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1 week ago | 
allergicliving.com | Lianne Mandelbaum
Picture this: you’re a pediatric emergency medicine doctor with years of experience. You’ve handled crises, trained teams, and saved lives. And yet, mid-flight from Frankfurt, Germany to New York on Singapore Airlines, you take a few bites of an airline meal that was supposed to be free of shrimp – and suddenly everything spirals out of control. That’s what Dr. Doreen Benary of Manhattan says happened to her. The plane didn’t land at JFK International Airport as planned.
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3 weeks ago | 
kevinmd.com | Lianne Mandelbaum |Amber Patterson |Kara Wada |Tiffany Owens
Some people eat to live, but most of us live to eat. Meals are more than sustenance; they are how we celebrate milestones, connect with loved ones, and mark the passage of time. But for people living with food allergies, dining out can feel less like a joy and more like an exercise in survival. Trust becomes the most important ingredient on the plate. Trust that an unfamiliar chef has taken precautions. Trust that the person taking your order understands cross-contact.
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1 month ago | 
allergicliving.com | Lianne Mandelbaum
On its season closing show, Saturday Night Live included a sketch with jokes about flight delays at Newark Liberty International Airport. As someone who has recently endured hours of delays at Newark, I laughed. The chaos is, unfortunately, all too relatable. But here’s the thing: mocking Newark’s dysfunction has led to real public discourse. Lawmakers have spoken up. The federal government has responded. Efforts are underway to address the problem.
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2 months ago | 
kevinmd.com | Sara Pastoor |Andy Bonner |Traci Sweet |Lianne Mandelbaum
Unless you’ve lived it,you can’t fully understand. We’ve all cared for patients with cancer. We’ve delivered hard news, sat beside bedsides, explained scan results, and offered hope when we could. We’ve been the calm in the storm. That’s what we were trained to do. But being on the other side of the table changes everything. When you become the patient, the world shifts beneath you. Suddenly, you’re the one in the gown, lying on the table for the scan.
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2 months ago | 
kevinmd.com | Lianne Mandelbaum |Amber Patterson |Kara Wada |Tiffany Owens
I’ve just returned from the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Conference in Michigan, an inspiring confluence of advocacy, research, and business, all focused on one shared mission: improving the lives of those living with food allergies. I’ve been attending food allergy research forums around the world for over a decade, and I can honestly say the momentum and possibilities in this field have never been more exciting.
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Mar 29, 2025 | 
kevinmd.com | Lianne Mandelbaum |Amber Patterson |Kara Wada |Tiffany Owens
Why do so many people share their harrowing airline experiences with me yet never document them or file complaints? Some say they do not want to relive the trauma. Others feel embarrassed for having been ridiculed, either themselves or in front of their child. Many simply want to move on because, thankfully, nothing catastrophic happened. But silence does not equate to safety. If I am truly honest, my first negative airline experience was not the one that sparked my advocacy when my son was eight.
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Feb 14, 2025 | 
kevinmd.com | Princess Benson |Horacio Romero Castillo |Erik Messamore |Lianne Mandelbaum
On a seemingly ordinary Sunday evening, a casual conversation with my mother took a terrifying turn. She mentioned a sudden, excruciating headache that had woken her from a nap. My medical training immediately raised red flags. Despite no prior history of such severe headaches, I recalled an isolated incident of elevated blood pressure. Instinctively, I insisted on checking her blood pressure again. Within 15 minutes, the readings soared from 182/120 to a dangerously high 215/105.
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Feb 13, 2025 | 
kevinmd.com | Lianne Mandelbaum |Amber Patterson |Kara Wada |Tiffany Owens
Food allergies are a serious, life-threatening medical condition that remains widely misunderstood. For millions of travelers with food allergies, navigating airline policies is an unpredictable challenge, where inconsistent accommodations and societal skepticism create unnecessary risks. Those living with food allergies must often navigate a world that does not always recognize the severity of their condition.
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Oct 19, 2024 | 
allergicliving.com | Lianne Mandelbaum
The topic of flying with food allergies is once again in the news. This time, it’s not the umpteenth passenger being deplaned for requesting a food allergy accommodation. This time, it’s a scientific paper published in a U.K. medical journal that promises to bust myths about flying with peanut and nut allergies in particular.
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Jun 23, 2024 | 
allergicliving.com | Lianne Mandelbaum
The topic of nuts on planes went viral recently on social media, after Jack Fowler shared the story of his severe reaction in the skies. The Love Island TV star says an Emirates airline crew assured him a meal he was ordering contained no nuts. In fact, it contained cashew, to which he’s highly allergic. And as most of the world knows by now, Fowler suffered an anaphylactic reaction, after just one bite of his meal.
