Each year I “refresh” my children’s Emergency Medicine Bag for school. They each maintain one bag in their school’s clinic and one in their backpacks that they carry around in general. When my son was five years old he began to develop anxiety over his food allergies. He was afraid to visit his best buddy’s house for fear that the jar of peanuts on the top of the fridge would fall during an earthquake and one renegade peanut would jump into his mouth as he yelled for everyone to take cover. Yup, he had some serious imagination going on. Never-the-less, his fears were growing ,so off we went to a child psychologist who promptly guided him to taking three steps to keep safe. Number One was always carrying an emergency bag in a back pack that he will carry EVERYWHERE. That kits holds everything he needs to respond to an anaphylactic emergency. Dear friends with asthma...you need the same thing! Don’t just keep your inhaler tucked into your pocket. Keep back up in the clinic and use a spacer! It has been proven that we should be using a spacer to insure the entire dose of medication makes it into our lungs!
- Two Epi Pens®
- One Abuterol Inhaler
- One spacer to use with the inhaler
- Four tablespoons of pre-measured Benedryl liquid or chewable equivalent
- A copy of his Emergency Action Plan
I have found that our favorite bags to carry are these red bags from the Allergy Apparel. We like them due to the wording on the bag. In an emergency, my son will not need to give details on how to find the bag in his back pack due to the red color and wording. We use the same bag for school too and write their names in Sharpie across the top for easy identification.
photo courtesy of blog.rapleaf.com
Shopping for an Emergency bag? Here are some possibilities…
Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network Medicine Kit
Safety Sack
Allergy Apparel
Epi Pens®
Epi Pens®
I just can’t not share this discount again, if you are buying new Epi Pens® to go with that new Emergency bag…check out MedSaverCard for an Epi Pen 2 pack coupon!
Are there any other packs out there that you have used and would like to share?? Please do share!
One of the hardest things I find about managing both life threatening food allergies and asthma is talking to others. I hate to be the one that might be perceived as demanding, pushing or for asking too much. What I now know, fourteen years later, is that honest, clear information presented with kindness works!..