Ep. 295: Carrying Epinephrine - Ages and Stages!

We all know the rule: always carry two doses of epinephrine. But let's be honest—finding a way to carry it comfortably every single day isn't always easy. In this episode, we're joined by food allergy advocate, Theresa Marie Green, founder of Allergy Apparel, to share practical, stylish, and age-appropriate ideas for carrying epinephrine through every stage of life—making it easier to stay prepared wherever life takes you. 

Resources to keep you in the know:

• Allergy Apparel: Medical Bags for Epinephrine
• FAACT's Epinephrine Section

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Sponsored by: Kaleo

Thanks for listening! FAACT invites you to discover more exciting food allergy resources at FoodAllergyAwareness.org!

Transcript

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Caroline: Welcome to FAACT's Roundtable, a podcast dedicated to navigating life with food allergies across the lifespan. Presented in a welcoming format with interviews and open discussions,

each episode will explore a specific topic, leaving you with the FACTS to know or use.

Information presented via this podcast is educational and not intended to provide individual medical advice.

Please consult with your personal board certified allergist or healthcare providers for advice specific to your situation.

Hi everyone, I'm Caroline Moassessiand I am your host for the FAACT Roundtable podcast.

I am a food allergy parent and advocate and the founder of the Grateful Foodie Blog. And I am FAACTS Vice President of Community Relations.

Caroline: Before we start today's podcast, we would like to take a moment to thank Kaleo for their kind sponsorship of FAACT's Roundtable Podcast. We also would like to thank them for the support we received over the years.

Caroline: We all know the rule Always carry two doses of epinephrine. But let's be honest, making that happen every single day isn't as easy. Whether you're packing a diaper bag, sending a child off to school, heading to to soccer practice, dressing up for prom,

or even traveling for work,

carrying a solution that fits your lifestyle can make all the difference.

After all, the best epinephrine is the one that's with you when you need it.

In this episode, we're joined by Teresa Marie Green, founder of Allergy Apparel, to explore creative, practical and stylish ways to carry epinephrine through every age and stage of life, from infants and toddlers to teens, college students and adults.

We'll share ideas to help make carrying epinephrine a natural, comfortable part of everyday life.

So you're always prepared wherever your day takes you.

Caroline: Welcome Theresa to FAACT's Roundtable Podcast. I am so happy you are here because you are one of the OGs in the food allergy community that has made a difference over these years.

And I'm just so thrilled you are with us today.

Theresa: Thank you. I'm excited to be here. It means a lot coming from you.

Caroline: You're so welcome.

So before we get started, I have to share a personal note. I have known you for many, many years and I've watched the difference you made in our community,

especially for food allergy families like my own. And so I just wanna profess my undying love to you because your creative ideas help make caring epinephrine feel very normal. And I feel you were one of the first people to get out there with your business and normalize this part of felt so burdensome and so difficult.

My Kids hated carrying their epinephrine. And then you jumped into our world and just made having food allergies better and caring better.

So I would love for our listeners to get to know you. So can you tell us about your food allergy journey and then what inspired you to found allergy apparel?

Theresa: I started Allergy Apparel a few years after my son was diagnosed with peanut and tree nut allergy. He was less than a year old when he was diagnosed. Like so many other parents, I suddenly found myself looking for ways to keep my son safe.

He was starting preschool,

and one night, you know, a late night, up with the kids. I just had this idea to start allergy apparel. And that's. That's how it started.

Just trying to keep my kids safe and then wanted to keep other kids like my son safe.

Caroline: And I think that's how it starts so much with everybody in this community is the need is there, it's apparent. And then someone just says, you know what? I can do something about it.

And now can you describe to people what allergy apparel is?

Theresa: Allergy apparel actually started off as T shirts that had food allergy warnings. So my son would go to preschool and he would have a nut allergy warning shirt on.

And from there, it grew to the need of everything allergy related.

And then I learned to understand the importance of always having your epinephrine with you and the importance of offering products or having a carrier that your child or as an adult or teenager would want to carry.

So it grew into carriers for all ages and listeners.

Caroline: I have to tell you, they had the cutest things. I mean, honestly, these T shirts were adorable and fashionable and hip, and my kids loved wearing them. And I think that's such a big part of our allergy world is embracing, like, who and what we are and having these tools and these items that you created that just made our lives work.

Theresa: The idea when I started allergy apparel was there were other brands out there, but they were kid like.

And I wanted something that kids wanted to wear that were hip, that were trendy, and that's where the one place that the skull and crossbones came from. It also came from these.

It's the universal sign for poison.

And a lot of foods are poison to our kids. So that's also where the skull and crossbone logos came from.

Caroline: They were so cute and really fun.

