It is interesting when you have kids with food allergies because you come to realize that your semi-controllable ritual is what you rely on most in your day.  You live your life like a scientist in that you want things that “work” and do not cause “allergic reactions” to become the norm.  You want things to remain the same from day to day.  Take something as simple as Almond Milk.  For those of us with kids with food allergies to milk (and not almonds), the Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla almond milk has been a staple in our home for almost 8 years now.  After trying a number of different “non-milk” alternatives, our family settled on the almond milk product.  And honestly, so did I.

It is actually a great milk substitute for a number of reasons but one of the biggest ones is that it has 0 grams of sugar.  This is a big one because if you are required to substitute one product (low-fat milk) for another (almond milk), your hope is that you would have a healthier solution than your initial choice.  And for our family, it was definitely that.

Now fast forward to the beginning of September 2016.  On a typical Sunday afternoon Costco run, as we are checking off our Costco list of essentials for the week, we head down the aisle that would normally carry the Almond Breeze almond milk.  After searching a bit and then re-checking the end-caps to see if it had moved, it was no where to be found.  They were out….or so I thought.

After we checked out, I went over to speak with one of the managers at a terminal and I was shocked to learn that they were not carrying the brand any more.  WHAT?  HOW COULD THIS BE?  After all these years….no more.  Being the persistent person that I am, the next day I reached out to Blue Diamond and sent an email.  Additionally I sent an email to Costco.  And then, I received back the bad news I was hoping to not receive.

Thank you for contacting Blue Diamond Growers. We appreciate your feedback and sorry that Almond Breeze is no longer at your Costco. Unfortunately this was a decision made by Costco. We will certainly pass along your comments to our Marketing and Sales team that work directly with Costco. You can also help us by going to the Members desk and requesting the Store Manager to please bring back Almond Breeze. Meanwhile I can send you some money saving coupons for your efforts and dedication to Almond Breeze.

ARGGG!  This is a bad dream.  Does this mean that as a food allergy parent I am actually going to have to shop at Whole Foods (sorry…..but no offense) to buy another “specialty” item that is going to add another large expense to my monthly bill.  In an act of desperation, I did notice that there was another “almond milk” product that Costco was carrying….but after bringing it home, my wife quickly pointed out the fact that it was “non-vanilla” and contained “a ton” of sugar.  This would have to go back.

Now fast forward to today.  After a last minute Costco run this evening, and after checking out, I decided to speak with a manager again about the almond milk situation.  My plan was simple.  If I could find a location that had the product, I would just drive there and buy several hundred dollars worth of almond milk.  Why not?  It has a huge shelf life (usually more than 1 year) and if it meant that I was going to save a lot of money then I would be completely justified in my decision (even though I would most likely hear a long speech from my wife on my insane decision).

The manager types at his computer a moment to tell me what I already knew.  The Blue Diamond brand was no more…but then he said something interesting.  He said that there was an “alternative” Kirkland product.  Huh?  What did that mean?  So, I politely asked if he could show me what he was referring to and guess what.  There it was.   In a NEW BOX.  A NEW product I have not seen before.  A KIRKLAND REPLACEMENT for the Blue Diamond Product.

And now….Thank You Costco.  You have just launched “Organic Unsweetened Non-Dairy Vanilla Almond Milk).  When you look at the packaging it is clear that it is being marketed for the Smoothie market….but that does not matter to me.  It is the same package….at the same price.  Thank you Costco.  Thank you Costco.  Thank you Costco.

As you can see by the photos, the product seems to be identical.  Next time you are at Costco, if you have been searching high and low for the almond milk, the love for Costco has returned.

Last Saturday we decided to take a trip up to Sierra Madre to visit the family.  Instead of going to one of the old stand-by’s (like Subway, Chiles, etc)  we went with more of a local establishment.  The situation in the restuarant will be familair for those of us who get to deal with food allergies on a daily basis.  Being in a new and unknown restaurant can make for an incredibly stressful and uneasy situation.  In these situations, you have a few options.  You could have prepared food for the meal ahead of time (which is always the best choice).  You can run out and get one of the meals from fast-food restaurants that are predictably safe.  Or you can hopefully explain your food allergy situation to someone new and hope that they understand the gravity and severity of it.  On this rainy day in November…we chose the last choice.

The waitress comes to the table.  After she takes the initialy drink order, you kindly explain the food allergy situation with her.  She appears to understand and you examin the menu for what would appear to be the best choice knowing common ingredients that might be troublesome.  The waitress takes the order of everyone at the table and then you carefully ask question regarding a potentially allergy-free item on the menu.

The waitress explains that the dish is free of (you can insert your allergy or allergies here).  She runs off with your order and disappears into the kitchen to speak with the staff and now the trust begins.

