Pediatrician and parent coach Julie Kolakowski ’01 Sweeney uses digital platforms to empower families with food allergies.
In terms of Instagram accounts, the one Julie Kolakowski ’01 Sweeney maintains is pretty typical. Adorable family pictures with her three boys, check. Scrumptious food, check. But a closer look reveals there’s more to Sweeney’s story. The snacks she shows are free of allergens such as nuts and soy. There’s an artfully composed shot of an EpiPen. And, of course, there’s her Instagram handle: @allergymom.md.
Sweeney is a pediatrician, but her job doesn’t involve a white coat or doctor’s office: “I am a pediatrician parent coach for food allergy families, and also the consulting medical director of Backstop, a virtual health care platform for pediatric food allergy,” she says.
Sweeney always knew she wanted to be a doctor, but she didn’t plan to specialize in allergy care or consultation. It took a few formative experiences for her to realize what she was meant to do. After graduating from Colgate, she got her first glimpse of how challenging managing food allergies could be. She spent a yearlong stint teaching science to children. At the school where she taught, just one child with a peanut allergy was enough to trigger a peanut ban in all of the elementary grades.
That memory stayed with her through New York Medical College and her pediatric residency at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital. She married her Colgate sweetheart Bill Sweeney ’01 and made plans to have children of her own. In her final year of residency, while pregnant with their first child, she worked closely with the director of the hospital’s pediatric allergy division.
Even with that training, she was unprepared for the maelstrom of emotion she experienced when her infant son had a terrifying allergic reaction. After a feeding of rice cereal, the 5-month-old vomited so much so that he went limp in Sweeney’s arms. In that moment, she didn’t have the brain space to be a calm, cool, and collected doctor. When it’s your child that’s in distress, she says, “it is really hard to be a pediatrician and a mom.”
With help from an emergency room pediatrician and a supportive coworker, Sweeney diagnosed the rice cereal allergy. Little by little, she learned to manage her son’s diet. She finished residency and joined a private medical practice in Stamford, Conn. Eventually, two more boys came along, each with food allergies of his own.
For 10 years, in her job as a pediatrician, Sweeney would see a cavalcade of patients for about 10 minutes each. She loved her work, but part of her ached for the families who’d just learned about their child’s food allergy. Ten minutes didn’t feel like enough time to help them. When the private practice group merged with a bigger hospital, it felt like a sign to leave and try something new.
She launched her Instagram account in November 2020, along with a company by the same name. Soon after, she received a message from Matt Bomes, an entrepreneur whose own allergies drove him to improve the allergy care experience. Bomes is a cofounder and board member of Summit Street Medical, the start-up that created the Backstop allergy care platform. As Sweeney and Bomes discussed their respective business goals, Bomes asked Sweeney the killer question: “Do you know what you would love to do?”
That was when everything clicked. She told him she “would love to be a parent coach” — a reassuring expert who empowers families so that they feel confident throughout the food allergy journey, from triaging Halloween candy to packing EpiPens for college. “The team went with it,” she says, “and it has taken off.”
Today, Sweeney might have an hourlong virtual meeting with a food allergy family, followed by calls with dietitians she’d like to recruit to the Backstop platform. She also makes time to post tips for parents and recommend allergen-free snacks on Instagram. In her spare time, she volunteers for Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), a nonprofit dedicated to awareness. Advocacy from FARE and other groups spurred a new law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, requiring that starting in 2023, sesame be labeled on all packaged foods the way peanuts and other common allergens are. Nearly 1.6 million Americans, including Sweeney’s middle child, are allergic to sesame.
“Everything seems to have happened for a reason,” Sweeney says. “And it’s gotten me to this point where I feel like this is my ideal job.”