When Liam Matlack was 4 months old, he was diagnosed with a wide variety of food allergies, including to dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, oats and clams. His mother, Danelle, eliminated those foods from her diet and breastfed Matlack for months until it became overwhelming. Matlack, of Gilbertsville, had to go on a soy formula, the only option for him, which was very expensive.
When Matlack started school, Danelle quit her job. She didn’t trust sending Matlack, who is now a sophomore at Malvern Prep, to daycare “with everybody walking around with dairy based-formula and goldfish snack crackers and all this stuff,” Danelle said.
Matlack gradually outgrew some of his allergies. He also did food challenges at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he has received ongoing treatment. Food challenges introduce gradually increasing amounts of one food type at a time to see if the child can tolerate it and has outgrown the allergy…