Photo courtesy of Lauren’s Hope
This is part of a month-long series that my teen daughter and I are writing about her life and learning to live with epilepsy. To start at the beginning, click here.
Once you find out that your child has a chronic disorder and you make the decision to medicate a child, a whole bunch of other issues need to be faced. And the vast majority of them are difficult and even traumatic.
Except for this one – choosing to have your child wear a medical ID. In my opinion, you simply have to put some sort of medical ID on your child if they have any kind of medical issue. There’s no guarantee that the adults with them will remember what they need to know to properly treat your child in an emergency. And if the worst happens and 911 needs to be called, it’s essential that the emergency personnel have your phone number and your child’s medical condition right in front of them. You can’t count on teachers or caregivers to have time to locate and then convey that information to the first responders. The scary reality is that there might not be time, and if your child is on medications, you have to worry about medication interactions.
So the question is not should they wear them, but what kind? We chose a bracelet for Beth but there are necklace options, too. Whichever your child prefers is fine. Just make sure they wear it.
When Beth first had to wear a medical ID eight years ago, there weren’t a lot of companies that made pretty bracelets. We had a traumatized five-year-old little girl and having something pretty was my priority. It was the only part of the whole damn thing that was fun. I looked around for a couple of weeks and was getting really frustrated until someone pointed me in the direction of Lauren’s Hope. I can’t remember who gave me the link but I am forever grateful to them because Lauren’s Hope provides pretty.
We bought Beth a bracelet very similar to the one shown above. And she loved it! They are a bit pricey but so worth it. There are now so many other choices for medical IDs but if you buy a cheaper one, check it out very thoroughly and make sure it won’t fall apart and that the tag is very readable.
Here’s a quick link to some on Etsy – click here.
The most common question I get about medical IDs is what to engrave on the tag. You need to put contact info and any information that emergency personnel would need to treat your child. Because we knew that Beth’s meds could change at any time and medical tags aren’t cheap, I chose not to put a specific medication on it. So her tag read something like this:
Elizabeth Vetne
Epilepsy
On medication
Mom cell: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Home: xxx-xxx-xxxx
And here’s a great link to a blog post from Lauren’s Hope about what to engrave on a medical id with examples of different disorders and allergies
*If you’d like to read all of our 31 Days posts about living with epilepsy, click on the button on the sidebar or start here. And if you’re wondering what the heck is going on and who Beth is, click here. 🙂
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