I did an Emergency First Aid course at the weekend as part of a sports coaching qualification. First of all - good news for those of us with allergic kids, they do cover anaphylaxis and use of epi-pens etc.
The main reason for posting however was that I had one of my periodic 'wake up calls' as well regarding allergies. We've never had to use the epi-pen and I'd always been reasonably comfortable that I should be ok were I ever to need it (regular re-reading of the treatment sheet, practice sessions etc). What hadn't actually occurred to me was that if the epi-pen didn't work and the child stops breathing you need to start CPR (I sound really stupid writing this I know, I just had always got as far as 999 and epi-pen, ambulance comes, they take over, hopefully all ok).
Realising that I might need to do CPR has actually given me a bit more confidence if that makes sense as I realised I'd kind of 'missed a bit' in my plan of what I'd need to do...
...sorry this is now slightly rambly - I guess what I'm trying to do is point out in case there are others like me that you may need to be prepared to do CPR as well in the worst case scenario...
If you don't know how to do CPR then St John's do courses all across the UK I think.