My name is Kimberly Hoth.  The diagnosis of my daughter Grace in the spring of 2006 launched our family into this crazy life of multiple allergens, eczema and asthma.  We did not get all of these diagnoses at once, in the beginning it was only the confirmation of severe eczema.  I noticed after eating certain foods that Grace was reacting to them and addressed this with her dermatologist, the response I received was that it was eczema and if I wanted to waste my money on an allergist to go ahead and do so (little did I know at the time the animosity that can be found between these two specialties).  We did leave the dermatologist and visited an allergist; which confirmed my suspicions that my daughter was allergic to soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, pet dander and seasonal allergies.  When she was closer to three, the regular asthma attacks started in.  Since her diagnosis, we have removed carpeting from our home, have the ducts cleaned for her benefit, continue with maintenance medication and she sees her doctor and chiropractor regularly to keep everything under control.  I finally felt like we had regained control of our household until our youngest daughter Sophie was diagnosed with severe eczema and multiple food allergens; she had every allergy that Grace had and we added two more, dairy and wheat. This brought a whole new set of challenges that I had to learn about.  While Grace’s severe eczema has subsided greatly, we are still battling with Sophie’s even though she has had continued improvement over the years.

There was a large learning curve I had to overcome when it came to cooking, reading labels, dealing with asthma and eczema.  When my daughters were diagnosed, I received a bunch of single sheets from the allergy center that had one allergy and products that could be used in place of that one particular allergen.  My daughters had multiple allergens and almost everything that was an okay substitute for one allergen usually ended up being something else they were allergic to. It felt like I had to learn to cook and shop all over again.  It took me many years to master the art of label reading, and how companies label their products with fancy words that cover up the allergens that are contained within.  I have found how to look for multiple allergens in products and where to find the things that I need.

Although I am blessed that none of my family suffers from anaphylaxis, these other issues have proven to bring many difficulties of their own; missed sleep due to itchiness and being generally uncomfortable, expensive medicines and lotions that usually do not help at all and the never-ending barrage of well-intentioned unsolicited advice from people in supermarkets, the bank, or anywhere else people congregate.

I wanted to have a site where people could find a wide variety of information on the issues that come with any or all of these diagnoses.  I did not have the luxury of having a cross reference of products that were safe for multiple allergen families, knowing how to read labels, finding safe recipes and I want to make that available for the many that are forced into joining this every growing family.  Thank goodness for the market that is finally understanding that this demographic really exists and buys products, so there is more available to families today than there were even five years ago.  I hope this website will be a place that those of you who are new to this lifestyle, you can glean some information to assist you on this new journey and for my families who find this information to be old hat, maybe you have some insightful information that can be imparted to the next generation of allergy suffering families.