Episode #151: Bite Brave: Early Allergen Introduction & The Impact for Life

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Welcome to the kids sleep Show podcast where we dive into the magical world of sleep, and all things parenting. Join us as we embark on a journey filled with expert advice, practical tips and heartwarming stories that will transform your little ones into sleep superheroes, and empower you to navigate the beautiful chaos of parenting.

I’m your host, Courtney Vance,

and I’m on a mission to change how the world view sleep and provide accessible sleep coaching resources for all families to build healthy sleep habits in their home for children and adults of all ages. As an award winning speaker, author and pediatric sleep expert, myself and my team of consultants work intimately with families around the world to teach healthy sleep habits to children and adults. I believe wholeheartedly that sleep is the foundation for which a happy home is built. So let’s sleep together.

Unmute Good morning. How are you? I’m doing great. How are you? Good. I

love your sweatshirt. It’s so cute. Feeling

festive for the day. My husband thought valentine’s day was yesterday. So he came home with flowers. And I was like, thanks. Time saying like, you know, it’s the 13th Right. I mean, I appreciate the gesture. And he’s like, he was wondering why there were so many flowers left and I thought maybe the snow really? Maybe the snow really? Danford people like getting out. He’s like, I got great pickins here. Like, just a day early. But you know,

that’s all good. So

how much snow? Did you guys get down there?

I’m not like three ish, maybe three.

Okay, for some reason, I thought you were gonna get just a little bit more than us. But

we’re how much you guys get on that to like

nine, like, right, and we’re not that far away from each other. But my husband works in Wilmington, and he got nothing. He got down there this yesterday morning and was like there’s no snow here. Literally nothing took me forever to get here because Pennsylvania is a mess. So it was just crazy. Like, you know, yeah, that far away. All right, right. Typically, what, what I like to do is for these types of interviews from my standpoint, I like to have like good conversation and flow. You know, I’m not a huge fan land of like totally staged you know what I mean? Like just are the crustacean takes us like, and you’re the expert of allergies, right, and of what you’re trying to do with bright Braves. So, you know, I’ll probably ask you some questions that I want you to like take into like explanation and story right about what you’re trying to do and the mission you’re on. I think that your background is pretty cool. As far as like the fact you started at j&j in a space that now is integral in your own life and personal family allergies. You know, I think it’s an interesting story. Just a little bit about you, like I’ll kick it off, introduce you, and then ask you to introduce yourself and then I’ll just kind of take it from there and will flow I like the the sessions to be like, kind of 2020 or 30 minutes at most. I feel like people who said after that, you know,

yeah. Okay, that sounds good. Sounds

Yeah, it sounds perfect. And then I would love to get the chance to ask you as well, if you’re open to it, but I just had a few questions on my end as

well. Yeah, absolutely. And if you want, we can do it one of two ways. Like we can just record it going back and forth. And both use like a similar show, or we can do if you wanted to use it on your end somewhere else. Do like a second one where you’re kind of interviewing me it’s totally up to you want to do it for the whole session and I can like edit it and send you the appropriate like, either like back half clip that is you interviewing me or however you want to kind of handle it.

Okay.

Where are you? corneum physically, I mean, Westchester. Oh, you’re Westchester right? Okay. Yeah, it was wondering I would love it if maybe for maybe we do my site first and then the next one we can come to you in person. Me and Kathy, my social media manager make it in person interview. Yeah,

that’d be great. All right, cool. Okay,

perfect.

So I hit record. And then I do

use the video because I’ll end up putting it out on YouTube as well if that’s okay with you. Not everybody likes that. So that’s okay. And then just the pronunciation of your last name.

A local it rhymes with uncle.

Okay, perfect. I was gonna totally butcher that. So

I’m glad I asked that. I’m always I always like to check before we start. Thanks. All right. Well done. I have all my questions here

good up an Adam this morning. I love it. All right. Hey, everyone. Welcome to this week’s episode. I’m your host Courtney Xander, the founder of tiny transitions. And I am inviting a very special guest on the show today. She is the founder and CEO of byte brave, Miss Linda. I’m not alone call up. Ah, let me do that again. Hold on.

That was good. Oh, cool. Uncle.

I was thinking as I say, Mike, don’t say Hey, everyone, Courtney sands here, the founder of tiny transitions. I’m excited to have you on this week’s episode. And we are chatting with the founder and CEO of byte brave, Miss Linda ullamco. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you for having me, Courtney, excited to be here.

