I know it’s only July but we are actually running out time to get ready for school to start back up!  When managing life threatening food allergies and asthma, we have an extra dose of “gotta do” in getting ready for school.  My “nice to do” list is buying school supplies and maybe even some clothing.  My “gotta do” list includes physician visits, obtaining physician orders, pricing and purchasing of epinephrine auto-injectors, school training (my son’s school), new EpiPen® and Auvi-Q® carriers, review of my children’s 504 Plans, etc.  The worse year we ever had is when I waited until two weeks before school started to get physician forms signed and new epinephrine holders here in time!  Talk about sweating.  Take a peak at the list below and please comment with things you do to prepare for school-including resources that we all might find useful!
Disclaimer: I was not paid or asked to comment on any of the resources mentioned below.  These are based purely my own thoughts and/or experiences that I feel our community might find useful to help improve our quality life and maybe even lower our stress levels!  p.s. the image to the left is our long time allergist Dr. Joshua Jacobs who practices in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Back to School with Food Allergy Reminders and Resources

• Physician appointment.  Make your appointment to obtain new epinephrine auto-injector prescriptions and/or inhalers, have school forms completed and physician signed, lung function tests if your child has asthma and to generally check in with your doctor to ensure your child is ready for school!  Don’t forget that health status can change from year to year–we always enjoy a summer allergy visit to review the past year.  My daugther’s school requires a physician signed doctor’s order regarding use of her epinephrine auto-injector and her inhaler.
• Food Allergy and Asthma Accomodations.  Do you have a 504 Plan in place?  Have you reviewed your school food allergy management policy?  Don’t wait until the crush at the beginning of school when teachers and school nurses are the busiest.  Seek help if need-see below for resources.
• Additional Education.  I offer online resource suggestions to all coaches, teachers, administration staff–basically to anyone not moving fast enough!  My school nurses conduct all training, therefore, I  offer them many links to free online resources for training, food allergy or asthma posters or awareness materials, etc.  See below for Food Allergy and/or Asthma education resources.
• Classroom Resources.  Since my daughter is in elementary school, the students welcome a book or two about food allergies and always enjoy posters!  I order age appropriate books as gifts for my daughter’s class along with awareness posters.
• Epinephrine Auto-injectors.  Even though my Great State of Nevada mandates stock epinephrine to be on every school campus, my daughter carries two EpiPen®  to and from school in her backpack.  When she goes onto the school yard, she wears one on a belt on her waist.  I purchase these three weeks before school starts to ensure my pharmacy has plenty of time to get them-note: I will refuse any injectors with less than a 12 month shelf life.  You can refuse any medication BEFORE you sign and pay for it.
• EpiPen®  and Auvi-Q®  Carriers and Belts.  Don’t pay extra for overnight shipping!  Order your carriers early to also ensure that they fit your child and that they feel comfortable carrying it.  Note: I believe the Adrenaclick fit into the same carriers as the EpiPen® .  See below for resources.
• Lunch Box Items.  I order my daughter’s lunch box and allergy warning tags early so that I have the best selection available.  My children all use their own placemats, which provide an extra barrier to cross contact, so now is a good time to shop around.  We update their lunch containers too, just to keep things interesting and fresh.
• Medical ID Bracelets.  This is the one area that I often forget!  To update and order new Medical Alert ID’s.  There are many brands on the market I have a few listed on my School Resource Page.

Resources

• School Education and training resources for teachers, nurses and parents.  Visit my Food Allergy and Asthma School Resource Page for a list of various links and ideas.
• School Training. Gina Mennett Lee has put together an nice concise list of free online training resources in her post, “FREE Food Allergy Training Options for Schools”.
• Special note: I use A Shot to Live, developed by the University of Utah Medical School, to train my son’s private school–this is included in Gina’s list from above.  I have been very pleased with this free program that also tracks who has taken the course and includes videos regarding how to use EpiPen®  and Auvi-Q® .  FAACT also offers links to the Food Allergy Management and Education (FAME) program.
• Food Allergy and/or Asthma Accomodations.  Green Laurel Documents is owned and operated by food allergy parent, my pal and 504 expertLaurel Francouer who is a lawyer, speaker, author and has life threatening food allergies herself.  Laurel’s website offers the ability to draft your own 504 plan and more.   Wright’s Law is another website with great resources for 504 and other accomodations.  I recently attended a Wright’s Law seminar at the Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) conference in June and was in awe of his materials.
• Resources for Schools from FARE.  The School Resource page boasts the Center For Disease Control food allergy management guidelines, school recommendations, shelter in place emergency suggestions and even school teaching tools.  There are links to many useful and important resources.
• School Webinar from Kids with Food Allergies.  You can still watch the “Partnering with your School Nurse for  a Safe School Year” webinar!  The Kid’s with Food Allergies website is chock full of school resource information too.
• Food Allergy Connection Team (FAACT) School Resource.  FAACT offers a diverse selection of education information organized for school personnel, parents and links to the Food Allergy Management and Education (FAME) program developed by the St. Louis Children’s Hospital.  The FAACT’s school education resource focuses on empowerment and offers guidelines and suggestions for parents.
• Posters, training and educational materials.  Allergy Home and FARE both offer access to materials that you might find interesting and useful that include colorful and insightful posters that can be downloaded.
• Epinephrine and inhaler Holders and Carriers.  This remains one of my most popular blog posts: List of Popular EpiPen® and Epinephrine Holders.  Note: OneSpot Allergy now offers their belt in magenta and Allergy Apparel has one of the largest selections of carriers, lunch boxes, tags and clothing that I know of!
• Lunch boxes.  Again Allergy Apparel offers many styles including allergen warning lables.  I will be writing a blog post in two weeks going into more detail about lunch box options!  Until then, please add your favorites below!

Please add your suggestions or items in the comment section below and I’ll update this Food Allergy and Asthma Back to School list!