Kath Webb’s unique story of supporting children with allergies

The first time experienced early childhood educator Kath Webb used an adrenaline auto-injector (better known as an EpiPen) was on her son Hadley, who had an anaphylactic reaction after eating a muesli bar. 

Hadley was in the Kindy room at the time, and Ms Webb was working as his teacher. 

He handed her a partially eaten muesli bar and said, “I can’t eat this, mummy. It makes me cough.”

Those worrying words were all it took to warn her that something was awry for Hadley, who had been diagnosed with a peanut allergy in his first year of life. 

Ms Webb, the co-director of Goondiwindi Kindergarten, sat him on the floor with a drink of water to ‘watch him out of the corner of my eye’, however he soon deteriorated, vomiting and losing consciousness. 

Her anaphylaxis training kicked in, and she asked a colleague to phone 000 as she took her son’s EpiPen from its secure storage space. 

Thankfully the medication did its job, and Hadley (now 11 years old) was soon on the mend.

Ms Webb’s experience shows that children can present with symptoms of a severe food allergy out of nowhere. A child’s initial exposure to a food allergen, insect bite ointment or medication might present as a mild reaction, but on the next occasion, could be life-threatening.

Her advice to fellow teachers, educators and carers is:

• stay as highly trained as you can
• remain alert to the signs and symptoms of an anaphylactic reaction
• keep lines of communication open with the child’s parents
• at the first signs of a severe allergic reaction, call ‘000’
• always err on the side of caution, particularly for children who have a known allergy.

Australia has the unfortunate title of being the food allergy capital of the world. Research from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute  found that 1 in 10 Australian infants will suffer from a food allergy and sometimes, these allergies will be lifelong, making allergy awareness essential for those who work with young children. 

To read Kath and Hadley’s story in full please see here. More information about managing anaphylaxis in ECEC settings can be found here.