After about 20 minutes, food is delivered to the table.  Everyone begins to eat.  A plate of innocent looking spaghetti is placed in front of our daughter along with a bowl of cut up fruit.  We ask the waitress again about the existence of “milk” or “cheese” or anything else that might be milk-related.  Again, she assures us that everything is fine.  Again…we trust.

Our daughter jumps into the bowl of fruit and it is demolished within minutes.  Over the next minutes our daughter slows her pace and just looks at her plate of food.  She has not taken a bit and we sense that she is hesitant.  She is seven and well aware of the negative consequences of eating the wrong thing.  She too has heard all of the conversation up until this point…but is still not ready to try the plate of food.  My wife leans over and asks our oldest if she would like to ask the waitress another time if the spaghetti is fine.  She says she does and after several more minutes, we hail the waitress back over to our table.  

Again we ask the waitress about the whether or not the food is safe and she kindly says she would check again and then disappears back into the kitchen.  After several minutes, she appears again and insures us that there is absolutely no dairy in the spaghetti.  Our daughter finally is able to trust and is able to eat some of the spaghetti.

At this point, I am not going to end this story with some horiffic situation of how we had to rush our daughter to the hospital after that lunch.  We had no issues or problems during that meal.  No hives.  No reactions.  No EpiPen.  No trip to the hospital (alhtough secretly I knew there was a hospital exactly one mile down the street).  Everything was fine….but there is definitely a huge element of trust.  Trust for my wife and for me.  And especially trust for my daughter.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1

For most situations, parents are going to feel the most at ease when they have personally prepared a meal and make 100% sure that their child’s food is safe.  However…there are going to be those unavoidable situations where you may have to extend a level of “trust” to someone else.  In those situations, just make sure that you look to Lord for your protection and safety.

If you are anything like our family, just the thought of good Chinese food can bring a smile to your face. But if your kids have food allergies, then most of the time you will be avoiding Chinese resturants at all costs. But we have discovered some good news at one of our favorite resturants….P.F. Chang’s.

On our last visit there, we were on a mini-vacation and really had thought that our best option for our kids was going to be plain chicken and white rice. But after speaking with the manager of the resturant, it turns out that on request, they will provide you with a detailed list of items that are “safe” for a specific allergy. The key is that you will want to request this each and every visit, but as you can see by the image below, if you child is allergic to milk (like ours), then you actually have a lot of great options for food at the restuarant.

So when you and the family feel the urge for Chinese food with your food allergic children, then consider a visit to P.F. Chang’s where they can provide some very detailed information regarding a multitude of food allergies.

Is it just me or has the Costco shopping excursion become a staple of the weekend family ritual?  From this parent’s perspective, the love of Costco centers first aroiund savings, secondly around the amazing free food cart samples inticing you at every aisle and lastly knowing that the Costco “return policy” is on part with Norstrom’s.  All of these things combined insure that we come back over and over again….the lure of $1.50 hot dogs, inexpensive movie tickets, 20 pound bags of tortilla chips and filling up on the lowest gas in the city.

However, on the dark side of any store that serves free food samples, especially from the perspective of a parent of kids with food allergies….Costco can be a very challenging experience.  Most of the time, the “sample” food carts are seldom serving “safe” foods…so attempting to keep Child 1 and Child 2 content while shopping can be a challenge.  Can I have that?  Can I eat that?  Every corner is filled with no’s and more no’s.  For a while I have known about the “safety” of the Costco Fruit Smoothie…which I typically can easily feed 2 to 3 kids and provide a safe food treat while I shop through paradise.  As with any food item, I check the ingredients on every visit…but ultimately, it does help get me through the store easier than having to say “no” every 22 feet.

Today while at my local Costco, I was able to get a copy of the “Costco Food Court” Nutrional and Allergen Data (Dated 3/16/2011).  This sheet contained a detailed list of the food allergens found in food items at Costco; namely, Wheat, Milk, Egg, Anchovy, Tree Nut, Almonds and Soy.  The contents has been summarized in to the table below.

As always with all things relating to food allergies, it is always advised that you should ALWAYS request for the current food ingredients for the items that you are ordering.  Food recipes can change at any time and a food that may have been safe in the past…may not be safe now.  In other words, please do not ASSUME that the information above is correct or accurate.

The allergen information in the table above is to merely help “guide” you to discover new “options” on food items offererd at Costco that may give you new options when shopping with your children on your next visit.

Richmond, VA (November 20, 2017) kaléo, a privately-held pharmaceutical company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for AUVI-Q® (epinephrine injection, USP) 0.1 mg, the first and only epinephrine auto-injector (EAI) specifically designed for the treatment of life-threatening allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in infants and small children weighing 16.5 to 33 pounds (7.5 to 15 kilograms) who are at risk for or have a history of serious allergic reactions.

