Food-Allergy Safety

     As we get closer and closer to the trip, I get more and more excited about the new things we’ll experience. From museums to monuments to local cultures and food, I can’t wait to embrace it all. However, as was true for my previous travel experiences, I cannot help but worry about my food allergies. Traveling in English speaking countries makes it significantly easier to express my concerns, and EF Tours was incredibly helpful when I told them that I am allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. I will also have allergy medicine and an Auvi-Q with me just in case, so I should be perfectly fine. Even so, I have noticed an uptick of movies and tv shows lately who are making food allergies the punchline of a joke (see  2018’s Peter Rabbit) or who are using trainer EpiPens to administer aide (Disney’s Godmothered). While these

EpiPen with Trainer in Front

cinematic decisions really don’t have anything to do with me, I think they do open up the opportunity to educate people on how to use epipens or similar devices. EpiPens work by injecting epinephrine into the person having a severe allergic reaction (this means there is a needle inside the pen). Epinephrine is basically liquid adrenaline, so even if it stops a reaction, it’s important to go to the hospital after using one and get more advanced help, especially because the reaction can restart after the epipen is used. Furthermore, epipens should only be used in reactions causing or leading to anaphylactic shock. Some symptoms of Anaphylaxis include swelling of the face, tongue, and/or throat, obstruction of airway, difficulty breathing, hives, redness of skin, nausea, coughing, and dizziness. Most times, the person with the allergy is aware that they are having a severe reaction, but in little kids or people who don’t know they have an allergy, phrases like, “my tongue feels funny/itchy/big” or “my throat has something stuck in it” are common (but not definitive) signs of an allergic reaction. 

      In the event that someone can’t administer their EpiPen, it is important that someone else does. There are two main kinds of epinephrine injectors. The first, is EpiPen, which kind of looks like a giant pencil. It will be green for kids and yellow for adults. There is also a grey pen in the box. This is the trainer EpiPen, and it has no needle or medicine in it. It won’t do anything for the person having the reaction. There are instructions on the box, but you want to remove the EpiPen from the plastic case, pull the blue tab at the

Auvi- Q  injector with Trainer

top, and, while holding the pen in a fist, press and hold the orange tip of the EpiPen to the outside of the person’s thigh. It should only go in their thigh, and will require a bit of force. It will go through their clothes, and you should not worry about bruising or hurting them, they need the medicine. You should hear a click when it makes contact with their leg and hold for 10 seconds to make sure the medication is completely administered. These steps are basically the same for the other type of injector, called an Auvi-Q. The Auvi-Q is usually orange, and is square and flat. Just like the EpiPen, Auvi-Q comes with a non-medicated trainer. To use the Auvi-Q, you will pull it out of the case. When you do so, a built in speaker will begin to walk you through the process. You’ll pull the red safety guard, press the black tip to the thigh, and press until you hear a click and hiss noise, holding for 10 seconds. The Auvi-Q will count down from five, but it’s not a bad idea to hold it for five additional seconds to ensure medication has been administered. Regardless of which injector someone uses, it is important to call 911 in the US or 999 in the UK afterwards to make sure they’re ok. 

Hopefully, no one will require the administration of an EpiPen, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Here’s to safe travels!