The silence a law can’t fill, and the children it can save
There is a kind of silence that only grieving parents know. It lives in the space where a child’s voice used to be: in the morning routine that no longer needs doing, in the small shoes no longer by the door, in the birthdays that keep arriving for someone who will never grow older. For almost nine years, Elijah’s mother, Dina, and I have answered that silence the only way we know how: by working to make sure no other family has to live in it.
On Oct. 22, Pennsylvania joined us. Governor Josh Shapiro signed House Bill 928, Elijah’s Law, into law as Act 68 of 2026. With it, Pennsylvania became the eighth state to promise that the adults caring for its youngest children will be ready when a child’s body turns against a single bite of food. Many of you know the story. My son, Elijah, was 3 years old. He had a severe dairy allergy, and the people caring for him knew it. He was given a grilled cheese sandwich anyway. When his small body began to fail, the adults around him did not recognize what was happening, and they did not act in time. He went to childcare one morning and never came home.
I have told that story more times than I can count: to lawmakers, to reporters, to rooms full of strangers. It never gets easier to say. But I keep saying it because of one word I cannot escape: preventable. Elijah did not die because medicine failed. He died because preparation did. That is what Elijah’s Law is about. Not blame. Readiness.
The law asks for what should never have been optional. Childcare staff must be trained to recognize a severe allergic reaction and respond without hesitation. Childcare programs can keep epinephrine, the medicine that stops anaphylaxis in minutes, within reach. And families and caregivers will work from the same emergency plan, written in calm so it can be followed in crisis.
None of this is complicated. A caregiver can learn the signs of anaphylaxis in an afternoon. Epinephrine takes seconds to give. The tragedy was never that the answer was hard. It was that no one had been required to learn it. State by state, Dina and I have carried our son’s name into statehouses, asking lawmakers to make sure no other family would get the call we got. When we learned Pennsylvania had answered, Dina said the words I have not stopped thinking about since: “We couldn’t save Elijah. But every child who goes home safe because someone was ready is a child he helped save.”
Laws are not written by one family. This one was carried by many hands.
Representative Bridget Kosierowski and Representative Kristin Marcell, a Democrat and a Republican, put their names on this bill together and proved that a child’s safety is not a partisan question. Members of the House and Senate voted to protect children they will never meet. Governor Shapiro picked up the pen.
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America gave this movement its map. Its research and its Elijah’s Law standards showed every state exactly where its children were unprotected and how to close the gap. Kaléo stood with us, lending its voice and support to the cause of preparedness in childcare. Advocates, food allergy organizations, childcare professionals, and parents who have lived with the same fear we did made phone calls, wrote letters, told their own stories, and refused to let this become one more good idea that died in committee.
So let me be clear about who this victory belongs to. It does not belong to my family alone. It belongs to every parent who has handed over a child and hoped. It belongs to every caregiver who wants to do right by the children in their care. It belongs to all of us, and so does the duty to protect the children it was written for. Because a signature is a beginning, not an ending. To childcare providers: take the training. Teach your staff what anaphylaxis looks like, especially in infants and toddlers, who cannot tell you what is wrong. Know where your epinephrine is. Practice your plan until no one has to think. Resources are ready for you, including through the Elijah-Alavi Foundation, Code Ana and the Early Childhood Anaphylaxis Collaborative.
To parents: ask your child’s program to show you its emergency plan. Put your child’s needs in writing. And always, always carry two doses of epinephrine. To leaders in the states still waiting: eight states have now decided that a child’s life should not depend on luck. Food allergies do not respect state lines. Neither should the protections that save lives. We will never see our son grow up. That is a loss no law can repair. But Elijah’s Law can make sure that more children come home. That is how our son’s life continues to protect others, and that is a legacy worth fighting for.
Sincerely,
Thomas Silvera
Co-founder of the Elijah-Alavi Foundation
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