Empowering Your Food-Allergy Child Matters, Even If You’re in OIT, Xolair or They Might Outgrow It
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UPDATED February, 2025
If you’ve ever wondered when to start teaching your food allergy child the skills they need to manage their food allergies independently, let me tell you—you’re on the right track by asking!
The truth is, you can’t start too soon. Kids who grow up seeing smart, safe food allergy habits in action are so much more likely to carry those habits into their teen years and beyond. That’s why what you do now lays the groundwork for their future confidence, independence, and safety.
Not only that, but they need these essential skills as they journey through school. Of course, when they’re little, they need extra support from their teachers and parents, they’re not meant to to it alone. But empowering them with good allergy habits early allows an extra level of security and confidence.
So in today’s episode, we’re talking about 3 surprising reasons to empower your food allergy child—starting right now. Stick with me because I’ll share 6 easy ways to start!
Whether they’re still in preschool or already eyeing middle school, there are simple, practical ways to help them build the skills they need to navigate life with confidence.
Hey there, I’m Corinna!
I help food allergy parents keep their kids safe and worry less at home, school, at social events, and while traveling. I’m a Food Allergy Mentor and Travel Agent!
Grab my free Food Allergy Kids Empowerment Guide to get a full list of skills to teach your child and fun ways to do it!
Why Empowering Your Food Allergy Child Matters
I think as food allergy moms, we all want to hope that our food allergy kids will outgrow their allergies. And I want you to be encouraged, because it’s a possibility OR, if that doesn’t happen some families decide to take on treatments like OIT or TIP or Xolair and it gives them a feeling of safety. This is great, I love that, but as a 17-year food allergy mom, and a daughter who can now tolerate traces of allergens because of OIT, I want you to know that it is still REALLY important to empower your kids with the habits and tools they need to keep themselves safe. Yes, even once you can tolerate traces of allergen, you still need to be able to ask questions about ingredients and advocate for yourself. I did a whole episode about what it’s like to be able to handle cross-contact/contamination in episode #42 so listen to that if you’re interested.
But in case you’re wondering, I have 3 reasons why empowering your child is so important to start now. I think you might be surprised at some of these.
You don’t know how long it will take to outgrow (or if it will happen), or if the treatment will work. There are no guarantees with treatments. Will they work for your child, or maybe they work, but then they don’t, or maybe the treatment becomes overwhelming and just isn’t right for your family. Of course, hopefully they will work, and it won’t be an issue, but if they don’t, you lose all that time while you’re waiting. In some cases it might be years of treatment or waiting to outgrow, all the while, you could be using that time to create an empowered child who feels confident managing their allergies.
2. They Build Safe Habits That Stick – Kids who grow up learning how to read labels, ask about ingredients, and carry their epinephrine are more likely to make those habits automatic as they get older. The earlier they start, the more second nature it becomes.
3. It Reduces Fear and Anxiety – When kids understand their allergies and feel confident in managing them, they’re less likely to feel scared in new situations. Instead of avoiding experiences out of fear, they learn how to navigate them safely. And knowing your child is prepared makes a world of difference for your stress and mental health too!
Remember, it can seem easy to hide in the “bubble” that you create where you keep your child safe from food allergies. But the time comes sooner than you think when your child will become more independent.
It’s never too early to start empowering them with the knowledge they need to be strong advocates for themselves.
Now that we know why it’s important, let’s get to som essential waysto empower your food allergy child.
1. Explain what you’re doing to keep them safe and why.
If you keep your child safe, but never let them in on what you’re doing, they won’t understand the responsibility and won’t be used to it when it’s their turn.
For example, when you read labels make sure to let your child know by saying things like: I’m going to make sure this food is safe by reading what’s in it. You can even show them the list as you do it. As they become better readers they’ll start to learn the words they’re looking for.
Another example is talking through things as you’re grocery shopping. You can say “I’m reading this label to see if this is safe for you. If it’s not, we will find something else.”
The cool thing is that as your child grows, they’re going to become a helper & you’ll be able to transfer the responsibility to them easier when the time comes.
2. Carry the epinephrine everywhere.
Always make a point of bringing the epinephrine you use everywhere you go. Show your child that you are bringing it and start to “hype” the fact that when they’re bigger they’ll get to carry it themselves. By making it exciting and special now it, will help them be more eager to carry it later. For example, you could say, I’m so lucky I get to carry the epinephrine now. Once you're bigger, YOU will get to carry it! Won’t that be exciting?”