Well, tell us a little bit about bite brave, I will tell you the world of allergies as they stand was not something I was imminently familiar with until the whole first year of life, they were like, Don’t give your kid this Don’t give your kid that. And, you know, if you very quickly as a parent get, you know, pushed into that I was allergic to bees growing up. And that’s about all I knew of allergies, which was if you get stung by a bee, go find somebody. So, you know, let’s talk a little bit about you and your background, I’d love for you to introduce yourself to all of the listeners and viewers of the show.

Sure, so I’m sorry to hear about your shoes to be that’s gonna be pretty scary, too. I am a food allergy mom of eight years, I have two little boys and my youngest Benji, we’ve had to epi him four times already and he just turned six. So for me the the mission of helping families understand that if you can really, if you take the time, and the effort to introduce allergens early and often in that first year of life, that you can make a change in your baby’s you know, health for the rest of their life and potentially prevent, you know, these diseases from ever coming. So for me, it’s it’s personal in that way. But I’ve also spent time in learning about the science and the foundation of how this disease came about over the last few decades. At Johnson and Johnson and you know, when you realize that you have the opportunity to not only learn about it every day where you’re living with as a family, and then from there, you realize that the reason why you’re living it is because you are meant to do something about it, and to be able to help families around the country around the globe, you know, not have to live the way that that me and my family do every day. Right and, and the implications of living with food allergies, in terms of just quality of life, right? My friends, you know, who who have, you know, seen seeing Benji and Isaiah had a food allergy, but essentially outgrow it, but the the, the avoidance of, you know, birthday parties or or, or playdates or holiday dinners and social events, and you know, and when you when you have that original diagnosis, I went through it through this deep, deep spiral for the last for the, you know, the next two weeks of like, Oh, my goodness, like baseball games, you know, movie theaters, all of these things that were supposed to be joyful moments in that childhood. It just felt like the rug was pulled under you, you know, immediately. So there is a way to avoid this. And you know, and that is what beit Braves mission is about. Well,

and I think it’s just you know, your story of starting at j&j in this space, actually, like three children, right? And then having it and having that knowledge, which I think to your point is so powerful. And I would say helpful in us very scary diagnosis of to your point, like, oh my gosh, like what about the birthday parties and the Super Bowl parties, or the school parties or the lunch table and the fact that it is a very dangerous thing, when you have an allergy, we have an epi pen here for our little neighbor. And if he should come into contact with any sort of tree nuts, I know how to use an epi pen from might be allergy and we have one just in the downstairs bathroom. It’s in a ziploc with his name on it, you know, just in case because as a parent, it has to be you know, kind of scary that you’re sending them out there hoping that everything is okay. And I don’t think people understand allergies enough to know that they can sometimes be severe, you know that you don’t always outgrow them. So talk a little bit about that. You know, I mean, sounds like you had one that you outgrew, and then one that you’re living with like so talk about just with what you’re trying to do with bibrave Tell us a little bit more about that and then help families who don’t know much about allergies, but maybe just got a child diagnosed with One or, you know, we’re just trying to learn up

tourists or No, I think one of the things about food allergies and the interesting side of it is, um, you know that back 20 years ago, pediatricians were saying, do not introduce allergens until 123 years of age. Right. And that was two decades ago and, and in 2015, a clinical trial, the LEAP clinical trial essentially overturn that evidence and it and they essentially said, Oh, we know, we need to introduce, in this case, peanut in the four to six month age range to be able to prevent about 80% at 80% of prevention for peanut allergy. So then what happened is the AAP and all the guidelines essentially overturned after that clinical trial. Unfortunately, though, in that time period, the damage is already done, right, like parents and children were impacted. And, and the situation now is, parents what that causes parents create, it created this fear and anxiety of Oh, my goodness, if I do this, what if something happens, right? But what what am I here to tell these parents is, over 90% of parents do, and babies do not have reactions. So that fear is is a bit it almost is this. It’s been created because of horror stories like mine, but it isn’t, as you know, often it is a rare situation where babies do not have reactions. And then on top of that, pediatricians, despite their best intention, just do not have the time to coach families through how to introduce allergens, right, because the reason why that clinical trial worked is it required a specific dose multiple times a week. And it required a set of highly motivated parents. Because you can imagine during the time in that four to six month period, it is very difficult as a new parent, especially right, you’re tired, you’re not showering, you’re barely eating, you’re barely taking care of yourself and all these things, create this, you don’t know what to do next. So bite Brave is really here to be able to help you through that journey, and really introduce a simple way, and an easy way with the help of experts of dieticians to be able to coach you through how to make sure you know how to give those allergens to that baby, in hopes of preventing it from from ever coming.

