Thirteen million American children have some type of food allergy, but Florida schools will be more ready to deal with allergic reactions when students head back to school this year.
A new station law requires each school in the state to have an EpiPen on hand. The medical device, also known as an epinephrine autoinjector, can save a person's life when they go into anaphylactic shock.
It's something Max Amador carries everywhere he goes. It gives his mom, Ana, peace of mind because she's learned the hard way that emergencies can happen anywhere.
"I'll get a call where he went to the library where he touched something where maybe someone touched before him that had peanut on it and his face will just like, blow up," she said.
"When I get swollen up my eye, it gets a little red...and it hurts a lot and it feels like I don't have an eye!" Max recalled.
But while Max knows what he can't eat, doctors say thousands of kids out there don't know they have an allergy until they eat the food that makes them react and the problem is getting worse.
"We know that the instance of food allergy is increasing," Dr. Gary Kleiner told Local 10. "About 1 in 13 kids have food allergies." Dr. Kleiner, who works at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, says up to 25 percent of the people with food allergies don't know they have them.
When someone is having an allergic reaction, timing is everything. That's why Florida's new law is being praised by many parents.
"This reaction can be fatal," Dr. Kleiner explained. "There are deaths every year from patients who don't receive epinephrine right away."
Some of the most common allergies for children include milk, egg, wheat, soy, peanuts, and tree nuts.
Studies are being done nationwide to try to figure out why the instances of food allergies are increasing, but there's still no concrete evidence about why the numbers are going up.