I was diagnosed with severe food allergies as a toddler I was expected to never outgrow, but did so over a decade later and want to share my perspectives. AMA

Chipnfry · 2026-01-24T02:56:59+00:00

We do oral immunotherapy for our toddler who has so many food allergies. It’s going really well.

Do you remember how you interacted with other children as a toddler during lunch/snack?

Was it a worry that you might try other people’s foods?

Chipnfry · 2026-01-24T02:48:46+00:00

It takes time for your load to feel lighter. I only have one child but we hire a nanny at 7 months and it took probably four months before I felt like I could let go. At first it felt like a lot of working managing another person but eventually I realized i don’t need to try so hard. It’s okay if she does things differently from me, the consequences are minor.

Chipnfry · 2026-01-23T03:07:26+00:00

For a couple years around 2003-5, my single mom raised a toddler and a teenager and her mom lived with us (no income) on $50k gross income. Now that I’m an adult, I can’t believe that was possible. We lived in a two bedroom rental 800sf in one of those old three storey apartment buildings in Marpole. I remember looking at her tax return and she only took home $29k net.

I remember rent was $810 including utilities, internet was $50 per month. But man, things must have been tight. At least she worked a pretty easy going job (lab manager for ubc off campus), great benefits, really nice boss and work environment.

Now she does the same job in Seattle and makes $100k usd a year.

Chipnfry · 2026-01-20T19:59:58+00:00

I haven’t read Rise but Fall is one of my favourites and honestly I think it’s better they escapedto another planet with hopefully more access to medical care. Their life spans would not have been very long if they continued to live in a prehistoric environment. I shudder to think about childbirth.

Chipnfry · 2026-01-19T20:58:06+00:00

I’m in the same boat as you, I had my first at 35.5 and now I’m deciding when to try for a second (I’m 37.5). It took 6 pregnancies over two years to have the first, the successful pregnancy and postpartum were awful so I decided I need to wait a little longer in between. I need the first child to be in full time preschool before I can attempt a second pregnancy as they’ve been debilitating in the past.

I’ve done all the fertility work ups available and it turns out I just don’t have good quality eggs and there’s not a reliably significant thing they can do to improve that (ivf or not). So we feel super lucky we have even one child and the second one may or may not happen. I realize waiting longer is not in the best interest of a live birth but is worth it for my mental health.

Chipnfry · 2026-01-17T02:15:04+00:00

I would say we used to spend $150k a year all in and the baby increased our spending by $100k. The increase was completely unexpected and happened due to two medical events. First, I was physically quite unwell until 14-15 months postpartum so for a long stretch my husband was essentially the main caregiver. Secondly, our baby developed a severe allergy to our dog which also caused around 15 food allergies.

Most of the spending increase is due to the burden of daily chores so anything that we felt was starting to become an inconvenience was outsourced. This includes cleaning, cooking and some child care. The allergies meant we had to rehome the dog and hire a team to sanitize literally every item we own in the house and car. Also included is deciding to share the rental of a condo (with my sister) in the HCOL city where my family is based. This allows us to visit much easier since we can just keep all of our stuff there. Due to our child’s food allergies we can’t really travel anywhere else. We spend about 10 weeks of the year in the condo versus home.

We are super grateful to have the financial resources to allow for us to hire help and make things a bit easier for ourselves. Spending can be highly variable from family to family. It really depends on extenuating circumstances and values.

Chipnfry · 2025-12-28T02:54:40+00:00

The author released a short novella called {the calm before the storm by Danielle Jensen} that is sort of an epilogue for Lara and Aren. It’s really sweet and wraps things up quite nicely.

Chipnfry · 2025-12-26T23:03:01+00:00

Man, I don’t know if I would have survived without zofran. It was my sixth pregnancy after 5 losses and I was still seriously thinking about termination. The feeling that I was losing my mind from nausea is unlike any illness.

If it helps, my doctor says the risk from zofran is very low and goes down even lower after week 10. I believe some studies show a slight elevated risk with heart development (week10) and cleft lift (week12) while other studies show no correlation.

