Emergency Action Plan

So what food allergy reaction symptoms should you look for?  and if something happens, what do we do?  Well, we keep our EpiPen in a special thermal bag inside the diaper bag, it's easy to find.  We also keep expired back up pens on top of the refrigerator.

This handy guide provided by FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) is what we follow:

https://www.foodallergy.org/file/emergency-care-plan.pdf

I couldn't get an image of a .pdf to show up in my blog, so you'll have to click the link to see it.

It says for ONE MILD symptom, you can monitor and do an antihistamine (like Zyrtec)
For ONE OR MORE SEVERE symptom or MORE THAN ONE MILD symptom, give epinephrine and call 911.

Mild Symptoms:

NOSE
Itchy or runny nose, sneezing

MOUTH
Itchy mouth

SKIN
A few hives, mild itch

GUT
Mild nausea or discomfort 

Severe Symptoms:

LUNG
Shortness of breath, wheezing, repetitive cough
SKIN
Many hives over body, widespread redness

HEART
Pale or bluish skin, faintness, weak pulse, dizziness
GUT
Repetitive vomiting, severe diarrhea

THROAT
Tight or hoarse throat, trouble breathing or swallowing
OTHER
Feeling something bad is about to happen, anxiety, confusion

MOUTH
Significant swelling of the tongue or lips
OR A
COMBINATION
of symptoms from different body areas. 

Why call 911?  Need to make sure the epinephrine is working for the reaction and that secondary reactions can be treated quickly (i.e. biphasic reactions).  Also, heart rates need to be monitored after epinephrine is given.

Sometimes we get the question, "So have you ever had to use the EpiPen?".  Thankfully we have not (although we should have during her initial encounter with peanut).  Not having used the EpiPen does not make her allergies less severe. It's a life threatening medical condition and thank God we have not had another reaction that has required it.

How does this affect us?  We are always in that mode of "ready to act".  I'm always on edge during mealtime (especially if we are not at home).  While the kids are eating, I'm always glancing over at them to make sure they look okay.  The tiniest little skin irritation or red spot is hyper analyzed to make sure it's not a reaction.
Or at the playground, for example, I wonder if another kid has recently been eating peanut butter crackers and has now touched all the playground equipment. What if Andi touches that and then rubs her eye or licks her fingers? You just never know.  That is the type of thing we are required to think about constantly.

Thanks for reading, let me know if you have any questions about our emergency action plan.