If your child has allergies, there's growing evidence that they're part of a nationwide trend. In tonight's health headlines, as allergies to peanuts, milk, eggs and gluten have become commonplace, prescriptions for epi-pens have taken a huge jump.
In in last five years, prescriptions for the single use shots of epinephrine that counter allergic reactions have shot up up 36%. School nurses who may have had one or two epi-pens on hand in the late 1990's now have 50 to 60. Epi-pens save lives, but they are costly; it expires every 12 months and even with insurance, one epi-pen often runs between $60 and $100.
