Epipen training?

[JackJacksmummy]

Just a general question really, not really anything to do with my DSs allergy (yet)

My friends DS had a severe reaction to something last year (still dont know what it was even after tests) and he was given an epipen, all his teachers at school needed to be trained how to use it by the school nurse before he could go back to school.

What i'm wondering is, (and i doubt it will get this far TBH) if after tests my DS is shown to have numerous allergies and requires an epipen and is still at nursery school, will they need special training? or should they already be trained at how to work it?

My brothers EX has an epipen and had to use it at my house once and I was going to do it but i couldn't (my brother had to do it for her) and it was so scary.

My DD has epipens and all schools have specific people who are trained, namely the school nurse. They are really simple to use but I do agree, as scary as poo! However, don't be frightened of them, they are life savers. The EpiPen website has lots of good info and demo videos or at least they used to. We were also given a training video so when DD started Brownies we were able to let Brown Owl etc watch the training video first, we also had a training pen.

Good luck, DD is now on a nut desensitisation programme so we are making great progress as she was previously anaphylactic to all nuts plus allergic to soya, dairy, house dust mite and grass.

I trained the staff at DS's nursery, I'm using expired epipens to train close friends and relatives.

As many other epipen "carriers", I didn't receive proper training when DS was prescribed one, I'm advocating for a "tutorial" about how to use them to be part of the monthly allergy clinic at my hospital. The "formal" training I have only took place when I convinced someone of the Resus team at the hospital I work for, to give me a demo and answer any questions, but that was about 2 years into carrying epipens.

Videos are helpful but the instructions on the epipen themselves are self explanatory (get famliar with them and go through them regularly is a good thing). My main doubt about epipen use was when was the right time to use it (the not too early, not too late quandry)

BlueBummedFly... could you please tell me more about the nut desensitisation programme? I'm afraid the only reference I have seemed like something very much into the long term future, so would be glad to know more about it. Could you please post a reference about the programme?
Thank you

Hello MeMySonAndI, the desensitisation programme is called the STOP Study and it is being run at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge under Dr Andrew Clark. They don't have a study web link but if you go to the Addenbrooke's site you can phone from there.

It is simply life changing (sorry to hijack the post btw). DD was allergic to all nuts from 2 years and when she was 8 we were told she was 'off the scale' for peanuts. We have been attending for 3 months and she is now NOT allergic to Tree Nuts. This is a massive step forward. The therapy started with nasal and mouth sprays to get her current threshold (which was pretty much nil) and we worked up from there. Then she moved onto chocolate with nuts in which made her vomit but did not give her an anaphylactic response so that was fantastic.

Now she has to take peanut flour everyday mixed into yogurt. We started at 5ml but it made her so nauseous they have moved back down to 1ml and we hope to move back up to 2ml tomorrow at the next appointment and work up the ladder from there.

Dr Clark is amazing, very supportive and so keen to get kids on the programme. In the US the study is being run at Duke Uni and they have kids eating actual peanuts!

If you want to chat more outside this post I can let you have my email. Do you have a DD or DS who is nut allergic? I can try to get a phone number for Dr Clark if you like?

I am a school teacher and a mum of a child who needs an epipen for nut/egg allergy. I know that schools get trained frequently by the school nurse. I have worked in 4 schools and every school has had yearly training sessions for all the teachers/TAs. When my son started Nursery we realised there isn't a provision for the staff to be trained. We rang our health visitor, who rang the local school nurse who then went into the nursery to train the staff.

BlueBumedFly, DS is allergic to peanuts, and any other nut (albeit borderline with walnut), he has not yet outgrown his allergy to egg which has put him out of previous studies on peanut allergies.

I have tried to send you a CAT but I can't, as far as I'm aware I can receive CATs but if I don't my email address is chandramoi at hotmail dot co dot uk.

Hello Jackjacksmummy, I have just been through the same thing. Pre-schools should be trained but as in my case they had let it lapse as they did not have a child that needed an epi-pen. Their insurers (Pre school learning alliance) will not cover a child being there until all teachers are trained and they have a letter from the GP with full instructions on what to do and when. Primary schools seem to be a whole lot better! Unfortunately, at Primary they have to carry their epi-pens in a bum bag with them - at least they do at our school. Hope that helps!

a child came to dd2's party recently and she has a severe nut allergy - her mum gave me a five min session on the epipen and I would have been happy to use it.

Our local hospital runs training sessions for childcare staff. The same nurse is also willing to come to your home for one-to-one training if you have been prescribed an Epipen.

We've carried Epipens for years, because DH has a nut allergy. But I still found the training really useful when we got the Epipen for DD1.

Mind you they didn't offer it as standard. I only found out by accident that I should have been offered training when the Epipen was prescribed and the nurse was horrified that I'd been carrying it around without her having seen me.

It would be entirely reasonable to ask for all the nursery staff to be trained. All DD1's nursery staff were, even before she started. And all her schoolteachers are.

You would never know who is going to be present if a reaction actually occurs.