So now let's take a journey through the ages, stages of food allergy management and jump into one of the biggest challenges that families face is always finding a way to carry Epinephrine that actually fits their everyday lives.

We know with epinephrine, there's a lot more options now, actually more options than ever before since we started, which means there's going to be more ways to carry.

So let's start with talking about the youngest patients. What were some of your favorite ideas for parents and caregivers and family members carrying epinephrines for infants and toddlers?

So as a parent,

what were some

Theresa: of your favorites as a parent with toddlers and infants? I tried to always carry one that attached to my diaper bag. Because you're juggling diaper bags,

grandparents, daycare, strollers, and sometimes, you know, I was trading with my husband.

We tried to always carry one that attached to the diaper bag, to the stroller, to the backpack, or to the purse so that we pass it from one parent to another and it just became part of our routine instead of something extra to carry.

Caroline: That's actually very clever because you're right. If it hooks to something. And did you have, like, multiple carriers?

Theresa: We always had three carriers. Three sets, three carriers. We still, to this day,

even though my son's 21, I still carry a set, he still carries a set, and my husband still carries a set, just in case.

Caroline: Okay, so confession. Us too.

So both my son and daughter, they carry their sets. I cannot not have epinephrine in my purse. There's just no way.

And my husband had stopped caring, but then he developed a yellow jacket allergy, and so now he's in treatment for that. But he also carries epinephrine. And it just, it felt so naked when my children went off to college to not carry epinephrine with us.

So I love that you do that. And actually, just a quick side note, too, at home,

do you have a place that you store the epinephrine or is like. We used to always keep it by the front door.

Theresa: Yes, we do the same. We keep it by the. It's actually the back door, the door that we use. But yes, we have a set right at the door. And we still have a post it note that's.

That was written by my son probably 10 years ago. It's still stuck to the door that says EPI pen.

Caroline: I love that.

That is so great. Because when you think about it, we started these habits when they were little and now they're carrying them forward.

And they're very important. They keep us alive and healthy. I love it.

Theresa: Yes. We've created habits even for ourselves.

Caroline: Very true.

So now, as kids grow, so do their activities and their independence. So now let's move into the preschool and elementary school years.

What are some of your favorite ways to help families make carrying epinephrine easy and a habit just like we're talking about.

Theresa: I think the best way to create a habit or to build a good habit is, is leading by example. So my son seeing my husband or me carrying the epinephrine,

I think that creates good habits that I think is a priority.

With kids self carrying, that's difficult. You know, every kid's ready at a different age.

My son, I don't think he started self caring until later in elementary school. But we, we always had a set until he was ready to self carry. I think every kid is different.

Until he was ready to self carry. We kept a in the front pocket of his backpack. It was a designated spot. We also kept one in the nurse's office and the one that we kept in the nurse's office, we tried to always use one with a window that showed his information,

his emergency contact information,

his allergy and it actually had a small picture of him. I think that since nurses have a variety of medications and a lot of medications in those in their offices, it's good to have that information readily available.

I do offer a lot of carriers for all different ages. And again it's hard because every kid is different. Some kids can self carry really young.

We make fun belts for them to do that. But again, every family is different and I think it's important to do what's good for your family. I think that it's important that every family do what's right for themselves and to not rush independence.

I think it's important, important to slowly build good habits. I think that's really important.

Caroline: Well, and just when you're saying to do it slowly, you're actually building confidence. Because I do agree if you go too fast, your child might not be confident with it or they might start relying on you or they don't get their head wrapped around it fully and they're doing it in little bite sized bits,

then they can gain that confidence.

Now if you don't mind for a quick second here, explain like some of the belts and some of the items you have for the younger kids and that kind of preschool, elementary age, there are so many.

Theresa: It's great.

The options that people have now we have fun belts with designs that the kids can wear that have aliens or superheroes and then we have some people that like the allergy to be known.

We have carriers that say Allergy Protector. And then there are the others that like to keep them hidden. And we have. Or be discreet. We have, we offer carriers for that too.

We have carriers that you can wear as a sling around your waist. There are so many options that there's really no excuse, honestly, to not wear your epinephrine these days.

Caroline: I have to say, when my kids were little, we had a whole variety of them dependent on if they were going out somewhere fancy, if we were heading to a wedding, if they were going to a friend's house or school.

So we used it the way we changed purses and clothing. And so we would use them dependent kind of a little on the mood or what was going on. And your right, there's no excuse now because there's so many and it just makes it really fun.

Theresa: Agreed. 100. Just want to tell people, like, how many purses do you have? How many belts do you have? How many pairs of shoes do you have?

You can do the same with your epinephrine carrier. You can make it fun, you can make it stylish, you can make it an accessory.

