Our 6 year old, Ben, was born with life threatening food allergies. At 3 months old we started using formula to supplement his diet. His legs swelled so much his feet turned purple after just one bottle. So we put him on a formula for dairy sensitive babies as suggested by the doctor. I got a text from our babysitter after feeding him the new formula that Ben's eye looked like he had been punched because it swelled so bad. We took off to Children's Hospital where Ben was diagnosed with an allergy to whey and casein (two proteins found in dairy). Ben was put on specialized formula that did not contain dairy. With further testing we confirmed that he was allergic to dairy, eggs, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, peas, squash, sweet potato, and coconut. Fortunately Ben has grown out of peas, squash, sweet potato, coconut, and a couple tree nuts. Ben's worst allergens are dairy and peanuts. His allergy is so bad for those that he was prescribed an epi-pen, which he carries everywhere he goes. Ben broke out in hives after simply smelling milk. The allergist said there is zero chance of Ben ever growing out of peanut and a slim chance he might grow out of dairy when he goes through puberty, but it is not likely. 

Imagine not having food freedom. You get a sucker from the bank, but you cannot have it because it doesn't have the ingredients listed on the wrapper. You want to order fries at a restaurant, but they are frozen and may contain dairy (dairy and soy are in the weirdest foods). You are in kindergarten and a classmate brings in treats for a birthday, but you cannot eat them because most sweets contain one if not more of your allergens. At most restaurants you are limited to ordering a grilled chicken breast or maybe a hamburger with no bun. Your sides are usually steamed vegetables, a fruit cup, or some applesauce.  Imagine you cannot have pizza like everyone else, you cannot have ice cream like everyone else, you cannot have cookies, or anything without ingredients listed. Forget ever going out to breakfast as a family because how many restaurants make pancakes or waffles without dairy or egg, or how many use rice milk instead of dairy because that is the only milk you can have? Did I mention you are 6 years old? That is Ben's life. He is such a trooper! He doesn't complain about not getting to eat food like everyone else, but you can see the sadness in his eyes when his brother, friends, or cousins get to eat something and he is left out. I have learned to make most foods from scratch so that he can have a substitute, but it still isn't the same.

Enter the Southern California Food Allergy Institute's Tolerance Induction Program (TIP).  Doctors at SoCal FAI will pinpoint exactly why Ben's body rejects the foods and figure out a way to treat those allergies. Over 3,000 food-allergy children have graduated from the program, resulting in food freedom! In over 40,000 food challenges, zero, ZERO, have resulted in the use of epinepherine. Plus they have a success rate of over 99%! 

We put Ben on the waitlist in January (there were 1400 people on the list in front of us and now there are over 2500 on the waitlist). Why do we have to go to Southern California? It is the only treatment center of its kind in the world and people from all over the world go there for treatment. Ben is now 208 on the waitlist and we signed the financial agreement today. The cost of the program is $4500 a year plus testing and office visits which can be another $5,000-10,000. We live in Indiana so we will have to fly to California every couple months for Ben's treatments. Fortunately we have family in the area who have graciously opened their home for us to stay which will keep lodging expenses at zero. We will still need transportation while we are in California, plus buying our own groceries while we are there. 

If you can assist us financially in any way, we would be so very grateful. 

Thank you,
Jill, Jeremy, and Ben Geisendorff (and Ben's brothers -Drew and Sam)

Check out the SoCal Food Allergy Institute Here