2. Hold the Allergen: There are lots of apps for ingredients in chain restaurants/fast food, but this is by far my favorite. It has one of the largest databases of menus (39ish), which can show all items with ingredient lists or filter by allergens (select any number of the top 8 plus soybean oil and soy lecithin). You can also mark favorites.
[April 2015: no longer in the app store but will hopefully return soon.]
3. CareZone (free): Okay, not technically an allergy app. Actually, it's meant for the elderly and their caretakers. Oh well. I have enough medical issues to find this useful. This app is chalk-full of features: shareable emergency profile, symptom journal, contacts, calendar, to-dos, notes, photos/files/broadcasts, etc. The only feature I actually use is the medication tracker. You enter your medication doses (you can take a picture of the bottle if you don't want to type it), prescribing information, and pharmacy information, and it will tell you when to take your medicine, when to refill, and if any of your medicines react. A bonus for those of us less inclined to take our medicines: you can check off when you take your meds and it will tell you the percentage of doses completed.
4. WebMD Allergy (free): This one is less for food allergies than environmental allergies but has resources for both. It shows the pollen forecast for each day (can be added to Today on iPhones and as a widget on Androids). It also allows you to track your symptoms and medications, which is helpful for diagnosing pollen allergies as well as finding the effectiveness of a new medicine.
5. The Auvi-Q app (free): I'll admit both the EpiPen and Auvi-Q apps are pretty boring. They have good info and expiration reminders, but they're aimed at parents of kids with allergies, not teenagers with allergies. The reason I have the Auvi-Q app is the trainer simulator. I'm obviously not going to carry a trainer around, but I've had times where someone is curious about my Auvi-Q or I need to train someone (a parent on a school retreat, etc.). The Auvi-Q app has a virtual version of the trainer, complete with the verbal instructions.
6. Food Allergy Tracker Free (free for Android) and Bulletproof Food Detective (free for iOS): These apps serve different purposes but are useful for finding food intolerances and sensitivities (not allergies). Food Allergy Tracker Free allows you to select which foods you are eating then log the symptoms as you experience them. You can then look at the symptoms associated with each food by the time delay, by frequency, or by symptom. It will analyze your results and tell you if an intolerance is likely. Bulletproof Food Detective finds correlations between foods and pulse, which is rumored to measure an adverse reaction to the food. You measure your resting heart rate before you get out of bed, add the ingredients in each meal, then measure your pulse during the meal. Simple and possibly effective? Can't hurt to try.
BONUS APP - Pinterest (free): Before you roll your eyes at me, hear me out. At this point, Pinterest is diverse enough to replace Google, at least for some things. For actual information, Google is better, but if you want to know the best recipe for allergen-free quinoa salad, searching Pinterest is your best bet (plus you get pictures). For pins on the various aspects of allergy living, follow me.
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