Photo courtesy of Leann Kinnunen.
At the time of his initial diagnosis, tests indicated Marko Maglic-Kinnunen was allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, mustard, sesame, flaxseed, shellfish, radish, ginger, basil, cumin and red food dye. Marko, now 8 years old, has grown out of some allergies, including peanut, basil and flaxseed.
Marko Maglic-Kinnunen’s first experience eating eggs didn’t exactly go as planned.
He was a year old and his mother, Leann Kinnunen, had prepared French toast for him.
“I gave him two tiny, tiny bites,” the Mountain Brook mother said, but that was all it took for his body to react.
Almost immediately, Marko had hives all over his neck, Leann said, and he was crying and vomiting all over the place.
“That was my first experience with a severe allergic reaction,” said Leann, though she had suspected for some time that Marko had food allergies.
The first signs that Marko’s body processed certain foods differently, in fact, came while Leann was still breastfeeding.
“He had severe eczema everywhere,” said Leann, who shared her family’s personal experience with food allergies as part of food allergy awareness month. “He would scream every time I tried to feed him.”
At the time, Leann, Marko and her husband, Stevan Maglic, lived in New York. Marko’s pediatrician referred them to a dermatologist, said Leann, to treat the eczema. From there, they were referred to a gastroenterologist to try and help treat Marko’s digestive issues.
“The problem,” said Leann, “is that many pediatricians don’t tend to know much about allergies.”
Rather than refer her to an allergist to help treat the actual cause of Marko’s discomfort, the family visited doctor after doctor who treated only his symptoms.
Leann said she had prepared the French toast using only egg yolks after she had read that egg whites tend to be a more common allergen. The suggestion to try and feed Marko eggs, said Leann, came from his pediatrician. When Marko’s body reacted, Leann called his doctor, who told her to give him Benadryl.
“Thankfully that worked,” she said, “though we later learned that he’d had an anaphylactic reaction and what we really should have done was get in an ambulance and head to the hospital.”
Following the incident, Leann took Marko to see a pediatric allergist at Columbia, where she worked at the time. He tested Marko for egg allergies, she said, but didn’t want to perform tests for any other allergens. Leann said the doctor explained it was common to get false positives, and that because the tests weren’t very accurate at Marko’s age, he didn’t want to limit his diet just yet.
“Regardless,” she said, “I asked for an EpiPen.”
It was only a few months later, said Leann, that she had to use the EpiPen — an auto-injector which contains a single dose of epinephrine, used to help calm the effects of a life-threatening allergic reaction.
The family had gone out to eat at an Indian restaurant. Leann brought along some food for Marko, but also fed him a few bites of the basmati rice from the buffet line.
“At the time,” she said, “we believed he was only allergic to eggs.”
That time, said Leann, Marko started behaving strangely. Stevan walked him outside, hoping some fresh air would help.
“When he came back inside,” said Leann, “his lips were huge, he was covered in hives, vomiting and having trouble breathing.”
Leann stuck Marko with the EpiPen, jumped into a cab and rushed to the nearest hospital.
The family knew it was time to get to the bottom of exactly what he was allergic to.
“He has quite a few allergies,” said Leann, “including some that are considered unusual.”
At the time of his initial diagnosis, tests indicated Marko was allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, mustard, sesame, flaxseed, shellfish, radish, ginger, basil, cumin and red food dye. Marko, now 8 years old, has grown out of some allergies, including peanut, basil and flaxseed. Others, like his allergies to sesame and shellfish, appeared to have been resolved, but have since returned, said Leann.
Asked if reoccurrences among allergies are common, Leann said there’s still a lot of unknowns.
“That’s the problem with food allergies,” she said. “There isn’t enough known these days.”
When the family moved to Alabama six years ago, Leann said it was imperative to find a school where she knew Marko’s dietary restrictions were looked after, but not blown out of proportion.
The family enrolled him at the Creative Montessori School in Homewood, she said, who have since day one done more than their part to care for Marko.
“They banned nuts at the school for my son,” said Leann, speaking on how thankful she is for the staff. Two of Marko’s teachers even used the Lent season to get a taste of what his everyday is like, she said, when they gave up everything Marko is allergic to.
Since Marko’s arrival at the school, said Leann, other children have also benefited from the nut-free policy.
“It makes it a lot easier to know that simply isn’t an issue,” she said.
The entire staff at Creative Montessori is also trained in how to use an EpiPen, she said, in case any child should ever have a dangerous allergic reaction.
Leann said while of course it is important to be mindful of a child’s allergies, it is also important to make an effort so that they don’t feel different. In her household, for example, the entire family knows how to read labels and will not consume anything in the house that Marko cannot eat.
On a food allergy Facebook support group she is part of, Leann said she reads about instances where utensils and plates are labeled with stickers, certain foods are locked away and food is placed in different sections of the refrigerator. What she has found, she said, is that sometimes the children in those situations feel left out and different.
“If you can’t give up stuff for your kid, what does that say about you?” she said, while also acknowledging that it may be easier for her family to restrict its diet because they only have one child.
Leann said she recently asked Marko if he feels different after reading about a little girl who was struggling with understanding why she couldn’t eat certain things when everyone else could.
“I asked him what he would say to the little girl,” said Leann. “He said, ‘Just don’t think about it, play with your friends and don’t worry about having food allergies. Everybody’s got something, some sort of problem, and this is our difficulty. Don’t make being sad about it the most important thing.”’
Leann said Marko knows he is not supposed to eat anything given to him by anyone other than his parents or his babysitter unless one of them OKs it first.
He’s also able to read and understand food labels now, she said. Leann said because of Marko’s uncommon allergies, she has often had to call companies directly and ask what it means specifically when their label says things like “made with natural flavorings.” Of course, she said, it would be easier to stick to a set of grocery store foods they already know are safe, but that would limit the family’s ability to explore other foods that are also safe.
“As parents, you have to get to a place where you can feel safe,” she said. “Reading labels and asking questions at restaurants becomes part of life.”
For her family, that means being educated, but not overly cautious to the point that it limits life’s experiences.
“It’s OK to eat out, travel and not home school a child,” she said. “When they get to college, they are off on their own anyway. The sooner they can start out living as normal as possible, the better.”
