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A mum is warning others about the dangers of food allergies after her teenage daughter died from eating a cookie at her friend’s house.

Alexi Stafford, 15, from Florida was allergic to peanuts and sadly died on June 25.

“Our hearts are broken and we are still in shock,” her mother Kelli Travis-Stafford writes on Facebook.

“Our whole lives we dedicated to keeping our child safe from one ingredient, peanuts.

“On Monday June 25, our 15 year old daughter, Alexi Ryann Stafford, while at a friends house, made a fatal choice.

“There was an open package of Chips Ahoy cookies, the top flap of the package was pulled back and the packaging was too similar to what we had previously deemed “safe” to her. S

“She ate one cookie of chewy Chips Ahoy thinking it was safe because of the “red” packaging, only to find out too late that there was an added ingredient…. Reese peanut butter cups/chips.

“She started feeling tingling in her mouth and came straight home. Her condition rapidly deteriorated.

“She went into Anaphylactic shock, stopped breathing and went unconscious. We administered 2 epi pens while she was conscious and waited on paramedics for what felt like an eternity.

She died within 1& 1/2 hour of eating the cookie.

“As a mother who diligently taught her the ropes of what was okay to ingest and what was not, I feel lost and angry because she knew her limits and was aware of familiar packaging, she knew what “safe” was.

“A small added indication on the pulled back flap on a familiar red package wasn’t enough to call out to her that there was “peanut product” in the cookies before it was too late. I want to share our story with everyone because we want to spread awareness.

“The company has different colored packaging to indicate chunky, chewy, or regular but NO screaming warnings about such a fatal ingredient to many people. Especially children.

“It’s important to us to spread awareness so that this horrible mistake doesn’t happen again.”

Our hearts break for the family. Such a terrible tragedy x

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  • I am so thankful I never had to deal with allergies with any of my kids. It sure does make every day life incredibly difficult

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  • This is absolutely heartbreaking. Children with allergies have to be taught to read the allergens list on the packaging of all processed foods. Adults have to remember to read them too.

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  • How tragic is this ! You did well keeping her safe all these years !
    It would be good to have a screaming warning on packages about this dangerous fatal ingredient to many.

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  • Poor girl I feel sorry for the family we don’t have allergies but will never buy those biscuits anymore

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  • So sad for the family and for her friend, guilt will follow her about this but no-one should be blamed.

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  • What a terrible tragedy – my heart goes out to you in your loss – even at 15 one cannot be expected to read every label to make sure the ingredients are OK. So sorry for you.

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  • Such a tragedy that should never have happened. So sorry for their loss on such a beautiful daughter.

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  • Just terrible for this family. I agree education and awareness are crucial with allergies but this case seems to be more a case of accident/misjudgement by the girl. Unfortunately teenagers are teenagers and even having a life threatening allergy she still mistakenly had the food without properly checking the packaging. So sorry for the family and RIP

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  • Such a terribly sad story. My heart goes out to the family.

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  • That is such a sad story. My heart goes out to both families.

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  • Very sad, you would think that her friends would have been aware of her condition and really shouldn’t have had them out when she was over.

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  • Oh my, this is so sad and devastating for a family who has obviously been really diligent about their daughter’s food intake. My heart breaks for them.

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  • This is just so tragic and devastating for the families.

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  • Such a horrible thing to happen. Looking at the packets, I probably would have made the same mistake too

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  • Oh my this poor family. As soon as I saw the packet my heart sunk, I knew these were peanut butter flavoured.

    Reply

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