8 year old carrying an Epipen at school? Is there an alternative?

[AndOutComeTheBoobs]

Ds has just been prescribed the adult epipen (was children's) because he's anaphylactic to 5 different foods.

We used to have 6 (and lucky to, I hear this is rare) 2 at home, 2 at school and 2 with the childminder.
Now there's a shortage and quite understandably we are only allowed two.

I'm perfectly happy (and would prefer) for DS to carry the epipens on him at all times.

However the school will only pass medicine between adults and won't allow this.

This gives huge scope for error.

It means going to the school office every morning and afternoon. This means I have to go in to drop DS rather than drop him outside.
It means the childminder has to go out of her way to collect the epipens despite having to collect several children from different parts of the school. It means her or I might for get on a Friday and he does the whole weekend without them.

Can I argue with the school that he should carry them on him? It's not like antibiotics or calpol, this is life saving and our situation has changed. Do I have any legs to stand on here?

I'd go back to the GP and ask for more. We have two in school - one in the school office and one with the teacher. And we have two for home. We've just renewed two of them and though we had to wait a day or two for the pharmacist to get them in, it really wasn't a problem. The pharmacist said that they aren't having much trouble getting them in.

OP ask the school for the number to contact your school nurse. They will be able to help you with this by speaking to the school and/or GP to come up with a proper solution. It is the sort of thing they deal with often and what they're there for (along with ten million other things ).

Ok thanks for that, I will ask the GP on Monday.

We have just looked and we can buy them for £94.99 for two.

So we have a few options now.

Thanks for the help.

Anaphylaxis can lead to death in 15 mins so an epipen needs to be with the sufferer at all times....tell them that bluntly and see what they say then.
I have had a very bad attack and it ain't fun trust me. Thankfully never had to use the pen...

How long does he have between identifying a reaction and using the epipen according to medical.advise?

Can the school guarantee that they would be able to get someone to the office, collect the epipen return to your son and use it during that period.of time?

That would be where id start with getting agreement that he carries it at all times

I think you could argue that he needs to carry them in a bag like that , but just a bit concerned about PE and playtime and whether he might take it off if it restricts his movement. School will worry about the risks to other children.

Its worth an ask though - but they may well just say 'you will just have to remember'

We have a travelling epi-bag that goes all over with DS as we couldn't get hold of enough in-date ones - but my DS doesn't go to school at the moment so I haven't hit a school policy yet.

Off topic but how is there a national (NHS?) shortage yet they can be bought online?!

If he was far from the office if he had an attack, and someone had to run and get it and then run back to him administer it......precious time wasted. Maybe tell them about possible lawsuits etc maybe the threat of action could get them to change their policy

I had to fill a prescription for two pens recently - I did it in good time due to the shortage but the pharmacist told me it was all sorted now. Said she had loads in.

You can order one here

www.emerade-bausch.co.uk/
www.emerade-bausch.co.uk/patient/how-to-use-emerade

Are the school keeping the one handed over by the childminder in the office? That's totally unacceptable - it needs to be in the same room as your child.

So it either needs to stay with your child, or it needs to go to the teacher.

Forget about the collecting issue. If the pen is, as it should be, always around your child that risk of forgetting to collect it is negated. It's also a secondary issue to your child's safety.

Ask them what the process is atm for your child being treated with teh pen if he needs it. If it's in the school office then the teacher will have to send another child to get it, rely on them to ask for the right thing (and if it's so dangerous for your DS to carry it because of the risk to other child will the person in the office actually give it to a child?) then they have to get back to the classroom before it can be administered.

Like an asthma inhaler it needs to be with, or very close to, the person who needs it. And if it has to be passed between adults then the adults in the school need to get used to passing it between themselves (teacher, playground supervisor etc).

Can the school not get a pen? My boy is allergic to peanuts and his school have a pen that they keep for emergencies and if 999 were to tell them to use it they would. Would that solve the ridiculous pass the parcel issue with your pens?

So, if the school can only pass medicines between adults, what would happen if you just gave the medicine to your son.

