Protecting children with severe allergies

Lawrence resident to launch emergency alert product AllerGuarder on Kickstarter on Jan. 19

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It was when Lawrence resident Avram Weissman’s daughter Rivka, 8, and old son Shmuel, 6, were both discovered to have allergies to tree nuts, peanuts and sesame seeds, Weissman decided something needed to be done to help alert people to his — and other families’ — food allergies.
After selling off his Inwood-based technology company in 2014, Weissman decided to change his focus to work on an idea to help people with allergies. He came up with an alert system involving a bracelet and a Smartphone app he calls AllerGuarder. This product is expected to launch via its Kickstarter page on Jan. 19.
A food allergy is scary enough to deal with, but the possibility that his children could suffer anaphylactic shock, where an allergy sufferer loses the ability to breathe upon contact with the offending food item, spurred Weissman.
“It’s not that they are going to seek out peanuts and eat them,” he said. “It’s the exposure. As a parent, I will always have to worry, so I’m trying to solve this problem. Kids can’t wear a big sign on their heads saying they have food allergies.”
According to the Food Allergy Research & Education organization, about two children per classroom have some type of food allergy. Nearly 15 million have food allergies, of which nearly six million are children, based on the group’s 2013 study.

AllerGuarder is a bracelet equipped with Bluetooth technology located inside it that the child would wear containing his or her vital food allergy information. Then this information is transmitted to a Smartphone app, which would be cost-free, under the same name, AllerGuarder. The children suffering from life-threatening allergy reactions would be connected to their family and friends through the app.
Any time a child enters an area where there is potential danger, the bracelet beeps an alert and those with the Smartphone app are notified.
The app also allows for allergy and non-allergy sufferers alike to “friend” each other, and be able to obtain more detailed information about the person’s name, his or her type of allergy, symptoms and whom to contact in an emergency.
Non friends can still download the app and receive alerts, but they wouldn’t have detailed information. It would just sound an alert.
The more people who have the application and are better informed, the safer a child’s environment could be, Weissman said.
“If a stranger in a situation is eating a peanut butter sandwich, for example, if they have the alert on their phones, they would know to put the sandwich away,” he said. “But they have to have the app to receive the alert. I hope to raise cognitive awareness in that more people would have an indication to these allergies. Children who suffer from severe food allergies need an extra layer of protection.”
While all allergy symptoms are different depending on each child, all food allergies have the potential for an emergency reaction, said Alissa Hersh, a Woodmere-based allergist and immunologist at Allergy & Asthma of the South Shore P.C.
“In the past, a child would wear a Med-Alert bracelet to inform other people about his or her allergies,” she said. “AllerGuarder is a unique product in that a person’s phone alerts you, instead of you having to seek out that information. It’s a constant reminder and reduces risk of error and exposure.”
Lawrence resident Esti Felder’s 14-year-old son Kovi has a severe peanut allergy. She thinks AllerGuarder would help her family be able to know beforehand where potential emergency situations could be avoided.
“It can become embarrassing,” she said. “It’s tough to endure a severe allergy. We wonder all the time, ‘Is this going to be the time he is going to have an attack?’ It gives us high anxiety. Our entire lives revolve around this child’s allergy. So much of our time goes into protecting him. This would help us out so much.”
To learn more about AllerGuarder, visit www.allerguarder.com.