Community Chat

[151949]

i have learned alot here on the BB about kids and allergies that, since i don't have kids or grandkids, i would not have known. SO - yesterday i was at the grocery store and there was a woman there with a child I would say was about 8 to10 years old. The child was absolutely old enough to have learned how to use her epi pen herself but.... The child was having a severe asthma attack - the woman she was with was her grandmother. I introduced myself as a nurse - someone had already called 911 - and asked the child where her epi pen was and she just shook her head. i asked the grandmother and she looked at me like i was insane. the paramedics came and gave her a shot of epi and with in a moment she was improving. The paramedic asked the grandmother what the child was allergic to - it was an entire list of the very things she was surrounded with at the bakery department in the grocery store - peanuts - fruits- flour etc. Why on earth the grandmother would bring this child into a grocery store or why didn't the kid have her epipen with her not to mention that the child is old enough to have already learned about using the epipen herself.

When I was a child with severe asthma epipens were new and very large in comparison to what they are now but my Mom used to wrap mine with a rubber band so she could pin it onto my undershirt shirt and I was NEVER without it.And I did know how to use it. When I did need to use it my Mom would always make me do it myself - thus I knew what to do and had with me the means to do it. Did I accidentally break a few - sure I did - but that was the cost of always having that insurance with me.

What Mother would ever let their asthmatic child be cared for by a person who is so clueless about this that they would bring this child into the grocery store?