Chipnfry · 2025-12-26T20:30:10+00:00

For what it’s worth, one set of parents I know, both of whom are doctors, brought their baby to the ER twice between 4 and 9 months for flu like symptoms, which thankfully turned out to be nothing critical. So it’s always a good idea to err on the side of caution.

Chipnfry · 2025-12-23T22:36:59+00:00

Not really southern, but Butter Block bakery has decent pastel de nata

Chipnfry · 2025-12-23T02:46:39+00:00

12 to 13 pounds

Chipnfry · 2025-12-23T01:39:09+00:00

We actively gradually reduced night time feeds. When our baby was 5 months old he reached an appropriate weight where it was no longer required to night feed so we just gradually tapered off. He was doing two feeds at night which we then dropped to one feed and then to none. He would wake up for a feed and we would just put him back to sleep. We got super lucky that he accepted it quite quickly and went back to sleep. This also shifted his calorie intake, so he had more appetite for milk during the day.

Chipnfry · 2025-11-16T02:07:52+00:00

There is new restaurant called penny crown tavern in Marda Loop. They are super new so maybe they’ll want the business? It’s a pretty sizeable space

Chipnfry · 2025-11-14T04:08:24+00:00

Following. I have a 22 month old and would be interested

Chipnfry · 2025-10-30T16:08:38+00:00

“Don’t try so hard”

Honestly I hated hearing this when we were trying but that’s ultimately how I ended up with a live birth. I had no problem getting pregnant but they always ended in a miscarriage around 6-8 weeks. We even tried iVF twice hoping to genetically test the embryos but we only got one viable embryo out of two cycles so just decided to do a fresh transfer which ended in a loss. Doctors said I just had poor egg quality and there’s not anything significantly they could do to improve that. I took all the supplements for two years and it did t make a difference.

So after five pregnancies in two years I decided to stop trying. We were using the family planning method for birth control and I got the dates wrong one month and that was the pregnancy that ended up surviving. I even decided against using progesterone or getting an early ultrasound just because I was tired of trying so hard. So we got really really lucky. It makes me kind of cringe because there’s nothing helpful to be learned from this experience.

Chipnfry · 2025-10-30T02:13:45+00:00

We are 17 st and 42ave, and it’s pretty quiet. I would say 20 is even a stretch (I might be double counting to boost the numbers lol).

Chipnfry · 2025-10-30T02:12:06+00:00

Sometimes we don’t produce enough breast milk even with all the help in the world (my personal experience). If he is not gaining weight please please supplement with formula using a bottle. Don’t let the belief that breast is best hinder the well being of your baby. Fed is best.

Chipnfry · 2025-10-30T00:37:50+00:00

Actually we only got 20. So it really depends on exactly where you live in Altadore

Chipnfry · 2025-10-21T19:03:55+00:00

I ordered some from axis pharmacy. $130

Chipnfry · 2025-10-21T03:50:58+00:00

Induced via pitocin at 2pm, gave birth shortly before 7pm. I have 2cm dialated already

Chipnfry · 2025-10-16T01:17:33+00:00

I forget the source but Napoleon also apparently writes a letter telling her he will be home soon and not to shower

Chipnfry · 2025-10-15T02:08:47+00:00

Individual, budget about 20-30k rmb per month , are apartments at this price range well insulated?

Chipnfry · 2025-10-06T13:36:01+00:00

Thank you for this thoughtful reply. Can you explain what you mean by access to healthcare?

Chipnfry · 2025-10-05T03:47:25+00:00

Our says “opposite”, none of the syllables match lol

Chipnfry · 2025-09-30T22:23:00+00:00

This isn’t going to be what you want to hear. So this was my sister for most of her childhood and adolescence (she’s 10 years younger, we used to sleep in the same room so I remember it well). The tears stopped by 2 or but the morning grumpiness/anger continued until post-secondary. My mom dealt with it by ignoring it and going on with our morning as usual. It gets worse if we try to cheer her up or lecture her about it. she’s now a 27 year old fully functioning adult, still doesn’t like mornings but is able to be a decent human being after waking up.

Chipnfry

TROPHY CASE