Epinephrine in the News

It’s been about a year and half that we’ve been living with food allergies and making sure we always have epinephrine handy has become routine. I drop my kid off at daycare and tap the pocket in her lunch box that has epinephrine. I double check the pocket in the diaper bag when we are driving somewhere. It’s habit. It's become a habit because it's so important to have epinephrine with my kid at all times. 

My two year old loves to say "epinephrine" now like it's a super fun game- I can only assume she doesn't remember when we had to jab it into her to save her life.

The American Academy of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology just had its 2022 conference and my twitter was all aflutter about it.  And epinephrine was a common theme in a lot of studies. Why? It’s the only treatment for anaphylaxis. You can try to avoid your food allergens, but if you accidentally eat something, you need to have epinephrine. One of the studies I read about from McGill University found that patients who have a food allergy reaction who got an epinephrine shot before reaching the ER were significantly less likely to develop a severe, uncontrolled reaction (reactions requiring two or more doses of epinephrine to resolve symptoms). The earlier you get the epinephrine the better.

Sounds easy enough, right? But not only do you have to have the epinephrine (and we know how hard it can be to get two autoinjectors in the US) but you also have to have it with you (or your kid) at all times. This is so stressful. My kid has to have her injectors with her at home, at school, at the park, when we visit family’s homes, at birthday parties… we hope she won’t need it, but we never know when she will need it. And when she needs it, she needs it immediately.

What happens when we aren’t around? We’ve got to make sure that all of her caregivers- babysitters, family, and adults at her daycare are trained and comfortable giving her epinephrine. Our preschool/daycare has been very receptive to all of the education we have given them. It’s been complicated by COVID, since parents aren’t allowed inside the building, but generally they have been great. 

One thing that could help take the pressure off parents to do all the education is “Elijah’s Law”. Eliajah’s Law’s goals are trying to make children with food allergies safer in daycares aby making sure their caregivers are trained and educated on anaphylaxis; including putting clear signs reminding caregivers in food prep areas what the child’s allergies are. It also increases access to epinephrine at daycares. It’s already passed in New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, and the Elijah-Alavi Foundation is working to bring it to other states. They have a helpful toolkit that you can download that has specific information on the goals of the law, what parts of the law are currently required in each US state/territory, and suggestions on how to contact your local legislatures. I hate calling people on the phone, but I might have to bite the bullet and see if I can get it started in my state.