This positive reinforcement is so valuable as they grow.
We’ve always had a rule of thumb that says no epinephrine, no eating. This hasn’t always been easy to follow. I remember this one time when we were going to a family’ member’s to have dinner. We knew this family member was good about cooking for my daughter, and we didn’t feel nervous about it, yet we wanted to ensure that we followed through with what we said. In this case, we only remembered that we didn’t have the epi after we had already traveled halfway there. By going back to get the epinephrine, we would add at least 30 minutes onto our already long drive. BUT, it's exactly these times, when it doesn’t seem easy that it SHOWs our kids how important this is. It’s when we follow through like this that will imprint into our kid’s minds and show them that they need to do the same, even if their friends are pressuring them not to, or they feel like it’s too much work.
I’m not perfect with this, and nobody is, but I hope that this story will encourage you to do the HARD and right thing when this comes up. Remember how important it is to make a point of it and show your kids it’s important and follow through so that your kids will make more of an effort themselves as they get older too.
3. Have them explain their food allergies to others.
Let your child tell others about their allergies as much as possible from as young as possible. My kids were pretty shy, so this didn’t come easily for them, but if you can gently encourage them as much as possible. Start with people they know and are comfortable with, and go from there. As they get older, it will help them to become more confident. As they say, practice makes perfect!
4. Making Epinephrine a Normal, Positive Part of Their Life
One of the biggest ways to empower your child is by talking about their epinephrine—but in a way that makes them feel safe instead of scared. The goal is to help them see it as a helpful tool, not a scary last resort.
A great way to do this? Practice often! Let them use a trainer on their stuffed animals, dolls, or even on you (if they like role-playing). When they see it in action and get hands-on experience, it becomes less intimidating and more of a “this is just what we do” kind of thing.
But here’s the key: The way you talk about it matters. Keep it positive and focused on how it helps them feel better if they ever need it. For example, instead of saying, "You have to carry this in case you have a reaction," you can say, "This is your special medicine that helps your body feel better super fast if you accidentally eat your allergen."
And when they ask, “Does it hurt?”—because you know that question is coming—be honest, but reassuring. We said things like:
“It will feel uncomfortable, maybe like a pinch, but it won’t last forever. The best part is that once you get the shot, you’ll notice the reaction stopping and you’ll feel WAY better.”
You could even show them how long to expect it by counting to 3.
It’s all about familiarity and positivity. The more they hear about it in a calm, matter-of-fact way, the less fear they’ll have if they ever need to use it. And that confidence? That’s what we’re building toward.
5. Put a medical bracelet on them with their food allergies listed.
This is especially important if you’ll be leaving your child at daycare or day camp or summer camps. The medical alert bracelet is what emergency personnel look for to help them understand what’s going on with a patient. The sooner you can get them wearing one of these the better. In the beginning, it will likely be a plastic version that can get wet. Then as they grow, you can get different styles depending on their age and lifestyle. Once your child has a phone, you can put their allergies and epinephrine information into the Medical ID of their phone. This way, emergency services will be able to access the information from their phone.
6. Wash hands before eating.
I love this one, because its helpful to keep the family healthy too. The best way to remove allergens is by washing hands thoroughly using soap and warm water. That said, IF you can’t wash hands, the next best option is to wipe hands with a wipe, not hand sanitizer.
Please note that hand sanitizer DOES not remove allergens from hands. It only smears them around. It is the physical action of wiping and washing that removes the allergens. So the best bet is hand washing, and the next best is wiping. My daughter and actually everyone in our family, except my hubby who relies on us to do it, carries a pack of hand wipes in their purse and we use it before eating.
The quicker kids get into this habit, the better because it’s useful at school too.
Conclusion
I hope this helps you get started on a road to empowering your child with food allergies. Parenting is hard and can be a rocky road, but we can do this!! Getting our kids into the swing of healthy food allergy habits now will only help them (and us) as they get older.
If you like this topic, you can get my FULL GUIDE for Empowering Your Food Allergy Kid. You’ll get what I taught my daughter, PLUS what I WISH I would have taught her, now that I look back. It’s free and you can grab it here.
Let me know in the comments, what tip is most helpful for you? How will you empower your food allergy child?
