About Food Allergy Living Blog

Food Allergy Living is a resource for parents of children with food allergies, brought to you by Nutricia, the makers of Neocate. It's written by Nutricia's team of nutrition specialists, which currently includes Sarah O'Brien, Christine Graham-Garo, Mallory West and Reneé Arroyo.

The purpose of this Food Allergy Blog is to keep families living with food allergies, especially children with food allergies informed with the latest news and events, while providing useful tips, recipes and advice for your food allergy related questions. Of course, don't ever use this (or anything else you read online) to replace medical advice. Always talk to your health care provider.

We encourage conversation and discussion about food allergies and the issues children have dealing with all different types of childhood allergies, so please feel free to utilize our comment section on each of our posts if you have any questions, thoughts or even opinions. We'd really like to hear your feedback and have a conversation with you.

If you'd prefer to reach us directly, you can always email foodallergyliving@nutricia.com.

About the Food Allergy Living Authors

Sarah O'Brien – Editor / Nutrition Specialist

Sarah O'Brien is a senior nutrition specialist for Nutricia. She received her Bachelors of Science degree with dual concentrations in Health Education and Community Health from Towson University.  She has worked in the nutrition field for over 10 years. Since joining the Nutricia team nine years ago, she has focused on nutrition therapies for kids with food allergies, gastrointestinal issues, metabolic conditions and neurological diseases such as intractable epilepsy.

Sarah enjoys playing a role in finding relief for infants, children and families who are suffering and shouldn't have to – she loves to hear stories from families about how Neocate "saved" their child.

Beyond her nutritional expertise, Sarah is uniquely qualified to write this blog because her daughter Reagan had allergy-related reflux and was a Neocate baby.

Christine Graham-Garo – Author & Nutrition Specialist

Christine Graham-Garo is a nutrition specialist at Nutricia North America. She grew up in Miami, Florida and received her Bachelor of Science degree in dietetics and nutrition from Florida International University. Since then, she has worked in hospitals in Florida and in North Dakota (while her husband was stationed there for the military), before settling in Northern Virginia.

Christine was diagnosed with Diabetes type 1 when she was 8 years old, which led her to become interested in nutrition. In her role, she focuses on nutrition for infants with allergies and GI issues. She enjoys using her nutrition related knowledge to educate consumers as well as health care providers about the different products Nutricia offers and how they can be used for many medical conditions.

In her free time Christine enjoys running, hiking and being outdoors.

Mallory West – Author & Nutrition Specialist

Mallory West is a nutrition specialist at Nutricia North America, where she combines her interest in health and medicine with her passion for working with children with special needs. 

In addition to working with pediatric food allergies and gastrointestinal conditions, Mallory assists families whose children are on a ketogenic diet for the treatment of intractable epilepsy.

Mallory finds it especially rewarding that she is able to make a difference by contributing to the best possible care for children with special medical nutrition needs by using Nutricia products.

Mallory also has a little sister with special needs who has used Nutricia's products, long before she joined the team! Since her sister is tube-fed, Mallory takes a special interest in our families with feeding tubes. She is a graduate of Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Exercise Science.

Rob McCandlish – Author & Nutrition Specialist

Rob McCandlish is a nutrition specialist at Nutricia North America and is also a registered dietitian. He grew up in Winchester, Virginia and received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Mary Washington College. He held positions in organ transplantation before earning a Bachelor of Science degree in dietetics from James Madison University and completing his dietetic internship at the National Institutes of Health.

Rob has been interested in the role of nutrition in health and wellness for many years, and has several relatives with celiac disease. In his position, he focuses on nutrition for children with allergies and metabolic disorders and also specializes in the nutrition needs of patients who undergo weight loss surgery.

Rob enjoys using his knowledge of nutrition to educate consumers as well as health care providers about the different products Nutricia offers and how they can be used for many medical conditions. In his free time Rob enjoys running, cooking and spending time with friends and family.

Former/Past Authors

Renee Arroyo – Author & Reserach and Education Specialist

Reneé Arroyo is a Research and Education Specialist working in the Medical and Scientific Affairs department at Nutricia. She received her Bachelors of Science in Nutrition and Food Service Management from Youngstown State University with a minor in Biology. She also holds a Masters in Science from Virginia Commonwealth University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Nutritional Sciences at Howard University.

At Nutricia Reneé has experience working with nutrition therapies for children with food allergies, gastrointestinal issues, metabolic conditions and neurological diseases. She has also worked as an intern performing nutrition screenings and assessments and educating patients on disease prevention, health promotion and medical nutrition therapy.

As a child, Reneé had environmental allergies and had to get weekly shots to suppress reactions. She has also had close family members with diabetes that have struggled to manage their diet.  This inspired her to pursue an education in nutrition, which has now become her passion. The most pleasing thing for her is to educate and serve families to improve their nutritional health.

Reneé is also a mother of two children and enjoys spending time with her family.  She enjoys assisting with educating families on nutrition.

Nita Parsnani – Author & Nutrition Specialist

Nita Parsnani is a Territory Manager for the state of New Jersey with Nutricia.  Nita started with Nutricia as a Nutrition Specialist working in the Medical and Scientific Affairs department.  She received her Bachelors of Science from Virginia Tech, obtaining dual concentrations in Dietetics and Consumer Foods.

As a nutrition specialist at Nutricia, Nita worked with all the different product types and likes the daily interaction she has with families.

She also really enjoys getting to cook and experiment with Nutricia's products.  She has done some cooking experiments with Neocate Junior and Neocate Nutra to help parents come up with different and creative ways to serve the formula to their children.

Nita was born and raised in Wakefield, Rhode Island and as a child she grew up with a milk allergy as well!