That is what I am thinking, but will go with anything she is willing to wear.  Right now, we have oher worries, so this thought will mostly wait until she is safely back.

SPI belt?

I can tell you tonight I am confident that DD will be carrying hers everywhere.  I will have to help her get something to carry them in while running, a belt or something.

Yeah-- but not everywhere.  And that really is the problem-- if he's used to having it in a backpack, but then goes out to the movies or for coffee...

it becomes even easier to forget it because of the need for a subset of routines to remember for different circumstances.  KWIM?

But the likelihood that he'll be carrying a backpack is high in college, so that can stand in for a man bag.

Mac-- we don't remind her and haven't for several years.  That is, we don't ask if she's got them.  Phased that out over time when she was 11-13yo.

If she's forgotten them, we go home.  Yes, it would be inconvenient and maybe even embarrassing, but...  memorable.

I truly don't have a lot of great advice that will relate to young American men, though-- because carrying any kind of "bag" puts you into girly man territory with adolescent males, turkeys that they can be with one another.

So the man-bag is out.   

Quote from: Macabre on January 22, 2014, 03:32:01 PM
So CM and Maeve--since your kiddos are not in college yet--when you responded were you essentially saying that you don't worry about this so much because of their current practices?

I think I'm less worried about it because it should hopefully become second nature to her. However, she did recently go over to the neighbor's house to play and she left her bag over there when they decided to go sledding because she didn't want to get it wet. Mind you it was only in the 20s to teens, which will aggravate asthma. She got an earful from me when she finally did come home. She's also expressed embarassment at last year being the only 6th grader with a purse. I think she might be among the only 7th graders with a purse but she hasn't really mentioned it being an issue.

But having her do this now allows me to reinforce the importance of having this with her at all times now before she's away at school. I can very forcefully correct her when she doesn't carry them.

I'll add that like CM's daughter, she takes them with her when she goes out to play, goes for a bike ride, etc. She puts on her jacket and then puts on the purse. She hangs the bag from the same stool at our kitchen island.

It's not to say that there's not whoops, but there have been very few instances of that. That said, I don't think it's entirely possible to completely eliminate the possibility that she'll forget her EpiPens. It's human nature. But making something a habit makes that forgetfulness less likely to happen.

Same for DS. He remembers reactions--including to trace amounts.

We tried the place thing for years--had a hook by the door. Meh-- just didn't work in our family. Had a hook by DS' door. Nah. The epis belt got hung there maybe once. Hotels for us--yes there the location thing has worked.

He has said over the years that he feels naked without them. But I think he was saying that because he wanted it to be true--or to please me. I don't know that it's there really.

He almost always remembers them.  For school, for work, for rehearsal (and us usually the office us closed for that--he depends on his pair),  for going out with friends.

But we are there for those things. We transport him. We are the safety net that will ask. And sometimes the answer is whoops.

Your dd will be living at home and you'll be transporting her to college for at least the first year, right? Dropping her off?  That will not be unlike our situation in high school.

My big fear is: what happens when no parents are around--for months?  And we are hundreds of miles away?

The only thing I can really go on history at speech tourneys where he has slept overnight for one to three nights. I will ask him if he ever had to go back because he didn't initially put then in his pocket. Of course, for two if those tourneys I had teachers carrying Epi.

In case he forgot.


I'm just thinking if personalities here, too, and I've got a somewhat absentminded professor. It's who he is.

It just scares me in this matter.

Okay-- so the VERY first thing that we establish when unloading into a hotel room has always been-- WHERE ARE THE EPIS located?  Where do they live?  Okay-- everyone got that?  GOOD. 

I'd imagine that the same thing would hold in a dorm room-- it's the way that we handle them at home, too.  There's never a question about where they are-- and they are accessible, too--   if you take your keys or lock the door behind you, they go with you.  Period.  They're NEVER behind a locked door or in someone else's possession.

Not your primary set, I mean. 

I dunno-- there's something about the habit of YEARS behind it-- DD has literally not walked away without them in years, even to go for a walk or a quick trip somewhere, even when she's distracted (and, um-- she left my van wide open twice this evening, btw, so this is, er-- definitely an issue sometimes with my child).

So I'm really confident that she won't go without them.  Having a clear sense of major reactions when she's only had unavoidable/casual/environmental exposures helps there, too-- she never wants to find herself in that situation and be without them, and she knows that it could happen on any given outing. 

I have no idea what is so indispensible to young men, the way that a purse is to a young woman, though.  Shoes?  Even that might not be enough in a dorm setting, though.   

Yeah, I'm thinking about dorm situations.  When he's on his own. And I am hundreds of miles away. 

What then?

My comfort is that I have every indication he has remembered them at three overnight speech tournaments.  And I am also taking some comfort in the very long SLIT process he's undergoing. She told us it would take 4 years.  He started it his freshman year in high school. 

But I don't think even having gone through SLIT that he'll be without his Epis/Auvis.  I think he'll continue to have a script for them. 

The college essentially is our town so it would be weird to take it off before entering.

DD HAS managed it on college campuses-- including the one she'll attend in the fall-- and yes, I am predicting that because of the sheer habit of WEARING epipens cross-body when anywhere but home, she won't have a problem leaving them behind.  She certainly didn't during her full-time internship, which I thought was a good test.  If she walked ANYWHERE away from her desk, on they went.



It felt BIZARRE to her to take the SAT/ACT without them on her body.

So CM and Maeve--since your kiddos are not in college yet--when you responded were you essentially saying that you don't worry about this so much because of their current practices?

Quote from: Former Member on January 21, 2014, 11:06:14 AM
Freshman in college.  Carries two epipens in her purse everywhere.  In the dining hall they are not allowed to bring their purses in and are supposed to leave purses and backpacks in a locker right outside.  She brings her purse anyhow.  If it is a new person at the cash register, she opens her purse and shows them why she has to bring it. 

That's so strange.  Why would they not be allowed to bring purses or backpacks in the dining hall.  I and many of my classmates often did reading during lunch or breakfast. Sometimes we had just a brief period of time to sneak a meal in between classes (and this was on a small 28 acre campus).

Quote from: CMdeux on January 17, 2014, 10:50:31 AM
2.  She wears her epis in a small cross-body bag-- it's part of being dressed to go out of the house, get out of the car, etc.  Her phone is in there, her wallet, and her inhaler.  That's it, really-- it's not a bulky bag.

DD has been doing this for the past 2 years. She's in 7th grade. She uses a small LeSportSac crossbody. Like your DD, she has her inhaler, phone, and EpiPens in it (as well as assorted crap--gum, money, etc.).