>:
>: Now that Josh is older (10) and since he's quite responsible about his meds
>: and his condition, his doctor has given him written permission to carry his
>: meds in his backpack. For safety reasons, we only send along a single dose
>: of antihistamines. He's only to use these if he can't get to his regular
>: sources (home, nurse, parent) in a short period of time, and he's to report
>: immediately to us or the school nurse, teacher, principal, or other
>: responsible adult immediately.
>:
>
>Mark -
>
>I've been wishing I could come up with a good way to do this for my daughter,
>who's just 3 now, but "soon" will be able to take responsibility for her
>medications.  Does your son carry a single dose of liquid Benadryl?  If so,
>how do you manage it - what sort of container, spills, leaking, etc?  Or does
>he have chewables or tablets to swallow.  I've always thought that the liquid
>was preferred even for older kids & adults, because it's absorbed faster.
>

Josh takes a different antihistamine, Vistaril (hydroxyzine pamoate, a more
potent version of Atarax), which works well and quickly for him. We
discovered it when we were searching for relief from severe eczema
outbreaks, and noticed that it was pretty quick to put down allergic
reactions. It comes in capsule form, with a naturally bright yellow powder
inside; we used to open up the capsules and sprinkle the contents into a
spoonful of Gerber sweet potatoes or applesauce. When he has a swift or
severe reaction at home, we still do this, since it cuts down the time that
it takes to absorb it (no capsule to break down).

Now that Josh can take the capsules in water, he'd much rather pop one or
two with water than wait for somebody at school to figure out what to do.
In fact, I got a great message on my voicemail a few months ago: "Mr.
Feblowitz, this is Mrs. Blasi (the secretary) at school.  Your son seems to
be having a reaction and... Josh - no, I'm trying to get permission - Josh
- oh, Josh (sigh)... you were supposed to wait until I talked to one of
your parents..." He went ahead and took his Vistaril, and, in the time it
took for her to leave this wonderful message, he was on his way to relief.
And boy did he get praised when he got home for doing the right thing! It
was then that we got permission form his doc to send his meds with him.

At age three, you have at *very* least 5 years until the child has the
judgement,  perspective, and followthrough to be considered to carry their
own medications at school. Even then, there's the risk of them not telling
the appropiate person, in case the reaction becomes more severe or comes on
more quickly than the child can handle. It's also quite a burden for them,
having the responsibility to self-medicate - better to build up to it by
encouraging them to go for help when they need it, and praising them for
how responsibly they handle their reactions.

THere's also the safety of the other children to consider. Even in the
"best of schools" kids are curious and tend to get into each others'
backpacks. I remember when, way back before modern asthma awareness, some
kids swiped my nasal spray and asthma inhaler a sprayed them at each other.
Even though Josh is extremely smart, very responsible, and a very good
judge of the severity of his own reactions, we waited until age 9 to send
his meds with him. I'd wait.

As far as the single-dose situation, I don't know. Chewables might be a
solution. When he took a liquid form, we packed the liquid and a medication
measurer in his med kit. A bit cumbersome, but workable. I suppose that you
could consider finding a small vial that could hold a single dose. But as
long as an adult is administering and the instructions are VERY SIMPLE AND
CLEAR (oops  - didn't have to shout, did I?) a measuring spoon would do.
For people who were nervous (babysitters and also parents of friends), we'd
put tape around the measurer to indicate just how much - no need to waste
time looking for the markings.

Probably the most important thing is to teach avoidance techniques. If they
don't cook the wrong foods around Josh, and don't feed him anything but
completely safe foods with completely clean serving utensils on completely
clean dishes, they're unlikely to nee the medications. But just in case...

>
>p.s. We have a fanny pack for Alyssa, too.  It's her "medicine bag".  For
>a long time, she thought all fanny packs we saw were medicine bags...
>It goes everywhere with us.  She has a duplicate one at preschool.

Great - good work.

Mark

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Mark Feblowitz