Janelle Baldosser
Director of Stoner Health and Counseling Center
I have two kids. Ava is 4 and Braxton is 2. Braxton has food allergies and has limited nutritional opportunities. He鈥檚 allergic to peanuts, wheat and eggs and he outgrew his dairy and soy allergies already.
He was only 5 months old when he had severe eczema. I knew there was a chance that, if he didn鈥檛 get the proper treatment, he could die. It鈥檚 tough being in medicine and knowing what can happen to your child. You become extremely protective. After that, the EpiPen became very, very dear to our family. I do not allow my child to go anywhere without one whether it鈥檚 the babysitter鈥檚, grandparents鈥 or wherever. Anybody who watches him knows how to use it now. I trained them all to use it and then had them demonstrate they could use it afterwards. You never know when it could happen. Older kids and adults know what they can have and what could happen to them. My little guy could see a peanut on the floor, pick it up and eat it.
We try to avoid it all. There are no peanuts in our house or our babysitter鈥檚 house. You have to pay close attention because something you think would never contain peanuts says, 鈥淭his may contain peanuts.鈥 There are a lot worse problems he could have though. He鈥檚 healthy.
Why Heidelberg?
I was on maternity leave with my second child at the time. One of my friends saw the open position in the newspaper. She said, 鈥淥h my gosh! You would be perfect for this.鈥 I still wanted to do clinical medicine though. I decided I would call and inquire. When I inquired, I learned I would still get to provide clinical medicine and that I would be the nurse practitioner to the students along with being the director. Not only do I get to provide medicine to the students but I also get to lead the department, which I really enjoy.
Janelle鈥檚 husband, Chad, is the lead nuclear medicine technologist at Firelands Regional Medical Center in Sandusky. Janelle is the nurse practitioner and director of the Stoner Health and Counseling Center, located in Campus Center. She met with Parkhurst Dining, Heidelberg鈥檚 soon-to-be food service provider, to develop an allergy-friendly area in the new dining hall, which will be unveiled this fall.