From Close Calls To Sweet Success
The Dupre Family Turns Allergies Into Opportunities
By Diana Bezdedeanu
Feature Photos By: Rick Bern Photography
Available in the April issue of Westwood Living.
What would you do if the simple act of sitting at the lunch table with your friends could put your own life at risk? For the Dupre family - Christina, Rob, Jason, Bella, and Ryan - keeping this in mind is a daily reality.
Jason, who’s 19 and Ryan, who’s 10, both have severe, life-threatening allergies that make even the most everyday moments – like sharing a snack or sitting in the cafeteria – potentially dangerous. Imagine the heartache you’d feel hearing your children’s stories of sitting at the ‘nut-free’ table, separated from their peers, knowing that few people fully understand the life-or-death stakes of their condition. Rather than letting allergies define their lifestyle, the Dupre family has taken matters into their own hands, creating a solution that benefits their kids and also offers hope to others navigating similar challenges.
Their story begins in 2009, when Jason was about four-years-old.
“At the time, you weren’t supposed to give nuts to kids because it was considered a severe allergen, so I was extremely cautious when to start introducing it,” Christina, a genetic counselor at New England OB-GYN Associates, recalled. “There was so much debate on the matter and it wasn’t very clear. Being a vigilant mother, I never gave Jason nuts out of concern, which is ironic, because I am Lebanese and we literally feast on nuts. When he was close to four-years-old, Rob gave him nuts for the first time, and I asked, 'Did you just give him something?' He replied, 'I just gave him nuts.’ He’d never had them before and for some reason I felt concerned. Immediately, Jason reacted. He was staggering, he kind of lost his ability to focus, he then fell onto the sofa and almost passed out. I knew immediately that this was severe.
"He got sick in the house, which I assumed was a good sign because it meant he was removing anything harmful,” Christina continued. “I remember driving straight to Newton-Wellesley Hospital for care where they have a great pediatric facility and that was our first real experience with any allergies in our family. Ever since then, we’ve been learning about allergies. It was new to both of us, and we weren’t living in a society where people were as allergy-friendly as they are today.”
Since that day, Jason’s allergies have escalated and as he navigates his freshman year at the University of Vermont, he’s always mindful of what he’s eating and drinking, especially during peak pollen season, because any little trigger might escalate a reaction.
When Ryan was born in 2014, Christina was determined to be prepared for anything.
"I was so ready when Ryan was born,” said Christina. “With Bella, there’s nothing this girl can’t eat, we could go anywhere. But with Ryan, I thought, if he has an allergen, it’s probably in the nut family, because, at the time, we didn’t have any other allergies to consider."
Her preparedness was shattered just moments before leaving for a fundraising event at Bella’s preschool. Ryan, several months old, was nursing, and Christina quickly realized she needed to supplement.
"I gave him a bottle of Enfamil formula," she explained. "I knew they’d given him formula in the nursery because all of my babies were peanuts, and they’d supplement with formula when babies lose weight. I thought, 'What’s the harm? He wants more than I can give him right now, and we need to leave.'"
But as soon as Christina gave Ryan the bottle, something didn’t feel right.
"He was fighting me, literally fighting me. He didn’t want the bottle. I remember vividly encouraging him to eat, 'Eat, eat, Ryan!' He just kept swatting it away."
Christina then noticed something alarming.
"I looked at his mouth, and I saw these red bumps. It was so weird. And the more I looked, the more I realized they were spreading. I knew something wasn’t right, but it didn’t even cross my mind that it was a reaction to the formula."
In that moment, panic began to set in. Christina immediately called her pediatrician.
"I explained to the nurse what was happening, and she asked, 'Are you sure it’s not from sucking on the bottle?' But I knew it wasn’t that. It was these red bumps all around his mouth."
The nurse’s response was urgent: "You need to hang up and call 911 now!"
Christina’s heart raced as she tried to manage the situation. Jason, in elementary at Sheehan, was due to be picked up, Bella was already home from preschool, hanging on to her mother’s leg, and Rob, Managing Director of Product Strategy at Charles River Development, was at work.
Christina’s mind raced as she dialed 911 and desperately reached out for help.
