Food Allergies: Child Information Letter

Video Transcript

"I have an emergency action plan that I have devised for my children. Because they do attend school, I have a daughter in elementary school, and one in preschool, I have a plan for each of them, and this I had filled out with the help of my doctor, a doctor's signature is on it. I have a picture of my child on there, as well as what to do if there's any kind of an emergency situation dealing with their food allergies. For example, if their mouth is itching and tingling, what should they do? Should the teacher administer epinephrine or give them an antihistamine? It goes through a list of many different allergic symptoms and it tells you exactly what to do in those scenarios. You never know what is going to happen when you ingest something that you're allergic to. One time you could have hives on your face. The next time you ingest that same food, it could be an anaphylactic reaction. So you always have to be prepared. On the sheet, it also has important phone numbers, such as the doctor's phone number, both parent's phone numbers, and the phone number of the hospital, and what's extremely important, is that it also demonstrates how to administer the epinephrine shot, if that is needed, and it goes step by step what to do. It's a very simple thing. It seems extremely intimidating to have to give a shot to someone, but if it's going to save their life, that's obviously the most important thing to do."