So what are some of the common allergens? I think a lot of us know peanuts, tree nuts, my girlfriend’s daughter still is allergic to eggs, and she is 10. So it has to be cooked for 45 minutes, like what are some of those common allergens that people might not think of or that they know about? You know, I’ve heard about honey, and you know, not necessarily that you’re allergic to it, but that it’s not something you should introduce the first year. So

the FDA recognizes top nine, so the top nine are peanuts, tree nuts. And I’m going to try to remember these wheat, soy milk, egg, sesame, shellfish, and fish. And I’m pretty sure those are the top nine. But there are obviously other allergens that, you know are at or that that people do have allergies to. But in terms of the FDA recognizing it, it’s a requirement to have them be labeled on food products. So as you you know, and, and for those of us that have lived the intense burden of needing to read labels and trying to educate ourselves of, you know, what does manufactured versus what, you know, manufactured in facility versus manufactured in a, in a line that has something, you know, those nuances of reading those labels, but the FDA declares those top nine as those allergens. Gosh,

it’s so fascinating that, you know, there’s such a percentage, but then there’s also so many potential allergens, you know, I mean, as I’m sitting here, and you’re like, Oh, fish, and like, okay, that’s my nephew. Oh, that you know, and so I feel like we as relatives, friends, you know, etc. We all know somebody with an allergy. So how in bite breathes mission? Do you work with families, you know, potentially right postpartum? And then what else are you doing to educate folks like myself who do know somebody with an allergy, but don’t necessarily know what it means? Sure.

Yeah, and I think so bibrave is, is fairly early, you know, and we are a fairly early company, and really our work right now is to help us understand, you know, by talking to moms, within your family, or within you know, your clients and families, how can we best serve you, you know, what, what do you need the help in knowing the intensity of that time period. And what I’ve learned so far is parents need to be educated in this space, but they need to be given the education in a way that’s easy, and that it fits within their lifestyle. So that’s where you know, Courtney, talking to yourself is really how do I piggyback onto something that really you know, that parents are ready need help on and then bridge into that education of you’ve done such an amazing job in trying to understand how to Help your baby’s sleep, how to help yourself, get that, that rest back. Now let’s explore the introduction of foods and more importantly, the introduction of food allergens for the, for the purposes of preventing a potential disease, right. And, you know, and I can appreciate that, you know, especially a new mom eight years ago now, but trying to remember the psyche of of what it was like being that new mom, you know, the anxiety and the and the, you know, just the tiredness and the sleep deprivation. And then you compound onto there the expectation of needing to know how to introduce foods to your baby, like, that is a whole new, you know, an adventure, but also the one of the biggest challenges, I think that, you know, as a new mom is facing, and but the great thing about it all is I think what motherhood teaches all of us is that we can do very hard things, you know, and I think that is, that is something that, you know, I think is going to be a foundation for bibrave is that we, as moms are really thrown into this motherhood, right. And we really just are not given instruction manuals for this precious little thing that we have. And yet we are supposed to trust our motherly instincts and know exactly what to do. And the reality of it is that’s not possible, right. So they need help from you know, experts like yourself from experts from dieticians, from their pediatricians, and then be able to pull that community together to be able to help them help their baby. Right. And I think ultimately, the resounding mission of bite brave, and I think also for tiny transitions is to be able to enable parents and moms specifically to be their best so that they can be the best for their baby. Yeah,

absolutely. And I think with bibrave, what I think would be helpful for new parents or folks listening to this is to understand, right, you have a baby. So maybe you’re expecting right now and you’re listening to this and you’re going okay, well, should I be doing this, we don’t have a fifth history of allergies in our family, right? Talk a little bit about that. So essentially, a family you know, you come home from the hospital, you get the first 12 weeks under your belt, and you know, you’re trying not to be a total dumpster fire, hopefully your baby is starting to sleep better or start to sleep through the night. And now you’re thinking, Okay, we’ve hit this four month, little bit of a growth developmental leap, right? We’re now going to start or our doctor says to introduce oatmeal or rice cereal or something to help them start learning to swallow foods. And you know, from a standpoint, like all that is involved in that, right, and then bibrave comes in and says, Okay, well, in addition to that, did you know if you do x, it can yield? Why? Right? Yeah. So take a minute to explain that to parents, because I don’t think they understand like, oh, well, wait a minute, we don’t come from a family of allergies. So why would I want to introduce something that’s a potential allergy? And we’re good.

