New Pa. law requires child care centers to stock epinephrine, learn to use for serious allergic reactions

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About 8% of children and teens in the United States have a food allergy, according to national estimates. It could put them at risk of a serious or even deadly allergic reaction, especially if they are too young to communicate their distress.

Now, a new Pennsylvania law will require all day care and child care centers to stock epinephrine auto-injector rescue medications like EpiPens to prevent or treat serious reactions in young children.

The law also mandates specific training for staff to recognize early signs and symptoms of an allergic reaction, know how to administer a rescue medication and identify support services to contact in emergencies.

“As a mother of a child with a food allergy, I know how quickly an ordinary situation could become a medical emergency,” said state Rep. Kristin Marcell, a Republican representing parts of Bucks County in the Pennsylvania House and a co-sponsor of the legislation. “To know that we now have created a program in our state that can help children and parents to have those protections and to help them in that way, it makes me feel so relieved.”

The new statue is called Elijah’s Law, named after Elijah-Alavi Silvera, a 3-year-old who had a severe dairy allergy and died in 2017 after being fed a grilled cheese sandwich at his New York City day care.

His parents, Thomas Silvera and Dina Hawthorne, founded the Elijah-Alavi Foundation to raise awareness about food allergies and asthma through training, research, community outreach and legislation.

Pennsylvania joins seven other states and several cities that have adopted Elijah’s Law.

“Hearing the pain that they have gone through, but them turning it into positivity by advocating for this legislation across many states, it makes me very happy to see that we could get it done in Pennsylvania,” Marcell said.