louise on the left (coast)

I know this kid. @juliet_larsen

The year, 1998.    My daughter is one year's old.    I'm a first time mom of 37 with a bad case of laryngitis on the day of this segment. I was still reeling from having nearly lost my child to a danger I never realized existed until my child walked into the kitchen, pointed to her mouth, her eyes rolled back in her head, she fell to the floor and stopped breathing. This video is about the day (one of them) everything changed.

Great article by Christine Peddle in Allergic Living Magazine  which is always full of amazing information and entirely up-to-date info regarding auto-immune issues and allergies. And this edition has an article featuring someone very dear to my heart:  My eldest daughter, Juliet Larsen, who, in spite of life-threatening food allergies has found the courage to pursue a professional modeling career since the age of 14. NOTE: Juliet Larsen to address Teens at FARE Conference this Sunday, Long Beach, CA.  She will discuss how she felt growing up with this particular food allergy and how she did not let her fears of anaphylaxis stand in the way of following her dreams regarding participating in sports, theater events or even a professional modeling career.   **This Sunday, Long Beach, California at the 2015 annual  F.AR.E. Conference.

Okay, didn't write this myself, however a subject near and dear to my heart.   New state law will require schools to stock EpiPens for students with allergies Orange County schools are gearing up to supply the  epinephrine  auto-injectors used to treat anaphylaxis . BY DEEPA BHARATH  / STAFF WRITER  Published: Dec. 16, 2014 Updated: 7:47 p.m. Juliet Larsen was only 15 months old when she took one bite of peanut butter. In less than two minutes, her heart stopped beating. “We took her to the hospital,” Louise Larsen, her mother, said about that day in 1997. “We almost lost our daughter.” Louise Larsen has been one of the most vocal advocates on social media and through her blog,  parentsofkidswithaseverepeanutallergy.blogspot.com , to make EpiPens mandatory in public schools. The devices are essentially auto-injectors that use epinephrine to quickly treat anaphylaxis, a severe, whole-body allergic reaction to allergens such as food, drugs or insect bite

Reporter: Christine Peddie at christine@allergicliving.com  Senior editor, Gwen Smith, at gwen@ allergicliving.com.   If this article made a difference to you, do share your thoughts with these two from Allergic Living Magazine as they were the ones thoughtful enough to share our story with their readers!   -- Thank you!  -- Louise Larsen

Thank you Asami Photography for shooting me for Zooey Magazine . I am beyond excited to have my story featured in the next edition of Zooey about having a child with a life-threatening allergy to peanuts . Juliet and I had an amazing shoot today at our very humble abode from under, as you can see here, very blue skies.

22 year old young man turns himself into jail for a misdemeanor of pot possession, tells the jail about his his life-threatening food allergies, stated they had a medical file about his life-threatening health condition in their possession already and even asks prison guard about the ingredients of his food, then later begging for medical help - is abandoned and left for dead in his jail cell. This is how our country deals with food allergies in institutions?  They just walk away and let people die? Horrific and upsetting.  His mother is filing a lawsuit and I hope she wins every penny and raises awareness about how institutions disregard the severity of food allergies in all institutional settings. So heartbreaking.

As the mother of a food allergic kid, I know what it's like to anger people by requesting they make changes in how they eat or prepare food. Food is primal, and requesting changes about something primal is hard.  I've been on the food allergy road already, and it's not easy, I'm on it, 24/7. (I founded the blog  Parents of Severely Peanut Allergic Kids   as on a successful group on  Facebook .) However, right now I'm talking about something very different, and not really connected to those issues, I'm talking about changing how we feed children in schools.  I'm talking about why we need to teach them about food and nutrition earlier than in high school. The reality is, the school lunches they're serving the kids roughly 180 days a year are unhealthy and actually hurting our children, and it's not the school cafeteria's fault, it's the state and federally mandated choices that are in  need of rethinking. Support Food Education

Here's a strong piece about how deathly food allergies can be. I would like to see an american group carry on the wonderful awareness project here in our country. Sometimes it seems that Canada and the UK are light years ahead of America in warning people about the dangers of these deadly reactions. (I'm sure it has nothing to do with Peanuts being a major US export.)

to finish the statement in this blog title: ...is very nerve-wracking. My roots need touching up, to say the least, but my daughter is home, now, safe and sound. Thank God. I have some photos sent up to the school site from her teacher of her trip to the San Bernadinos last week in the snow. I have all sorts of thoughts, opinions and advice for others who may have a peanut allergic child going away for a week. But, in order to not repeat myself on various blogs, I'm going to add the link to all my postings on THIS particular subject here: http://www.peanutallergy.com/boards/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/253221/fpart/1