Family raises funds for food allergy service dog
Teddy Green, 9, of Norman, and his family are trying to raise funds for a service dog to combat the Caddo Hills Elementary School student’s severe food allergy to peanuts and other legumes.
Green’s mother, Cilla Green, said she discovered her son had a peanut allergy when he was “about 18 months old” and had a “little taste of peanut butter.”
“He didn’t like it; he tried to scratch it off his tongue,” Cilla Green said. “He was really freaking out about it. He said it was making his tongue tingle.”
She said after an hour, her son began “violently throwing up and he had a rash all over his body.”
“When I was changing his diaper, it sounded like he was sneezing over and over and over again, but come to find out it was him gasping for air,” she said. “His throat was closing up.”
After giving her son liquid Benadryl and taking him to the emergency room, they were informed of his allergy.
“Some people ( with a food allergy) just get a rash or a tickle in their throat, but his is called anaphylactic shock,” she said. “Anaphylactic shock is when there are multiple systems in the body that start shutting down.”
She said exposure to peanuts will produce a reaction “within three to six minutes.”
After her son ate a piece of candy at daycare when he was 3 years old, she noticed his reaction to the peanut butter ingredient worsened.
“The first time it took about two hours to get into full- blown anaphylaxis, but his second reaction, five minutes,” she said. “They say each reaction will be more intense and faster.”
Cilla Green said her son’s allergy is so severe that not only ingested foods impact him, but also airborne or touched substances.
“One time, when I went into a store, we were leaving, and I didn’t know this but I had just
walked by a big open barrel full of peanuts,” Teddy Green said. “As we were leaving, my back started itching. As my parents then found out, I was covered in hives.”
“If he touches peanut proteins, which can be on a surface for a long time, or ingests it, but even being a room that has open peanuts, will do it ( product a reaction) to him, too,” Cilla Green said.
“We have to be careful grocery shopping,” she said. “We don’t go near the candy isle. It takes twice as long for us as normal people.”
She said she’s trained her son to be very careful, especially at school, of the ingredients contained in the foods he eats.
“Every once in a while, they will serve peanut butter cookies, and he can’t even be in the lunch room,” she said. “Anything on any label that even says cross- contaminated or manufactured in a facility with peanuts, he cannot have at all.”
She said she and her husband, Jay, are both “minutes away” from their son’s school in case of an emergency.
“There are certain places we just can’t go in, like ice cream places,” she said. “We cannot have any bakery stuff. I have to make it. He can’t go to the movies or a lot of the normal kid stuff.”
Jay Green said they have only found one candy bar, a Hershey’s regular size chocolate bar, which is safe for their son to eat.
“Halloween is scary,” Cilla Green said.
She said she wants to purchase a service dog for her son based on the severity of his food allergy and “we now live 45 minutes from any hospital.”
“Just avoidance of his allergen is his best bet,” she said. “We’ve asked doctors if this is something he’s going to grow out of, and the doctors have all told us no.”
She said she has been researching her son’s food allergy all his life and heard about service dogs aiding those with severe food allergies last year.
“I ran across this news broadcast about how this service dog helped this little girl with her severe food allergy,” she said, adding she then came across Angel Service Dogs, which trains dogs specifically for individuals with severe food allergies.
She said the cost of this type service dog is $ 20,000, and the family has began raising the funds to purchase one for her son.
“You can find grants and help for dogs for the blind or the deaf or physically disabled, but his is considered a hidden disability, so you cannot find financial help unless you are fundraising,” she said, adding the cost includes the two years of training for the dog and two weeks of training with the family and the dog.
She said the family has held bake sales and community events and raised about $ 1,000.
She said Sniff Out Peanuts Benefit Golf Scramble will be held at noon Monday at Belvedere Golf Resort, 385 Belvedere Drive, and the family will receive proceeds from the event.
She said donations can be made towards the family’s efforts at: http:// www. angelservicedogs. com/ fundraisercampaign/ teddy- needs- lucy- overall/.
She said this type service dog differs from others because “the dog will have to be a little bit in front of him because the dog is going to sniff the air anywhere he goes and also any items.”
Cilla Green said after providing the proper command, this type service dog will do a “sweep” of the area or room her son is located in to warn him of any dangers related to his food allergy.
“If we were to go to a playground, I can tell the dog to do a sweep and go around all the playground equipment or a classroom,” she said.
She said each canine is matched specifically to its own- er and an Austrian labradoodle is the most common breed used for this purpose.
“If someone has an allergy to pets, they will train a poodle, which is hypoallergenic,” she said.
She wants to purchase a service dog for her son at this age because “we want him to get used to having a service dog and have confidence to not be scared to have his service dog around him.”