Planning first abroad holiday for DD who is severely allergic to milk

[Fizzy81]

Help!

Wanting to go away this summer to France or Italy.

How do I even start to think about how we will do this?!

Tips very welcome.

[MattDillonsPants]

I toured Italy for three months and my friend was gluten intolerant....we found restaurants very accomodating.

How old is DD?

[Fizzy81]

Hello!

Three.

Very allergic though which is what's putting me off!

[Costacoffeeplease]

Learn the French or Italian for 'my daughter has a milk/dairy allergy' or have some cards printed that you can show people

[babyconverse]

So long as she's flexible and will eat what can be dairy free - Eg could be a little repetitive so that you can guarantee no cross contamination it should be ok.

[babyconverse]

And be prepared to buy fruit etc as a supplement in case she ends up needing more variety.

French food is full of butter though I'm afraid so make sure you know the right French to communicate that it needs not to be cooked in butter. Also how to say no to other animal milks if offered if she can't have those either

[crackedphone]

get some translation cards from Allergy UK, this will help with restaurants and getting medical help if you need it.

We have used them loads of times over the years , very useful.

Are you going self catering? we went to eurocamp so that we could make some meals ourselves.

We ate out a few times and had simple meals.

We have been to Spain, Italy, France with our multiple food allergic son, and daughter was briefly allergic to milk. We have flown to Spain and gone long haul to USA a couple of times.

I would get extra health insurance to cover the holiday, and extra set of meds. For EU holidays we had 2 sets of meds, which contained 2 epi pens, oral steriods, inhaler and antihistamine. For long haul flights and holidays we had 3 sets, one on him, one on me or his dad, and one in suitcase.

have fun, travel is perfectly possible with food allergies!

[Fizzy81]

Thank you crackedphone! Just what I needed to hear.

[superoz]

We went to the south of France last year with my 7 year and 18 month old dc who are both allergic to egg, dairy, nuts and fish. We also stayed at a Eurocamp so all self catering, massive supermarket 5 minutes drive away which had almost everything we needed and a huge free from aisle. Food labels have to list allergens similar to here which was helpful and so we just spent some time checking ingredients.

Bread seemed to be tricky and after checking around a dozen packs of sliced bread I could only find one which didn't have dairy, egg or nut warnings. However my dc were actually ok with fresh baguette from the bakery as that was safe for them and they were quite happy to be chomping on fresh bread every day. I did bring a pack of dairy free spread and Oatly Milk with us from home as I wasn't sure if they would have anything like that.

We also had allergy cards from Allergy UK and used them when we went out to restaurants. They had steak frites several times during the holiday which was the safest option, luckily they didn't get bored of it!

[Fizzy81]

Thank you! That's really helpful :-)

[trixymalixy]

My DS is 9 and anaphylactic to milk. We go abroad a couple of times a year and have never had any issues. Even in a French ski resort there was soya milk, yoghurts and spread. In Rome one of the ice cream shops had rice milk ice cream! The packaging is subject to the same regulations as here so all well labelled and the restaurants were all very helpful.

I would get a letter from your gp stating the requirement to carry piriton/epipen as we have been asked before at airport security for one.

[Cushionwoman]

Thank you!

Yes, same as my daughter.

[Cushionwoman]

Sorry about the name change!

[rogueelement]

Sort out your language and emergency planning so that you are prepared (sounds negative but it works for me) Get your EHIC cards and work out your emergency plans (as basic as 'what's the emergency number in this country?').

Southern France (olive oil) might be easier than say Brittany/Normandy (butter).

Labelling is great in both countries.

We always self-cater and eat out a little bit though personally I find it a bit nerve-racking.

Take a supply of sweet things like biscuits as that's probably where you will struggle.

[SouthDownsSunshine]

As others have said, very possible, we've taken dd (milk, eggs, and now some nuts) abroad a few times and no problem. It helps that I have an allergy so I'm used to it, and I speak a bit of french.

Top tips are: check insurance. Get cards written out, I added that it was a 'severe' allergy. Write yourself a list of ingredients containing milk - both for supermarket checking and for showing in restaurants, take as much food as you can, always have the medicine on you.

[SouthDownsSunshine]

And yes to the self catering, we always opt for this.

[ColdAndGloomy]

It really has got so much easier with the new rules - as pp said the same rules are in place across the EU and it makes a big difference as everywhere has to be allergy aware. So i think you will be fine!

[mamado]

just to mention the range of dairy-free yogurts, margarines and milks in French supermarkets is great - much better than here. make sure you check the healthy 'bio' aisles for more options.

We always self-cater [2 dds both allergic to milk, one to milk, eggs, nuts, peanuts and sesame]

You'll have difficultly finding ice lollies as they only really seem to sell calippo which may contain, so we opt for granitas [slushies] as an icy alternative and they seem to sell them nearly everywhere. You should be able to easily eat out as long as you're happy with a kids meal of 'steak hache et frites' [burger, no bun and chips] as that's the most common restaurant kids meal fare! Snacks are hard - biscuits, crisps mainly contain milk, so we take lots with us!