Yeah, and I think So what’s happened is, so that 33 million Americans in the US have food allergies, right. And a big part of that actually is in the in the child in the children population in children. So when when a parent reaches out to bygrave, essentially, they get I have, we have content around how to introduce we have checklists for each specific allergen that that requires, you know, it really, it’s to help the families see what needs to be done step by step, how much to give, what to expect, after the child, you know, essentially gets the allergen. What if something goes wrong, what potential what, you know, specific, specific things that could go wrong, and being able to describe, you know, to the families, what that looks like. And then if nothing is, you know, if the child is perfectly fine after eating the allergen, then what to do afterwards. So we have a very guided step by step method as to how to introduce what to expect, and then how you continue to introduce all of that. Sorry, all of that said, you know, that is just a foundation for a digital health platform that we are building that will enable not only those checklists to be delivered digitally, but then also to have dieticians on the team to be able to coach families, you know, through a one on one way of being able to introduce allergens as well. And

so by introducing the allergen at four months or six months, what does that do?

So your immune system as you’re a baby, right, the biggest opportunity to influence the health of that child is in that first year of life. And that clinical trial, the LEAP clinical trial demonstrated that by giving allergens even to children who have moderate to severe eczema. So for those of us that that don’t know, the atopic March, that’s essentially describing that eczema. mild, moderate severe could potentially lead to food allergies, and then it could lead to allergic rhinitis and then asthma later down the line. So that is essentially the progression of atopic disease. So in leap, the clinical trial, they specifically recruited babies who had moderate to severe eczema and intentionally introduced peanut, you know, obviously, control to the eczema and got it under control, and then introduced peanut to see what the outcome could be. And, and with that, they were able to slow the progression of the atopic March and prevent 80 plus percent of those babies peanut allergies. So imagine, you know, and what it took is that regimented way of introducing peanut, the discipline of you know, with the help of dieticians, coaching families through and really, that’s the bite brace foundations based on the clinical science, and, you know, in making it work back in 2015, but bringing it to 2020 threes era of having a digital health, you know, platform to be able to to execute that efficiently.

Perfect. And that is perfect explanation, because I want my family to understand like, you’re either going to deal with potentially a lifetime of allergies that don’t go away, right. Or you can do this in a controlled capacity, with experts with nutritionists with your pediatrician, and then potentially prevent what has now already been several life saving epi pens for you right? In the future and change the dynamic of that baby’s longevity of being allergy free versus having this peanut allergy that they carry with them through, you know, their life, right? Or any allergy, right? It doesn’t have to be peanuts, and that’s just the one that pops out in my head first, you know, and

really the, you know, we are not in the business of replacing medical care by any stretch of the imagination, right? We want to complement the care that these these babies have with their pediatrician. And we only come in when the when the pediatrician says Okay, good to go, you know, let’s start thinking about introducing allergenic foods, or sorry, introducing foods. And then on top of that start thinking about allergenic foods. So once we get the green light from the pediatrician, then that’s where we step in, and hope to coach the families through that journey.

Awesome. I think that’s fabulous. And I think that connection with the pediatricians is so crucial because I see it in the sleep coaching space, right? Parents come in and they go, Oh, my baby’s not napping, my baby won’t sleep through the night, what’s going on. And the almost immediate response from most of the pediatricians that send people to us inadvertently or through relationships we’ve built is just let your baby cry it out. Right? Just let them cry. And I think that in the perspective of the pediatricians we work with, they say, you know, they know that the long term impact of crying for a day or two is not detrimental, right. But the reason they say that is because they don’t have the time. They don’t literally have the time to sit with a family and coach them through sleep training. So they give them the best answer they can, which is like, hey, they gotta figure it out, they have something going on that we need to, you know, kind of nip in the bud, right, depending on each person’s situation. And that’s the advice they give. And I’m like, Whoa, you don’t have to do that, right. But to a pediatrician, they get 15 minutes in a room. And they’re supposed to ask you how you’re feeling postpartum. They’re supposed to check the baby, make sure they’re doing well check all their parts and make sure everything’s working as it should. And then on to the next patient. So it’s sort of this gap in the opportunity for care, right? You mentioned at the start of the show that we don’t have a way to really help parents, you know, like, we left the hospital, and they made darn sure that that car seat was strapped perfectly. And that was it.

