Should kids with food allergies carry their own allergy medications?
That’s a great question.
Until my kiddo was age seven, I carried all the meds for us.
Granted, we home school.
So we were together nearly 24/7 for many years.
However, if your kiddo goes to school and can’t self-carry there,
there’s always weekend, evening, and summer outings to practice!
Yes, at age seven, even though he was mostly home with me…
hubby and I decided it was a good age to get my son in the habit of carrying his own medication.
The catch? I also carry a dual pack of epi in my own purse.
I’m his backup. lol
Because early on, epi did get left in the hot or cold car in the driveway a few times.
It’s inevitable, even hubby and I have made this mistake a time or two.
For us, it was worth letting out kiddo start practicing this responsibility sooner than later.
We just replaced the few injectors left out in extreme temps and call it a learning experience.
And hey, maybe I ask, “Did you bring in your epi?” on occasion, as well. HA!
I do this less and less as he gets older, of course. Because it’s now a habit!
Kiddo has now carried epi for half his life.
Certainly, it’s become second nature…as we had hoped.
He will even say he feels lost without it on him now.
So next, the big question is always what pouches and bags do we like.
The good news is, your kids will help decide!
I always love that my son has an opinion on this.
Sometimes he thinks of pros or cons that I don’t.
After all, he’s the one wearing it.
So let your kids get involved and take some ownership…
and you’ll be well on your way to successful epinephrine self-carry!
To start, kiddo really liked this cross body bag found at Walmart in the hunting section.
He used it for years.
And of course, girly cross body bags are even easier to find!
Not gonna lie, it also toted around a lasso, rocks, and lots more.
Sometimes I would have to pick it up and do a weight check so he didn’t drag himself down too much.
He did a fun video in membership showing us “what’s in the bag”.
It was like a clown car at the circus, lol.
Your kids will love all our kid videos in membership!
The cross body strap was adjustable and the bag was well padded.
There were two compartments.
One he used for meds and one for stuff like toys and safe snacks of course.
In the main part of the bag our son carried two epi-pens, liquid benedryl, and his inhaler.
At about age 10, when we decided to look into a new epi bag…
kiddo really liked the idea of a small backpack instead.
And by small, I mean not a school backpack.
We found these European backpacking bags online,
and they have been a HUGE HIT.
My second son, without allergies, even wanted his own in his favorite color.
Then several kids at church talked their moms into buying these backpacks for them, too, lol.
Even my own BFF snagged herself one for traveling.
These are the perfect sizes for taking on rides at Disney.
Been there, done that.
And even better, the price is AWESOME!
As in, they are less than $15 most times. If you’re lucky, under $10!
Here’s kiddo with it on his back in Florida.
These small backpacks have padded, wide, ergonomic shoulder straps.
They come in various fun colors, it’s always tempting to check what they currently have because stock continuously changes.
Sometimes they even have teal, the food allergy awareness color.
But kiddo went for red, his favorite.
Plus, I think it’s a good “emergency” color that’s easy to see.
This bag goes everywhere with my son, he never forgets it.
You’ll see it under the soccer bench at practice,
in the classroom at home school group,
and right in the back seat on road trips.
These again have two compartments.
One opens from the top, one from the side.
And while kiddo has stopped carrying rocks and lassos,
he still totes around all his meds with a deck of cards and a safe snack.
We are very proud of how responsible he is becoming for his own meds and safety.
And a fun bag always helps.
This bag is small and light enough for a smaller child to carry.
It also works as a small bag for a teen or adult.
Grab your own small epi backpack here with free shipping! (affiliate)
You may also want to create some durable, custom medical alert stickers for your child’s bag.
Create medical alert stickers for your bag here (affiliate).
If you’d like help creating an allergy binder that’s awesome for training your kids more about their allergies,
be sure to sign up for our next FREE Allergy Binder Challenge here.
And if you’d like to learn more about our kiddo carrying epi during summer,
check out this post on how we safely regulate epi temperature.
If you have a good self-carry tip, we’d love to hear in the comments.
Hope this has you well on your way to training your kiddo in food allergy safety and responsibility.
Have patience, have grace. Your kids will make you proud.
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