"I called my father, who had recently retired. Thankfully, he was home. I called my neighbor, too. I was trying to figure out who would be where. I needed someone to grab Jason from school and someone else to watch Bella at home. But all I could think about was Ryan. The ambulance was on its way."
Christina couldn’t only watch, helplessly, swept by a feeling of being powerless.
"It was like a wave, you could see the hives spreading down his body, and they just kept getting worse. I had no idea what to do. I just knew this was severe."
When the paramedics arrived, they strapped in Ryan and administered the epipen.
"Ryan immediately threw up," Christina recalled, “it felt like time stopped. My only thought was, ‘I need to get him to the hospital.’"
As the ambulance raced to Norwood Hospital, siren blaring, Christina felt some of the panic ease. Once at the hospital, Christina was exhausted but stayed vigilant.
"They gave Ryan some Benadryl and every antihistamine they could. He was so tiny. I just kept thinking, 'Please be okay.'"
Though Christina was deeply shaken by the whole ordeal, the kindness of the hospital staff helped her and Rob, who met the ambulance at the hospital, feel supported.
"They were so kind. They could see how devastated and scared we were. They reassured me, 'We’re going to take care of him.'"
They even offered to admit Ryan overnight for observation, something Christina gladly accepted.
"I needed to sleep. I just didn’t feel mentally capable of handling it on my own overnight. Having the support of the staff and Rob by my side made all the difference."
In the aftermath of Ryan’s near-death experience as an infant and his harsh allergic reaction serving as a life-altering reminder, Christina became even more vigilant about her children's food allergies.
"Ever since then, I’ve been more adamant about not just eating safely but also healthy," she said. "The experience changed everything."
From that moment on, ensuring both Ryan and Jason’s safety became the family’s top priority. Ryan’s list of allergies includes dairy, milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, mustard, chickpeas, and sesame. Jason’s are also numerous, though widely different. For Christina and Rob, this meant hours of reading food labels, contacting food companies about their manufacturing processes, and searching grocery store aisles for the safest and healthiest options.
"I scoured the aisles of every grocery store in search of products that we could eat, which you'd be amazed, because there are such few options that are safe, especially when it comes to bread. Who knew milk is in English muffins? It was a trying time to sort out what we could all safely eat as a family, while being mindful of what we're putting in our bodies,” shared Christina.
“To this day, there are only certain products I can get from specific grocery stores,” said Rob. “English muffins I can only get from Trader Joe’s, coconut milk I can only get from Wegmans, and Ryan’s sandwich bread I can only get from Shaw’s. We probably go to four or five stores a week, which I don't mind, but when they don’t carry it anymore, it’s frustrating.”.
“Or they'll change manufacturers,” Christina chimed in. “Two months later, you look at the ingredients again and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, now it’s made in a facility or on equipment that processes dairy or some other allergen, so we can’t eat this anymore. That reinforced when I became more conscious of ingredients and reading labels and teaching our kids how to read them."
But reading labels didn’t stop at home.
"Through this process, you’re also teaching family, friends and the school,” Christina added. ‘My child has an allergy, please be mindful, no more nuts at camp, no more nuts in the school. And again, they were just starting to evolve and accept this. Today, everything is nut-free. But that was not our story at the time. It was also disheartening because, at the time, they would separate the kids with allergies from other students - it’s a very isolating process."
"I remember they used to invite kids to go sit at the ‘nut-free’ table so others would not feel alone," Rob said as he turned to Christina. “They weren’t allowed to bring anything containing nuts, so it took a lot of getting used to”.
“It took us a very long time to come home with products that were fit for us,” Christina added.
“'Here’s the list of don'ts,” Rob recalled. “And it’s like, 'How did I miss that? Oh, it says apple.' Jason is allergic to apples, he can’t even tolerate apple cider vinegar. And you can’t substitute eggs with applesauce in baking because Jason’s allergic."
But the greatest challenge, both parents agree, is ensuring their children still feel included at social events, especially birthday parties where traditional cakes and snacks are understandably off-limits.