The sNDA for the AUVI-Q 0.1 mg Auto-injector was granted Priority Review by the FDA, an expedited regulatory pathway reserved for products that may provide significant improvements in the safety or effectiveness of the treatment, diagnosis, or prevention of serious conditions when compared to available therapies.

AUVI-Q is a compact epinephrine auto-injector with industry-first features, including a voice prompt system that guides a user with step-by-step instructions through the delivery process, and a needle that automatically retracts following administration. The new 0.1 mg-dose epinephrine auto-injector has a shorter needle length and lower dose of epinephrine than current FDA approved 0.15 mg and 0.3 mg epinephrine auto-injectors.

Children are increasingly being treated for anaphylaxis. There was a 129.8 percent increase in emergency room visits for anaphylaxis among children four years old and younger between 2005 and 2014.i According to a study published in Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology, 43 percent of children weighing 16.5 pounds (7.5 kilograms) to 33 pounds (15 kilograms) treated with a 0.15 mg EAI having a standard 12.7 mm needle length are at risk of having the needle strike the bone, therefore potentially impacting the administration of epinephrine during a life-threatening emergency.ii The needle length in AUVI-Q 0.1 mg was specifically designed for use with infants and small children to help mitigate this safety concern.

“Today’s decision by the FDA to approve the AUVI-Q 0.1 mg Auto-injector is exciting for all of us in the life-threatening allergy community who have been working for many years to fulfill this unmet medical need,” said Spencer Williamson, President and CEO of kaléo. “As a company that focuses on patients first, and providing potentially life-saving treatments, we are particularly glad we will be able to help caregivers by providing an EAI that was specifically designed with an appropriate dose and needle length for infants and children (16.5 to 33 pounds) in order to maximize the potential for a safe administration of epinephrine.”

“The approval of AUVI-Q 0.1 mg will help achieve our goal of working to fulfill unmet medical needs,” said Eric S. Edwards, MD, PhD, Vice President of Innovation and Research & Development at kaléo. “We developed the AUVI-Q 0.1 mg EAI to deliver a dose of epinephrine appropriate to infants and small children weighing 16.5 – 33 pounds, with a shorter needle length to help mitigate the risk of striking bone which could potentially cause injury or interfere with the delivery of epinephrine.”

Only AUVI-Q 0.1 mg has a dose and needle length designed specifically for treating anaphylaxis in infants and small children weighing 16.5 – 33 pounds. AUVI-Q 0.1 mg includes the innovative AUVI-Q electronic voice instruction system as well as visual cues to help guide users step-by-step through the administration.

“The approval of an epinephrine auto-injector specifically designed for infants and small children is timely, especially given the recent changes to guidelines recommending that certain high-risk infants, as young as four to six months old, be introduced to peanut-containing foods,” said Eleanor Garrow-Holding1, President and CEO of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Connection Team (FAACT). “We are pleased that the pediatric allergy healthcare community and parents of infants and small children with life-threatening allergies will have the ability to obtain an FDA-approved epinephrine auto-injector in the event of an allergic emergency. We look forward to the availability of AUVI-Q 0.1 mg.”

“Until now, healthcare practitioners and caregivers to infants and small children have not had an epinephrine auto-injector with an appropriate dose of epinephrine available to them, potentially causing some delay in the administration of epinephrine in a life-threatening allergic emergency,” said Dr. Vivian Hernandez-Trujillo1, a pediatric allergist, and fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; and American Academy of Pediatrics specializing in the management of life-threatening allergies and anaphylaxis. “Having an epinephrine auto-injector with a needle length and dose specifically designed for infants and small children should help alleviate concerns around hitting the bone or injecting too much epinephrine.”

Identical twin brothers, Evan and Eric Edwards, the inventors of AUVI-Q, know what it is like to live with life-threatening allergies, both as patients and parents of food-allergic children. Their goal was to develop an epinephrine auto-injector that contained innovative features, such as a voice instruction system that helps guide patients and caregivers step-by-step through the injection process. Evan and Eric Edwards believe and trust in AUVI-Q, not only for themselves, but also for their children and other families who may have to depend on it to administer epinephrine during an allergic emergency.

The AUVI-Q 0.1 mg Auto-injector is projected to be available for patients in the first half of 2018.  To learn more about AUVI-Q (0.3 mg, 0.15 mg and 0.1 mg), please visit www.auvi-q.com.

About Anaphylaxis

Anaphylaxis (pronounced ana-fuh-lak-sis) is a serious allergic reaction that happens quickly and may cause death. Anaphylaxis can occur as a result of exposure to allergens including tree nuts, peanuts, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat, insect bites, latex and medication, among other allergens.

