Emily A Reed

At 6 months old, George was diagnosed with severe food allergies. Life-threatening if he were to eat nuts of any kind or eggs. (Including eggs baked into things like cakes or cookies) Author, Emily A. Reed’s father is a pediatric oncologist. Having grown up with a dad who had to regularly tell parents their kids had cancer, she knows there are scarier things to hear than "Your 6-month-old has food allergies."

This was her first thought sitting in the ER after George’s first anaphylactic reaction. Her second thought, and trillions of thoughts since then, have been, how will she protect George?

The reality of this fear sank deeper as she toted George around to gatherings with family and friends. Pre-diagnosis, she thought little about how most gatherings and celebrations in life are centered around food.

New fears sprung up with every passing year.

As her fears grew, a new thought emerged. Will George develop the same anxieties? Certainly, keeping George healthy included his mental health. She started looking for ways to ensure George's safety, and foster his confidence so he could be brave.

She read him picture books about food allergies. She wanted a book that would teach George to speak up for himself. Of course, he couldn't speak then. Still, if she could start teaching him about using his voice as protection before he could talk, maybe "Does that have eggs or nuts in it?" would be among his first complete sentences. Emily and her husband made sure George could see them checking ingredients. They would ask the questions out loud to one another.

George is 5 now and, thankfully, verbal. I was thrilled to learn from his preschool teacher that he asks about ingredients at snack time.

With bravery, I am ready to share that I wrote a book for George and other kids with food allergies. My aim is to inspire families to teach their children to speak up for themselves from a young age so that they can always have something to protect themselves - their own voices.