What does it take to help a child with severe food allergies feel safe, without allowing fear to define their childhood?
In this episode of the Immunity Group Australia Podcast, our host Nina speaks with Holly Dye, a food allergy mum, author and healthcare educator from Lexington, Kentucky, about raising her son Keegan, who has multiple food allergies, including a severe wheat allergy.
Holly is the author of Milo’s Food Allergy Hero Guide: A Fun Workbook for Safe, Brave, and Kind Kids and co-author, with Keegan, of Milo’s Food Allergy Adventure. Drawing on their family's lived experience, the books give children practical ways to understand food allergy safety while also making space for the fear, frustration, anxiety and social challenges that can accompany it.
Holly shares the simple “traffic light” system her family developed when Keegan was young: green for situations that feel safe, yellow when more information or a conversation is needed, and red when the environment is unsafe and another plan is required. She also explains how Keegan learned from an early age to identify “safe adults”: people who not only cared about him, but genuinely understood his allergy and knew how to keep him safe.
The conversation becomes deeply personal as Holly recounts a frightening anaphylactic reaction Keegan experienced at a swimming pool at around age 10. After becoming unwell, he was sent home alone and eventually contacted his mother himself, telling her he could not see properly and thought he needed his epinephrine. Holly discusses the emergency response that followed, the difficulty of advocating for appropriate treatment, and the emotional aftermath for both parent and child.
Nina and Holly also explore:
• Why children with food allergies may hide symptoms, fears or experiences of bullying
• How parents can talk about risk without making children afraid of the world around them
• Food allergy anxiety, trauma and food aversion after severe reactions
• Why a trusted adult needs to understand an allergy, not simply know that one exists
• Advocating for appropriate support and inclusion at school
• The challenges that arise when relatives, teachers or other adults underestimate allergy severity
• How families can reflect on an anaphylactic event without falling into blame
• Creating social experiences that are inclusive rather than centred around food
• Travel, pre-boarding and the additional vigilance required when flying with food allergies
• Helping children gradually develop the confidence and skills to advocate for themselves
Perhaps the most hopeful message comes from Keegan himself. Now a teenager, he has grown from a young child learning to navigate a world filled with potential allergens into someone who notices and looks out for other children with food allergies.
For parents at the beginning of this journey, Holly offers a message born from years of lived experience: it does get better.
Children can find their people, build confidence and participate in life, even when getting there takes considerable work.
🎙️ The Immunity Group Australia Podcast shares conversations with clinicians, researchers, educators, advocates and people with lived experience exploring food allergy, immunotherapy and the realities of living with allergic disease.