And I was like, I’m shoving ice diapers

in my purse, and I don’t know what I’m doing. And you know, and then we get home. And I’m like, All right, so now, you know. And to your point, it’s like motherly instinct will like, What the heck is that? You know, and so I think there’s just this gap, and I’m so appreciative of you filling this space of knowledge, right? Sleep is a skill, there’s knowledge that comes behind it, right, what you’re doing is empowering parents with this knowledge because I as somebody who would have known about that, like, I would have been interested in doing that, because I don’t want to live with a lifetime of these potentially deadly allergies, kind of swirling and reading. I’m very good about reading every label now just because I want ingredients in my food that I can read, you know, I have when I have guests over or gluten free, you know, kids with celiac that come over or you know, my girlfriend’s daughter with allergies. I’m like, Okay, let me make cupcakes, but I’ll make them with applesauce instead of eggs. And you know, you’re trying to do all this stuff to make sure you know, they are safe in your care. But at one point, you know, when you’re sending them off into the world, and that save time sentence, you know what I mean? Manage it, and I don’t mean to say sentence in a bad way. But just it is like it’s a potentially deadly situation that parents have to undo. understand, manage, and they do, but just the relief and the anxiety reduction in just knowing you can manage that.

Yeah, and I think that’s been the, you know, in, in within the customers that we’ve been working with, it’s, it’s like, it’s that sense of, can you just be there with me? You know, like, Can you just help me understand how to do this, so that I get over my own fear, you know, all the fears that I have heard all those horror stories, all those grocery aisles that our that are, you know, gluten free, because somebody can medically cannot eat gluten, or, you know, all of those dairy free and, you know, these are all the things that have now come across in our society as normal. Right. And it’s, it is kind of mind blowing, where it’s like, because we as a society have not been able to help understand how can we really helped parents prevent this disease, and we can’t get ahead of it. And therefore, now we’re in the management and treatment, you know, and that’s where the interest lies, where there’s so much that can be done in the early stages of all of it to prevent it from ever happening. And I understand that it goes against all healthcare economics, right? In terms of, you know, how we as a society, you know, capitalize from from certain things, but fundamentally, though, it’s, there’s so much value and being able to prevent this disease that we don’t have to diagnose, manage, and or treat it, you know, which is, which is where I am right now.

Well, so how do people find you? How do they get in touch with you? How can they learn more about this, maybe they’re expecting, or they just had a newborn, and they’re saying, I think this sounds like a, you know, somebody I want to talk to.

So we have an Instagram handle, hashtag bibrave. And I’m a chemical engineer, guys. So I am, I have a wonderful social media manager that has been able to tell amazing stories about bibrave and food allergy prevention, but bibrave on Instagram, and then we have a website www.bibrave.com. And then if you would love, I would love to hear from you. And please send me an email at Linda at byte brave.com.

Awesome,

I love it. I think this is so important. And I’m excited for viewers to be able to take this back and really, like sit on it. Because I think what you’re doing is fascinating to help these families in a way that frankly, like I wouldn’t have thought of, you know, as a new parent, you’re just trying to survive, right. And if I could potentially, and safely change the trajectory of an allergy, like, bravo, you know, bravo. So I appreciate you and what you’re doing. And I’m so appreciative of you coming on today.

Thank you, Courtney. It was it was such an exciting time for me to be able to share this with the world. And know that no matter what we do, right, we can do this together. And you know, as moms and as parents, we do incredible things every day. And this is just one of those incredible things. Well,

thank you. This is lovely. And I’ll have all of Linda’s information in the show notes, and links to all of her great resources as well. So be sure to go out and follow her on Instagram. And let us know if you have any questions and we’d love to hear. Hear what you think of this episode, be sure to click subscribe and follow us and then go ahead out there and follow bibrave as well because they’re going to be doing amazing things. Thank you so much, Linda.

Thank you for me. I appreciate it.

One more thing before you go. Did you know that we offer the industry’s first affordable and effective self paced sleep coaching program that includes time with a pediatric sleep expert here on the tiny transitions team. It’s the industry’s first and only membership program like this, that you can cancel anytime. And the best part. It’s cheaper than a cup of coffee every single day. So say goodbye to the ebooks and courses that are not helping your child sleep better. And join sleep steps today. The most comprehensive sleep education you need to get everyone sleeping through the night. Learn more by visiting tiny transitions doc