About AUVI-Q (0.3 mg, 0.15 mg and 0.1 mg)

AUVI-Q (epinephrine injection, USP) Auto-injector is a prescription medicine used to treat life-threatening allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in people who are at risk for or who have a history of serious allergic reactions. AUVI-Q contains epinephrine, a well-established, first-line treatment for severe, life-threatening allergic reactions that occur as a result of exposure to allergens including food such as peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, dairy, eggs, soy and wheat; insect stings or bites; latex and medication, among other allergens and causes.

AUVI-Q is the only compact epinephrine auto-injector with a voice instruction system that helps guide patients and caregivers step-by-step through the injection process, and a needle that automatically retracts following administration. In anaphylaxis emergencies, it is often individuals without medical training who need to step in and deliver potentially life-saving epinephrine. AUVI-Q was designed through careful analysis of the situations where epinephrine auto-injectors are used and with significant input from the allergy community that relies on it incorporating Human Factors Engineering (HFE). HFE is about designing products or systems that are easy to operate and, most importantly, support correct use, with the goal to remove the potential for error.

For more information about AUVI-Q (0.3 mg, 0.15 mg and 0.1 mg)  visit www.auvi-q.com.

Indication

AUVI-Q® (epinephrine injection, USP) is a prescription medicine used to treat life-threatening allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in people who are at risk for or have a history of serious allergic reactions.

Important Safety Information

AUVI-Q is for immediate self (or caregiver) administration and does not take the place of emergency medical care. Seek immediate medical treatment after using AUVI-Q. Each AUVI-Q contains a single dose of epinephrine. AUVI-Q should only be injected into your outer thigh, through clothing if necessary. If you inject a young child or infant with AUVI-Q, hold their leg firmly in place before and during the injection to prevent injuries. Do not inject AUVI-Q into any other part of your body, such as into veins, buttocks, fingers, toes, hands, or feet. If this occurs, seek immediate medical treatment and make sure to inform the healthcare provider of the location of the accidental injection. Only a healthcare provider should give additional doses of epinephrine if more than two doses are necessary for a single allergic emergency.

Rarely, patients who use AUVI-Q may develop infections at the injection site within a few days of an injection. Some of these infections can be serious. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms at an injection site: redness that does not go away, swelling, tenderness, or the area feels warm to the touch. If you have certain medical conditions, or take certain medicines, your condition may get worse or you may have more or longer lasting side effects when you use AUVI-Q. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, especially medicines for asthma. Also tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, especially if you have asthma, a history of depression, thyroid problems, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, heart problems or high blood pressure, have any other medical conditions, are pregnant or plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Epinephrine should be used with caution if you have heart disease or are taking certain medicines that can cause heart-related

(cardiac) symptoms.

Is it just me or has the Costco shopping excursion become a staple of the weekend family ritual?  From this parent’s perspective, the love of Costco centers first aroiund savings, secondly around the amazing free food cart samples inticing you at every aisle and lastly knowing that the Costco “return policy” is on part with Norstrom’s.  All of these things combined insure that we come back over and over again….the lure of $1.50 hot dogs, inexpensive movie tickets, 20 pound bags of tortilla chips and filling up on the lowest gas in the city.

However, on the dark side of any store that serves free food samples, especially from the perspective of a parent of kids with food allergies….Costco can be a very challenging experience.  Most of the time, the “sample” food carts are seldom serving “safe” foods…so attempting to keep Child 1 and Child 2 content while shopping can be a challenge.  Can I have that?  Can I eat that?  Every corner is filled with no’s and more no’s.  For a while I have known about the “safety” of the Costco Fruit Smoothie…which I typically can easily feed 2 to 3 kids and provide a safe food treat while I shop through paradise.  As with any food item, I check the ingredients on every visit…but ultimately, it does help get me through the store easier than having to say “no” every 22 feet.

Today while at my local Costco, I was able to get a copy of the “Costco Food Court” Nutrional and Allergen Data (Dated 3/16/2011).  This sheet contained a detailed list of the food allergens found in food items at Costco; namely, Wheat, Milk, Egg, Anchovy, Tree Nut, Almonds and Soy.  The contents has been summarized in to the table below.

As always with all things relating to food allergies, it is always advised that you should ALWAYS request for the current food ingredients for the items that you are ordering.  Food recipes can change at any time and a food that may have been safe in the past…may not be safe now.  In other words, please do not ASSUME that the information above is correct or accurate.

The allergen information in the table above is to merely help “guide” you to discover new “options” on food items offererd at Costco that may give you new options when shopping with your children on your next visit.