Food Allergy Academy - Medicalert - Eggfreeepicurean

Checklist #5: Get a MedicAlert bracelet and become a member. Now a MedicAlert bracelet is a really wonderful thing for your child to have. It's basically like wearing a doctor's note all the time. So this is useful in a couple of ways. For the very young child who can't speak for themselves or who doesn't understand his or her food allergies, it's - all the information that a caregiver needs to know is right there. For a school age child, it's a reminder for those around him that your child has got a medical condition that might require intervention in an emergency situation. Medical providers - doctors and paramedics - are trained to look for these, so in an emergency situation, all the doctor or paramedic has to do is look at the bracelet, and all the information they need to care for your child is right there. So on the MedicAlert website you basically create an account for your child. You give your contact information and you're able to give the contact information for any number of doctors that you wish. You can also give detailed information about your child's allergies, and in addition to that, any other kind of medical conditions, for example, if your child has got asthma, or even if it isn't just a food allergy. One of our daughters is allergic to penicilin, she also wears a MedicAlert bracelet, which can come in handy in emergency situations as well. When you purchase a MedicAlert bracelet for your child, it's got some important information on it. It has an ID number that is unique to your child. It also has a 1-800 number that is a 24 hour link to MedicAlert and all of the information that you have provided about your child. It also has some brief text that details the specific food allergies that your child has. So let's say for example there was an emergency at school. Let's say the school nurse gave your child a dose of epinephrine and then dialed 9-1-1. The paramedics arrive and they look at your child's bracelet and they see, OK, this child has got an allergy to eggs or peanuts or tree nuts or dairy or whatever it happens to be, then they call the 1-800 number on the MedicAlert bracelet, they give your child's ID number, then they can get your contact information, they can get the doctor's phone number, anything they might need to accurately or adequately care for your child. Now here's another really interesting aspect of the MedicAlert bracelet. It's basically an ID bracelet as well. Heaven forbid that you would ever have to use your MedicAlert bracelet in this way but basically let's say that your child got separated from you. Anyone who finds them can get your child back to you just by looking at the information on the MedicAlert bracelet. So again, you call the 1-800 number, give the ID number on the bracelet, and your child can be reconnected with you. That's one really nice aspect of MedicAlert that we hope you're never going to have to use, but it is just another one of those extra peace of mind kind of things functions as an ID bracelet and not just as wearing a doctor's note. Now the nice thing is your child can pick a style that they like pick a color that they like and just make it a part of their daily life. Our daughter never takes hers off. She swims with it, she takes showers and baths with it she goes in the ocean with it on, she's even danced in major ballet productions with it on. It's just part of her life. So, get a MedicAlert bracelet, become a member, and there are a lot of other useful tools on the MedicAlert website that you might want to explore while you're there.