Cheryl Marks Young

7 Products to Consider for Your Allergy Kit
One of the things allergy parents learn quickly is that there are a host of tips and tricks other allergy parents have mastered through their journey that can help you, too. From stickers to backpacks, these parents will happily share the products and ideas that make their MVP list! Sounds great, right? Before you track down a group veteran allergy parents and curate a list from scratch, try these: Stickers – Some households opt to make their kitchens free of the things their allergic family member(s) can’t eat. Others don’t. Your family will need to make the choice about which...
Cheryl Marks Young

Summer Socials: Don’t Let Food Allergies Steal Your Fun
The weather is getting warmer. The days are getting longer. Schools are wrapping up their program year. Summer is here, and you have the burgeoning social calendar to prove it. There are barbecues and picnics and graduation celebrations, not to mention the assortment of birthday parties and family get-togethers. As fun as all this friend-and-family-time can be, there’s also a layer of stress for the food-allergic family. Will there be safe food? What if Great Aunt Edna decides to lavish hugs and kisses on my toddler after eating a slice of her famous cheesecake? How do I handle the disappointment...
Cheryl Marks Young

Food Allergy 101: How to Read a Food Label
Your child was just diagnosed with a food allergy, or maybe it was your child’s friend, or your sister, or maybe it’s you. Regardless, someone you care about has entered this world where the wrong thing on their plate could kill them. That’s scary, right? You’re going to want to help keep this special person safe, but where do you start? You’ll need to get a handle on a lot of information from how (and when) to use an autoinjector of epinephrine to what precautions this person needs to be safe out in the world. Yes, the volume of information...
Cheryl Marks Young

Looking for Food Allergens Beyond Your Plate
You’ve got this allergy thing down pat. You’ve gotten good at scanning labels in the supermarket to make sure the cereal you’re about to toss in the cart is nut-free. You’ve learned that sometimes milk shows up in things like hot dogs – a good reminder to check packaged foods even if you think they’re safe. You remember that sometimes companies change their processes or their recipes and so you check the label on that old reliable go-to snack just in case it now contains egg. You do deserve a pat on the back. This allergy stuff can be tough...