"It’s hard on the children,” Christina admitted. “I think it’s generated so much anxiety for my oldest and my youngest because we tell them, 'This is not a joke. If you eat something you're not supposed to eat, you might get sick and we may have to go to the hospital!' But how do you balance making a child understand the severity of a situation while ensuring they remain undisturbed? We want them to stay safe but also not cause emotional harm. It’s hard, especially when they’re little and they can’t read labels for themselves. They’ll have friends put their hands in their bag of chips, and I respond, 'No, no, you just put your hand in his chip bag! Did you eat anything he’s allergic to?' Through this experience his friends have become very aware and are very supportive!”
"If they have a chocolate chip cookie, it's a hard no,” Rob continued. “We have to educate everyone, including the parents”.
“The kids will go over to a friend’s house for a playdate and they will ask, ‘What can he eat?' And I say, 'Nothing! I will pack him food!’’’ said Christina.
“His friends’ parents have also taken the liberty of sending photos of an ingredient label and asking, 'Is this snack okay?' Which is awesome,” Rob adds. “It's good that they’re being cautious.”
“Now they all have a ‘Ryan Cabinet,’ which is great,” added Christina. “We have a supportive network!"
Rob's professional background, intertwined with his drive to find a sweet treat that both his sons could enjoy, led to the birth of Ryan’s FreeFrums in November 2024.
“There were hardly any options available,” said Rob. “Gluten-free cookies were tasteless, and dairy-free ones didn’t meet the mark either. We couldn’t find anything that was both healthy and tasted good, so we decided to make it ourselves.”
This trial-and-error process culminated in a creative outlet for Rob.
“I’m not a professional baker by any means, but as an engineer, I love problem-solving,” he said. “It’s about taking the challenge of finding the right ingredients, mixing them together, and seeing what works.”
Through many iterations and tests, Rob finally perfected a recipe that met Ryan’s needs, and it quickly gained attention from friends and family who encouraged him to share his creations.
“When our friend started eating four or five cookies in one sitting and said, ‘You should sell these,’ that’s when we knew we were onto something,” Rob said.
Ryan’s FreeFrums are sleeves of frozen cookie dough in mini baking cups, called Pop’ums, because kids love to pop the treats right into their mouth. These delicious cookies are easily baked at home and are free from common allergens including peanuts, tree nuts (except coconut), dairy, egg, casein, soy, sesame, lupin, mustard, celery, fish, and shellfish. Current flavors include Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate Chip, and Chocolate Vanilla Chip, and the feedback from parents and children has been overwhelmingly positive.
“People can’t believe something that is allergy and vegan-friendly can taste this good!” Christina said with a laugh.
As for future growth, Rob added, “If this ever gets big, I could see us branching out into other products - pancake mixes, cake mixes, even the byproducts of making oat flour could become something else. But, right now, we’re focusing on getting it right.”
Although neither of them has built a business, Christina and Rob are learning as they go, balancing their full-time jobs and parenting duties with entrepreneurial dreams.
“I’m open to making this a full-time venture if it takes off. I love the creativity and working with people. My current job helps corporations, but I’d love to see my work go directly to those benefiting from it,” shared Rob.
As for the kids, they’re the official taste-testers, a role taken very seriously.
“I don’t like them,” 13-year-old Bella said comically, as she grabbed yet another cookie off the plate in front of us.
Since launching just five months ago, the Dupres acknowledged the unwavering support from the local community and beyond.
“A lot of it is word of mouth right now,” Rob explained. “We’ve started a website and are figuring out how to build a social media presence. The local community has been incredibly supportive. Doug and Stephanie Pollard invited us to Pollard's Test Kitchen, and Adam and Michelle Munroe have been great with promoting us at Perfect Strangers Family Kitchen.”
Christina added, “It's a challenge to get the word out, especially with little kids at home, but we’re excited to be part of local events too. We’re hoping to participate in Westwood Day in September and every chance we get, we bring samples, hand out cards, and talk to people.”
Ryan’s FreeFrums was always a mission, not a mistake. Rob reflected on the family's journey, emphasizing the necessity that drove the creation of their business.
“Who doesn't love a nice home baked cookie? You can buy store bought, and yeah, some definitely taste good. And you can go to places like Twist Bakery, who make fantastic cookies with a bit of a price tag. But nothing beats the taste (and smell!) of a freshly baked cookie.”