Originally Posted by Mk13
Originally Posted by polarbear
Mk13, you'll need to know that his teachers and other staff members have been trained in how to recognize allergic reaction symptoms and how to use epinephrine. That would be more of a concern to me than feeling reassured by the firestation location. The other concern to watch out for is to be sure the staff *believes* an allergic reaction is an allergic reaction. We had huge issues with that when dd was in K-1.

polar

this is exactly something I need to bring up with them. I almost forgot! As of right now his Epi-pen is locked in the nurse's office, which for the moment is semi-ok as his classroom is right around the corner but it still makes me very uneasy (should the nurse step out of her office while he has a reaction, etc.) so I want to find out how to keep the epi-pen in his classroom next year (an any other rooms he goes to for music, gym, etc.) and for the staff to be trained to administer it. At the school he will go to most classrooms are located away from the nurse so it is a real concern. I just can't wait for him to be old enough to carry it on him and recognize reactions himself. He's getting quite good at it now. Last time when he had a reaction to cold after getting off the bus, first thing he told me was "I have a bump on my face" and sure enough he just started breaking out in hives.


shocked

Whoahhhhhh.... "locked" is really, really, REALLY bad.

Our DD has been wearing her epipens since she was not quite 3. Our rationale (suggested by our allergist, actually, in light of her super-fast and super-scary reaction history) is that you want your instincts to lead to the RIGHT (and best possible) outcome-- so what would you do if the allergic child appeared to be in distress? Run to him/her to find out what is wrong, right?

Anyway, locked is really bad. The reason is that you have to ask-- just how long would it take in a worst case scenario to get to them? Next IEP meeting, if you get pushback on having a set in the classroom, calmly ask them to PROVE IT to you that such a thing is unnecessary. Bring a stopwatch.

If it takes them more than 1 minute to get that epipen in front of you-- it's too long.


Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.