Allergies Food Allergies Living With Medical ID Jewelry You'll Want to Wear Every Day By Jeanette Bradley Updated on April 27, 2020 Fact checked by Lisa Sullivan, MS Print If you have a history of anaphylaxis or a diagnosis of severe food allergies, you should always wear a medical ID — you literally shouldn't leave the house without one on. Jill Fromer/Getty Images Always is a long time, though, so you also should actually like that bracelet or necklace you'll be wearing day in and day out. Ideally, it should be something you will enjoy and that will complement your overall outfit. Sure, it's potentially life-saving, but it should also just plain look good, too. Here are four companies that make a variety of different medical ID jewelry you'll truly want to wear. They range from silicone jelly bracelets (perfect for young kids) to Pandora-style beaded bracelets and custom leather bands, and all have been Verywell.com readers' favorites over the year. 1 Lauren's Hope Lauren’s Hope was founded in 1994 by Denise Gaskill and LeAnn Carlson. The company originally had a different name, but in 2001 they created the first Lauren’s Hope for a Cure medical ID bracelet for a customer with juvenile diabetes who did not want to wear a medical ID that made her look different from her friends. The bracelets became so popular that Denise and LeAnn changed the name of the company. Customers with other needs began requesting medical IDs, and today Lauren’s Hope makes a diverse collection of IDs. The company offers beaded bracelets, fun dog tags for kids, interchangeable allergy jelly bands, and kid-friendly backpack tags and temporary tattoos for kids who just won't wear jewelry. Lauren's Hope also offers a line of handcrafted medical ID jewelry. 2 AllerMates AllerMates' silicone jelly bracelets with fun designs are aimed directly at kids (although they're certainly fun enough for adults, too). Your child can customize a multi-allergen bracelet, with button-on allergen characters. Even very young children who cannot read can use the images as reminders of their food allergy and the need to be careful of the food they accept when away from home. AllerMates was created after Iris Shamus’s son had a severe allergic reaction to a cashew at just 10 months old — her goal was to help her son know and remember his food allergy. This led her to develop the colorful, silicone wristbands for kids with illustrated characters that represent major allergens. 3 MedicAlert MedicAlert, which was founded in 1956, is a nonprofit emergency medical information service. In addition to selling medical ID jewelry, MedicAlert also provides the call service that allows emergency medical technicians to access your medical profile. MedicAlert was started by Dr. Marion Collins, who had a daughter named Linda with a life-threatening allergy. After years of wearing a paper bracelet with a note about her allergy, Linda had the idea of creating a silver bracelet with her allergy information. Her father commissioned a jeweler to create one for her and added the words “Medic Alert” and a medical symbol to the bracelet. The Collins family went on to create a nonprofit and pioneer the concept of both the bracelet and the call service. Today, more than 4 million people are members of MedicAlert worldwide. MedicAlert combines stylish, practical jewelry with its subscription call service. They offer everything from classic dog tags to leather wristbands and fun sports bands for kids and adults alike. 4 N-Style ID N-Style ID was born when Toni Bissell’s 10-year-old daughter, Camille, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and Toni couldn’t find medical ID bracelets cool enough to suit her fashion-conscious child. So Toni made Camille a bracelet — and then another, and another. Eventually, this effort grew into N-Style ID. Now N-Style ID has hundreds of stylish bangles, chains, charms, beads, jelly bands, leather straps, dog tags, and more. The sports bands with woven-in designs like horses, dolphins, tie-dye and peace signs are popular with teens who love to swap bands. N-Style ID has designed many of its medical ID tags to be interchangeable. This allows wearers to save money by ordering just one stainless steel ID tag and bands of varying styles and colors to snap onto it. There are jewelry collections created especially for men, women and children, and even a collection designed specifically for seniors. 7 Sources Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Edlich RF, Cochran AA, Greene JA, Woode DR, Gubler KD, Long WB. Advances in the treatment of peanut allergy: a case report. J Emerg Med. 2011;40(6):633-6. doi:10.1016/j.jemermed.2008.01.028 Rahman S, Walker D, Sultan P. Medical identification or alert jewellery: an opportunity to save lives or an unreliable hindrance?. Anaesthesia. 2017;72(9):1139–1145. doi:10.1111/anae.13958 Lauren's Hope. About Lauren's Hope. AllerMates. Our story. MedicAlert Foundation. Who we are. MedicAlert Foundation. Global services (everybody). N-Style ID. About us. By Jeanette Bradley Jeanette Bradley is a noted food allergy advocate and author of the cookbook, "Food Allergy Kitchen Wizardry: 125 Recipes for People with Allergies" See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Medical Expert Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? Other Helpful Report an Error Submit