What age to self carry?

[Kelley2522]

What age did your kids start self carrying at school? For K and 1st my son had a med bag that the teachers passed back and forth for him. His 1st grade teacher wanted him to self carry, but my son didn't want to so we stuck with what was written in the 504, which was the teachers passing back and forth. Since he will be starting 2nd grade in the fall, I was just wondering when your kids started to self carry. I don't think he will want to self carry next year, but am wondering if I should start preparing him for it. Although, I'm sure the school will do it either way with no troubles.

[momma2boys]

Just had to ask ds, but we both think it was fourth grade.

[joanna5]

My son started in first grade.  He's now finishing third and has gotten where it's totally automatic to him- we store it on a hook on the door and he puts it on every time he leaves the house.

[GoingNuts]

I believe it was third grade.  Way too long ago for me to remember accurately!

[PurpleCat]

Third Grade - also same year she no longer ate at the allergy table.

[Macabre]

Fourth, but we should have done it sooner because 1) he lost his Epi bag on more than one occasion (he carried it to specials, etc), and 2) he has probably never felt that the epis are second nature to him. And he's 16 now (and does have them with him in his pockets every day, but I don't think he feels naked without them, if that makes sense).

I wish we had started in first or second grade.

The Spibelt is a great option, but epis do wear holes through it we found. Still, at that price it was so much more affordable than what we had been using. It's very slim. 

[SilverLining]

Kindergarten, so 4 or 5 years old.

I wanted teacher to carry but school worried it could get forgotten since students went to different rooms and sometimes had different teachers.  They were concerned a sub or once-a-week teacher might forget to bring it to the playscape or the gym or the computer lab.  Better to have him responsible, both so it was always one person and to teach him to be responsible for it.  They did NOT just wash their hands of responsibility.  The teachers did remind him, but since he wore it on a belt he never forgot it.

Left it in the bathroom once  but it was returned with a gentle reminder not to leave it there, no scolding.

[MandCmama]

Both of my boys self carry now (5 & 7).  M started prior to K, C started prior to full day prek.  We use spi belts.  I had both boys start in the summer before they began to carry with just a trainer in the belt (to be sure they wouldn't take it out and play with it).  Their belts hang on a hook, at their eye level, on their bedroom door frame. I check as I load them into the van each morning, but rarely do they forget....it's second nature now, which is what I was going for.

[CMdeux]

DD has self-carried since she was about three years old.  She is one of the most reliable people I know for knowing WHERE her epis are at all times, and for NEVER, EVER forgetting them.  They've hung in the same place in our house for 15 years, and she has worn them cross-body everywhere OUT of it.  School/camp/classes included.  (She did not wear them in daycare at 1-2yo; they stayed in her cubby, which was always up high)  She has never played with them, and no other child has ever gotten them from her.

This was one factor in our decision to homeschool-- our local district tied self-carry to self-administer.  DD has never confused those two things in her own mind, btw, and I credit early self-carrying for that distinction. 

[bugbee]

Our son is going to start self-carrying next school year.  He'll be in second grade.  Didn't wait until now for any particular reason...just sort of decided it was time. 

[tigerlily]

First day of kindergarten. It eliminated the worry of leaving the Epi behind in music or PE. We made sure every teacher knew that he would not be able to self-administer, it just made it faster than trying to track down or go to the office. Beginning of the year training includes that nobody plays with the Epi--he's not allowed to open and show it off, he was trained to report to a teacher immediately if a kid tried to open up the carrier (happened at church once but the childcare aides knew the drill). It wasn't a right to self-carry in our state and I didn't want to lose his ability to carry due to a clueless kid.

It is so second nature that he's been known to jump into the pool with it on.

[SilverLining]

Remember the old e-belt before they added the needle guard?  One of our went in the ocean.  Survived quite well and the epi stayed dry. Lol

[LinksEtc]

our local district tied self-carry to self-administer.  DD has never confused those two things in her own mind, btw, and I credit early self-carrying for that distinction. 

Dd is going into 3rd grade.  I was thinking to start having her self-carry, with permission to self-admin in situations where the nurse is not available like the bus.

Dr-FA-Yoda told me:
Too young to self-admin epi, your dd is.

That opinion was firm so I think that I'll just hold off for another year.  The doc would have considered self-carry, but I think that our school sometimes confuses self-carry & self-admin.  With dd's reaction/allergy history, I feel fine waiting.

How old were your kids when they got the ok to self-administer?



"When Should Students With Asthma or Allergies Carry and Self-Administer Emergency Medications at School?"
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-pro/resources/lung/when-should-students-carry-self-asthma-allergies-emergency-medicines-html.htm


When is a child ready to begin taking responsibility for anaphylaxis management?



ETA - She has self-carried her asthma meds for years now & does have permission to self-admin if she needed to.  (Pulmo doc ok'd)

[CMdeux]

I think that the problem here, is that there is a fundamental confusion regarding permission to self-administer, and the expectation of sole responsibility for doing so.

The latter may NEVER be an entirely realistic scenario for some individuals, quite frankly, and there is definitely no bright line which smoothly demarcates the transition between no expectation of self-administration, and expectation of sole responsibility.  I'd consider this one of the most difficult things to explain to others, in fact-- that a ten year old may well know HOW to self-administer, but probably cannot be relied upon to do so under the conditions that anaphylaxis presents.  Maybe so, and maybe not.  KWIM?  For individual children, this state of affairs may be a transition that lasts a decade or more.

[SilverLining]

How old were your kids when they got the ok to self-administer?

I've had permission since first prescribed an epi-pen when I was thirtyish.

The ability to self-administer during an anaphylactic reaction is a whole different story though.  I was unable.