The Importance of Carrying Epinephrine

Thank you to Carol Depke of Gateway FEAST, who is our guest blogger for the this coming month. Following are her helpful thoughts on auto-injectors and keeping our kids safe:

In the food allergy news the last month or two, it seems as if we have sadly heard a lot of stories of fatalities caused by food allergies both older and younger. The one lesson I keep learning in each of these stories is that they didn’t administer and/or carry their epinephrine. These deaths could possibly have been prevented with this one life saving injection.

I wanted to write about the importance of how we need to stress this with our food allergic children throughout their life. As they get older, I’ve heard of people showing their child the list of people who have passed and explain why to stress how important it is for them. It should be like carrying their wallet or purse with them. Although, as they get older, I would think carrying it on their person is more reliable than in a purse or something you may set aside.

Their carrier should be like another piece of clothing like undergarments. A teenager may say it doesn’t look cool, but nowadays there are all sorts of carriers that can be hidden underclothes, etc. During gym classes, practices, etc. if they want to take it off, that’s fine as long as they keep it easily accessible or give it to the teacher so it’s not lost.

Here is a list of different types of carriers that fit all sorts of lifestyles but that are worn on the person for when they are responsible enough:

E-belt/Zoni Inc.
Epi Puppy
Kozi Epi
Medipouch
Omaxcare
AllergyWare
Peace of Mind Allergy