Job:

Allergic Living’s Gwen Smith: Julie, how did you first become aware of your child’s food allergies?

Julie Bowen: I was at work on Boston Legal and my husband was at home. He sent me a text saying, ‘I think we have a problem with our son and peanut butter.’ I said, ‘but he’s had it before,’ and then he said – ‘and he got stung by a bee’. And I was thinking, ‘What is going on over there?’

AL: You mean he was stung at the very same time he was reacting to peanut butter?

JB: Well, it is California and our doors are open all the time. So he [her son Oliver] had wandered out eating peanut butter and was stung by a bee. I was one to think this was no big deal until my husband sent me a picture of our son’s face, which was clearly in distress. It was swollen and disfigured.

My husband rushed him off to the emergency room and he was treated with epinephrine, and after that we learned that Oliver had allergies to all sorts of nuts and peanuts and probably also to stinging insects – but that’s a different series of tests.

After the anaphylactic reaction, I know that my job is to be aware and to be prepared for the next reaction – whenever that may be.

AL: These days you’re a big TV star, you’ve won a second Emmy and the show is a huge hit. But facing anaphylaxis, is that the great leveler?

JB: You know, I think being a parent is the great leveler. People often ask me how my life has changed since Modern Family. And I say, ‘Having three kids in three years was a much bigger change than having a lovely, lovely job.’

AL: What ages are your kids?

JB: Oliver is the older boy and we have twin 3-year-old boys. [So far, no life-threatening allergies have been diagnosed with the twins.]

Next: Bowen’s decision to get involved in the “Get Schooled in Anaphylaxis” campaign.

But in real life, Julie Bowen is one of us: an allergy mom with a son at risk of anaphylaxis. She found out the hard way – through an anaphylactic reaction – that her son, now 5 years old, has severe allergies to peanuts, walnuts and bee stings.

Recently, on the Anderson Live talk show with Anderson Cooper, Bowen described how her son at  the age of 2 ate peanut butter for the second or third time and “and, conveniently, was stung by a bee seconds later and went into full anaphylaxis.”

Well aware that her son now spends his daytime hours at school, and in the care of teachers and other staff, Bowen is raising awareness through Mylan Specialty’s “Get Schooled in Anaphylaxis” campaign at www.Anaphylaxis101.com. (Mylan is the manufacturer of the EpiPen brand auto-injector.)

In a news release, Bowen said her child received “immediate medical care and recovered quickly, but it was a wake-up call that anaphylaxis can occur anywhere and at any time, even when you may not think your child is at risk.”

The campaign strives to get local school communities involved in allergy awareness. A key component is the Get Schooled in Anaphylaxis Challenge. To take part in this essay contest, U.S. students in Grades 1 through 12 should submit an essay to suggest ways their own schools can improve allergy accommodations to support food (and sting) allergic students. The prize is impressive: a $2,000 college scholarship.

The submission rules are: 

• for Grades 1-4 – 50-150 words;
• for Grades 5-8 – 150-250 words;
• and for Grades 9-12 – 400-500 words. The final day for submissions is November 9.

“Through the Get Schooled in Anaphylaxis Challenge, students across the country will have the opportunity to educate their peers and help everyone be more aware of life-threatening allergies,” Bowen says.

The campaign site also offers helpful information about food and insect allergies and numerous resources for schools and caregivers.

Essential Related Reading: Time to End Food Allergy Tragedies