Caroline: Exactly.

So now, talking about fashion, let's talk about the teens and the tweens because that's a time when that independence really takes off. And so now they're dealing with prom and homecoming and sports and concerts and hanging out with their friends.

So now what advice do you have for helping teens carry their epinephrine confidently without feeling that it gets in the way, that it's a burden, that it's making them stand out?

Theresa: The teenage years are the hard ones, right? Because they think they're invincible. But honestly, I don't really care how they carry it. I just want to know that they are carrying it.

But I do try to offer,

you know, sleek, handsome, pretty options so that they will want to carry it. I have ones that can easily be attached to your backpack, to your athletic bag, to your gym bag.

I even offer wallets,

leather wallets that you just grab your wallet, which has your ID, you're naturally going to walk out of the house with that and go, so that carries your epinephrine, it carries your,

your credit cards, your ID.

I think that there are so many options out there. Ones that you can attach to your keychain and like I said earlier, you can. We have ones that you can wear around your waist, under your shirt, over your shirt, wear it like afanny pack.

And I am so excited. I was so excited when fanny packs came back in style.

Know that we don't carry, call them fanny packs anymore. But I think it's great that belt bags are trendy now and hanging around because they also offer a stylish way to carry your epinephrine.

Caroline: You know, the belt bags, they had a moment, and I agree. I'm so glad they're back, because that's how my husband now carries, because my daughter was giving him a hard time because he was shoving all his devices in his pockets and he was looking quite bulky,

and my daughter couldn't take it,

and so she went and brought him a gift of one of the.

Yeah, you call it a belt bag, right?

Theresa: Well, we call them so many things now.

Caroline: It's so true. But she went and bought him one,

and he was like, no way. No way. And now he lives for that bag because he has his wallet in it and he has his epinephrine in it and tissue and all this stuff, and it really makes a difference.

And I remember when you first started carrying the wallets, we got it for my son.

And then I actually started buying some of these as gifts for the teenagers, because one, they didn't know. It's not like they're out there searching for it. And two, they were like, wow, this is, like, really cool.

So it's really nice to see how over the years, it's changed. And so since we're talking now about young adults, let's dig into now the college students and adults, because, again, life becomes very busy now.

We're talking suit pockets and traveling and dating and all these new routines.

So do you have any tips for the adult crowd and the college crowd, too?

Theresa: I always try to tell my son to make carrying his epinephrine automatic as automatic as grabbing his phone or his keys before he leaves the house. Again, it's about building.

Hopefully, at this age, we have built the habit of carrying your epinephrine, but I try to make a habit of automatically grabbing your phone, grabbing your keys, grabbing your epinephrine before you leave the house.

And an ongoing dilemma is leaving it in your car.

Hey, guys, don't leave it in your car. I talk to people every day that leave their epinephrine in their car.

Don't do it.

Caroline: That is such great advice. I'm so glad you brought that up, because that's true. Right. People think it's fine.

Theresa: Right. And it degrades the medication. And there are so many options out there,

so many carriers that offer insulation.

And if you've bought a belt bag that's not insulated, we offer sleeves that you can put your medication into your bag. So there are so many options people have to protect their medications.

It's simple.

Caroline: I'm so glad you brought that up because we forget about that, especially right now. We're having all these heat waves and it's summer and people forget it. And also too, leaving it in the car means if you need it, it's not with you,

Correct?

Theresa: Correct.

Caroline: Well, this went really fast and actually our time together has come to an end.

So before we say goodbye, is there anything else you would like listeners to hear from you?

Theresa: I would like to Final thoughts. There isn't one perfect solution for everyone.

I think that I've learned over the years that the best carrier or the best case is the one that you'll actually use, that everyone's lifestyle is different.

That's okay. And my goal is to offer carriers that make you want to carry your epinephrine. You need to carry it everywhere you go. You need to keep it within reach.

And I think there are so many options out there that make it easy to carry. I just want to emphasize carry your epinephrine. Carry it.

Caroline: That is incredible, fantastic, wonderful advice. Probably the best advice anyone can get in terms of food allergies.

If you have an emergency, you need your medication with you.

So thank you, Teresa, for taking the time to meet with us and thank you for sharing this wonderful information.

And again, thank you for all that you've done for the community. Like I said, you are one of the first ones out there just normalizing our food allergy life and then absolutely normalizing and providing solutions on how we can carry and keep ourselves safe.

So thank you so much for just everything.

Theresa: Thank you. It's been great to work with you all these years and to continue to see our community and our children grow up and conquer their allergies and continue to learn and to grow.

Caroline: Thank you. Thank you so much. Before we say goodbye today, we just want to thank Kaleo one more time

Caroline: for their kind sponsorship.

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