Christine Weston’s daughter Jillian, a first-grader at Waverly Park Elementary School, is allergic to dairy products, a condition that is often confused with lactose intolerance, but the two are completely different. While a food intolerance doesn’t involve the body’s immune system and is never life-threatening, a food allergy does, and is.
Christine recently took Jillian to a birthday party where pizza and ice cream were served — two foods Jillian can’t have. As usual, Christine brought her own food supply for her daughter. Making sure her food-allergic child eats properly is part of the job, she said.
“Every single thing needs to be investigated,” Christine said, “because they will die if they eat something that they’re allergic to.”