Alyssa has life threatening food allergies. Four years ago today she had a severe reaction that needed 2 epi pens to stop the violent vomiting, coughing and hives. Since that reaction she has become extremely anxious around food to the point that she has needed feeding therapy.

For awhile she had made a lot of progress with trying new things. Recently she has regressed. Honestly, her list of foods that she will eat is smaller than Courtney’s list.

Her anxiety is so intense that there are items she likes to eat but will only eat it if I make it because she’s afraid it would be made differently by someone else and then possibly not safe to eat. She basically won’t eat at other people’s houses except for Mac N Cheese at my parent’s house. While on our trip, she almost refused to eat her favorite chips because they were bought at a different store. I watched her cry in front of a bowl of Mac n cheese saying it smelled so good but she was too afraid to take a bite because we were at a restaurant, not home.

I know we have built the support team to help her through this but it still breaks my heart that a simple bite of a sandwich 4 years ago has lead us to where we are today.