Our story:
When I was introducing solid food to my son at 9 months old, he had a life threatening food reaction. Since I had no idea what the angry red bumps were, I called our doctor's advice line and was told, "Call 911 right now or come in within the next 10 minutes...or he could stop breathing." I didn't have anyone to sit in the back with him and make sure he was still breathing as I sped to the clinic. By the time I got there, he was unrecognizable. His eyes were swollen shut and his lips were hanging. And that was my introduction to food allergies.
Since then, we have learned as much as we could, changed our entire pantry and have become diligent in reading all food labels. We wrote this book because we wanted our son not to be afraid of the world around him. To know that everybody has limits in one form or another but they don't need to hold us back from enjoying life. We also wrote it for all those children who are being diagnosed with food allergies and need to learn how to stay safe and feel special and explore their world with confidence.
A fun friendship:
The friendship between the writers and the illustrator of the book began as we crossed paths waddling up and down the sidewalk next to each other, pregnant. The Roms and McKees live next to each other in Sunnyvale, California. The Roms are from Israel and the McKees are from America. The Roms are Jewish and the McKees are both pastors. Together we've found an amazing and enlightening friendship. We became friends through the ups and downs of motherhood and when I shared my passion to write a children's book, she shared her sketches.
We've since shared dinners, recipes, clothes, furniture and even allow the other into the house when we'd be embarrassed to let anyone else in. In short, we'd be friends whether we worked on a book together or not! :)
