{"id":197815,"date":"2026-05-20T13:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/197815\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:11:09","slug":"allentown-parent-whose-child-died-from-food-allergy-turns-painful-loss-into-advocacy-effort-lehigh-valley-regional-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/197815\/","title":{"rendered":"Allentown parent whose child died from food allergy turns painful loss into advocacy effort | Lehigh Valley Regional News"},"content":{"rendered":"

SALISBURY TWP., Pa. – Imagine your child is given a grilled cheese sandwich at daycare that causes a fatal food allergic reaction.<\/p>\n

It happened to one Allentown parent. He’s turned his painful loss into a project and an advocacy effort that spreads awareness about food allergies.<\/p>\n

Thomas Silvera joined 69 News at Sunrise Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Elijah-Alavi experienced the food allergy to cheese.<\/p>\n

After that incident,\u00a0Silvera helped create the Elijah-Alavi Foundation<\/a>\u00a0in honor of his son. The foundation’s website says it elevates food allergy and asthma awareness through comprehensive training, educational research, community outreach, and advocacy.<\/p>\n

The organization provides those with allergic reactions resources and tools and gives them a safe space,\u00a0Silvera said.<\/p>\n

A new film, “May Contain: My Life,” that shares Elijah’s story, premieres at AMC Theatres this week. The film focuses on the experiences of someone dealing with food allergies.<\/p>\n

He’s also written a graphic novel about food allergies, “The Anaphylaxis Strike!” Another book, “Elijah Builds A Park,” is coming out in August. It tells the story of Elijah, and his food allergies.<\/p>\n

And there’s even a day on the calendar to remember Elijah nationally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is there anything parents can do to find out immediately if their child has a food allergy? If a child has a reaction, you can visit a pediatrician so they can follow up and get testing done. Parents and children can then go to a specialist to get diagnosed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALISBURY TWP., Pa. – Imagine your child is given a grilled cheese sandwich at daycare that causes a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,87784],"class_list":["post-197815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-elijah-alavi-foundation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}