Tag: allergies

Posted on by

How to Recognize and Manage Allergic Reactions

Boy Crying

How to Recognize and Manage Allergic Reactions 

Recognizing an Allergic Reaction

Allergic reactions happen when a person’s immune system overreacts to something usually harmless, such as food, pollen, bug stings/bites, or medications. Although very common, allergic reactions can be fatal so it is important to recognize the spectrum of symptoms occurring during an allergic reaction, what to do before help arrives and how to prevent incidences in the future.

Mild Allergic Reactions:

  • Hives
  • Itchy skin
  • Red, itchy eyes
  • Nasal congestion, runny nose
  • Rashes

Moderate to Severe Allergic Reactions:

  • Swelling of the hands, feet, lips, face, or throat
  • Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or abdominal pain.
  • Difficulty breathing, wheezing, or chest tightness
  • Throat tightness or hoarseness
  • Difficulty swallowing
  • Flushing of the skin
  • Anxiety
  • Painful or blistering skin
  • Losing consciousness

Severe Allergic Reactions (Anaphylaxis):

Anaphylaxis is a type of shock, meaning that your body is not delivering enough blood to its organs. Symptoms include:

  • Drop in blood pressure
  • Lightheadedness
  • Associated with any of the more severe symptoms above
  • Most common symptoms: hives and swelling

What to do Until Help Arrives?

  • Immediately call 911
  • Ask the person if he or she is carrying an epinephrine auto-injector (EpiPen, Auvi-Q, others) to treat an allergic attack
  • Ask whether you should help inject the medication if person has
  • Injections typically happen in the individual’s thigh
  • Have the person lie still on his or her back
  • Loosen tight clothing and cover the person with a blanket. Don’t give the person anything to drink
  • If there’s vomiting or bleeding from the mouth, turn the person on his or her side to prevent choking
  • If no signs of breathing, coughing or movement, begin CPR
  • Get emergency treatment even if symptoms start to improve

*After anaphylaxis, it’s possible for symptoms to recur. Monitoring in a hospital for several hours is necessary.

Prevention

Knowing the trigger of an allergic reaction is essential for preventing the symptoms from recurring in the future, and it will help your doctor come up with the best treatment plan for you. Most common allergies occur from:

  • Recent changes in your diet
  • New soaps or detergents
  • New medications or supplements
  • Environmental exposures

If you happen to have an anaphylactic allergy keep an Epipen on you at all times – make sure it is kept in appropriate conditions and set reminders for yourself on expiry dates. It is also beneficial to keep treatment products on hand such as:

Lastly, be conciensious about those around you as the smallest things such as heavily scented perfumes and dietary restrictions can lead to allergic reactions.

Life is Precious. Be Prepared. 

Use the HTML Cheat Sheet for color picker, search for special HTML characters, get examples of the most common tags and generate any tags.

Posted on by

How to Make Your Restaurant a Safer Place

Are you in the service industry? Well then this blog is sure to come in handy. Here are some of our greatest tips on how to keep your work environment a safe one:

Blue Detectable Bandages 

Have you ever been served a dish with something unpleasant and unexpected in it, for example, a hair? It completely ruins your meal and sometimes even your entire appetite. Could you imagine finding a bandage in your dish? Horrible thought, isn’t it? First Aid Canada proudly supplies restaurants with blue detectable bandages. These bandages are bright blue in colour and come in a variety of sizes and shapes to best suit your kitchen and prevent accidents. 

Allergies & Epipens

Allergies are becoming more and more prominent and thus, the food service industry must learn to cope with different dietary requests. People with severe allergies are advised to carry an Epipen with them at all times; however in some cases some individuals fail to be prepared. Restaurants should always have an Epipen onsite to prevent liability for anaphylactic shock. First Aid Canada recommends purchasing your Epipen directly from the source: http://www.epipen.ca/

Standard First Aid & CPR Training

Hundreds of people can pass through a single restaurant on any given day and this creates a risk factor for likelihood of facing ant emergency your workplace. It is important to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to medical emergencies and that’s why public places should not only be equipped with the supplies needed to save lives, but the skills. It is recommended that restaurant workers be trained in Standard First Aid and CPR to prevent emergencies.

AEDS

In addition to what is mentioned above it is now becoming more and more prevalent that restaurants contain an Automated External Defibrillator. These devices are not only easy to operate, but they also save lives. In the time it takes for someone to call an ambulance and for the response personal to arrive at the scene, an AED could have already saved that life.

Government Regulation First Aid Kits 

It is mandatory for all workplaces in Canada to have a regulation First Aid Kit which varies in size and contents depending on the industry and number of employees. Here are some of our Standard kits available for the restaurant industry:

First Aid Canada is pleased to offer Deluxe kits which are government regulation kits, identical to those above, but with more products and in some cases more relevant products:


All of the kits listed are available online by the click of a button. First Aid Canada is also pleased to offer nationwide shipping. For questions or inquiries please feel free to contact the team at:

Toll-Free: 1-855-322-4243 or by email: savelives@firstaidcanada.com

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Google+.

Life is Precious. Be Prepared.