What The Public Needs To Know About Dairy Allergies

Recently, all of the major news outlets picked up the story about the teenager who died in the Uk eating a meal that contained dairy. The story is tragic, on the boy’s 18th birthday and he asked all the right questions.

This post is not about that story. This post is what happened after the story broke and what struggles people with an anaphylactic dairy allergy face. Most people think a dairy allergy is lactose intolerance. PEOPLE, NBC News, and other media covered the story and posted it on Facebook. The comments were awful. Many people said that lactose intolerance doesn’t kill.” There has to be more to the story” or “a dairy allergy is just a stomach ache”. Such comments highlight a huge issue those with true dairy allergies face. Lactose intolerance is not the same. If anyone wants to know why many of these accidents happen, it’s because most people don’t see dairy allergies as life threatening. No, you can’t just remove the cheese and be fine. Butter is still dairy. We have had incidents where servers put butter on pasta or vegetables even after we announce we have an anaphylactic dairy allergy!

So, to the people reading this, please understand dairy is just as dangerous as a peanut to the allergic person; a Lactaid pill won’t work. It’s not just a GI issue. If only it were that simple! If someone tells you that he or she has a dairy allergy, take it seriously, and also never say to them ”at least it’s not a peanut allergy.” Awareness about the seriousness of a dairy allergy is seriously lacking. Sadly, it takes a tragedy like this to put it on people’s radar. What’s worse is that in a week, everyone will have forgotten about it Let’s not let that happen.