I reckon it would be a brave teacher to take it off him.

IOff topic but how is there a national (NHS?) shortage yet they can be bought online?!*

No idea, I wondered the same thing.
LunaFortuna our pharmacist said they had no problem getting hold of them. Just that there's a restriction on how many a person can have. So they were following a guidance. But then, you had asked for two. I had asked for six and got two.

Skatastic you mean a generic pen?

What I mean is, we now have to keep a vial of adrenaline and syringes and draw up the right dose and inject it.
As I say I disagree with this but it’s what the NHS have told us to do.

Hmmm, while I fully understand your reasoning & at 8 my daughter would have been perfectly capable of being responsible for something like this, some kids wouldn’t so I guess there are some sort of official guidelines on emergency meds?

My younger daughter has midazolam as a seizure rescue med & it is not allowed to be carried by her. However, I fully appreciate she couldn’t self administer this anyway & it’s classes as a controlled drug (I’ve no idea about epipens so not sure if they fall into the same category).

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that there are usually very strict policies & procedures around this kind of thing so I might be difficult to get the school to change their minds on this...

The problem might be the risk of kids messing with it. When I worked in a school one of our 8 year old diabetics carried her kit with her at all times. One lunchtime het and her friend were looking at her monitor and started messing with it and gave her a unit of insulin. Luckily she was fine but we had no idea until her mum had downloaded the data when she got home and then phoned to ask us why we had given extra insulin. This was a girl that is very sensible and very aware of her condition.
If kids mess with the EpiPen then it's potential fatal in that someone gets adrenaline they dont need or that the pen no longer works when needed.

We kept epipens in the child's classroom on a high shelf.

You might have more lee way as there’s recently been a case about a poor child who had a allergic reaction that’s been in the press www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/boy-death-allergic-reaction-cheese-dairy-school-karanbir-cheema-a8895006.html

I hope this is useful and not upsetting xxx

I think maybe many people do not realize just how fast an attack happens and is a medical emergency and needs IMMEDIATE pen injection. Like when people moaned about peanut allergy sufferer on planes, even the air can cause a shock. People seem to think it is a food intolerance and the person will be a bit sick.

Print off a copy and tell them that 'seconds count' as stated here:

kidshealth.org/en/parents/anaphylaxis.html

Step 1: Give the epinephrine auto-injector right away. Seconds count during an episode of anaphylaxis. If you are alone with your child, give this medicine first, then call 911. If someone is with you, have the person call 911 while you give the epinephrine.

My ds school said he could keep his allergy kit bag including epipens in the classroom in case another child decided to take the medicines.

So I put in an email evidence that epipen use isn't dangerous when not needed but is fatal when it is and asked for the name of the legal council they would be using when they had to defend themselves for a fatality because it's easier to protect those who 'may' misbehave than protect the lives of others.

That must be so frustrating

It’s bad enough my dd’s inhaler has to be kept in the office but luckily hers isn’t so severe that if she doesn’t get it immediately, she’s in trouble. But surely an epipen is one that must be administered immediately

Also a lot of people do not know there can be another attack called biphasic :

A biphasic reaction is a two phase anaphylactic event. This means that after anaphylaxis is treated and the symptoms go away, they return without you being re-exposed to the allergen. The second reaction can be less severe, equal to or more severe than the first reaction.

it is acutally Anaphylaxis Awareness Week haha maybe get them to do something next week
www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/get-involved/anaphylaxis-awareness-week/
www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/

Hi andoutcometheboobs, I’ve joined just to reply to you. I work in a school and we are able to order & have our own epipens in school. I think we get them via our first aid supplier & we do pay for them but it’s piece of mind for us school staff as well. That way if one of our pupils hasn’t got theirs with them or they need another dose we always have one available. They are kept in the school office but we’re a secondary school and have several pupils that may need them.

Hope you are able to resolve this, having listened to the Jeremy Vine Interview today with the parents of the young girl who died after eating the Pret a Mange sandwich I would want to do everything possible to make our pupils safe 😔

Couldn't! If he could it wouldn't have been an issue