the hospital. Because, why not?! There wasn’t enough to deal with…