Nuts on planes

[Bookmonster123]

Hi

I am due to fly with DS soon, first time he’s been on a plane. DS has a peanut allergy, has epi pens prescribed. What’s the protocol about nuts during the flight.

Do I tell the airline at booking, check in or on the day? Do they always accommodate requests not to eat nuts during the flight?

Thanks

@stressedespresso

What on earth are you talking about? Any diabetic will have more than enough medical evidence already, nobody is asking anyone to go and get a doctor’s letter.

I’ll sort of take that on the nose and go on to ask so is it the majority opinion that all diabetics going flying should routinely equip themselves with suitable yoghurts just in case they end up on a flights where there’s a request that nuts aren’t eaten?

Are you being deliberately difficult & obtuse?

Nope, but I’m trying to point out that objectively some solutions being suggested might be difficult to very difficult for some of the travelling public to actually comply with….

I've just been thinking, after reading the article on the cheese incident. It is so hard when allergies can be so severe - I think it's shows the importance to understand one's tolerance level. When it is that severe, definitely every possible measures around the individuals should be taken, school, office, planes etc.

Hopefully with more and more research, allergies & the severity of the consequences could be reduced. https://www.uhs.nhs.uk/whats-new/news/peanut-allergies-could-dramatically-fall-if-babies-weaned-early-on-peanut-products#:~:text=The%20modelled%20approach%20showed%20it,not%20whole%20or%20broken%20peanuts.

Is there a reason you're ignoring all the posts exposing your lie about hypos?

This is my experience. I've also recently heard an announcement about latex too.

A lot of airlines are serving alternatives to nuts now. I love nuts, but don't need them on a plane.

Exactly!

I have diabetes and get occasional Hypos, but would never carry nuts on a plane. That's what fast acting glucose tablets are for!

Well yes, you'd be very silly indeed to treat a hypo with nuts because they'll do fuck all. I want to know why that poster lied and said she needs nuts for hypos (though I have a pretty good idea why).

It's clear to me that most here are only talking about short haul flights. The Asian airlines aren't nut free. (Looking at Qatar and Emirates policies and the Middle Aast doesn't look to be nut free either). If you google you'll find that nut allergies aren't common in many parts of the world. They will not serve nut free food because likely their kitchens aren't nut free. Imagine your meals being peanut satay and sesame noodles.

When you are on a train or bus, you aren't over the mid-Atlantic several hours from a hospital. Epipens buy you a bit of time to get to hospital in time to be intubated. They aren't a magic wand that makes the allergic reaction go away.

The idea that there are peanut vapours causing anaphylaxis is outdated now as I understand it.

That's bullshit. I watched my late uncle start to turn pink and blotchy and his breathing turn raspy because some people at our restaurant table had a peanut sauce, that he did not touch, on their meal. He had to leave because his reaction was heading towards anaphylaxis.

What do you buy for that? Also gluten-free here.

I don't disagree about the request, but I was in a train from Edinburgh to London last weekend which didn't stop for 3 hours.

Well yes, but presumably it could have if necessary.

Not so simple for a plan at 30000ft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

I imagine there is an emergency cord to pull or phone number to ring that links to driver and medical help is expedited to them.

But I don't eat processed or ultra processed food.

@VeryGoodVeryNiceChickenNugget Neither do I as a rule, but sometimes needs must. You choose to make a martyr of yourself because of your principles.

If I had your medical issues I would carry something other than nuts that I could eat should the need arise, and if it has to be something more "processed" than usual so that I didn't kill a fellow passenger from my nut nibbling habit then so be it.

You need to be more pragmatic.

No no @RampantIvy I think you’ll find that @VeryGoodVeryNiceChickenNugget’s preference for not eating UPF’s totally trumps someone’s allergy and that she’d rather risk a hypo than eat something processed. Becsuse she’s brought nuts. They’re uncrushable dontcha know? So she doesn’t have to compromise any of her eating preferences to potentially save a child from serious illness! 🙄

BA are brilliant with my nut allergy DDaughter. Call their accessibility line and they will put a note on file, arrange pre boarding so you can wipe down surfaces and let you choose your seats for free.

They don't serve nuts as an airline, and will make announcements in the cabin

Sorry to be picky but for completeness I’ve C&P’d, with an edit to delete reference to seafood/fish, this extract from BA.com:

“Our in-flight meals do not contain peanuts or peanut products. However, they may be produced at a facility that handles peanuts, therefore we are unable to offer a peanut-free alternative meal.
Peanuts may be used in some airport lounges. Please confirm with lounge staff upon arrival.
…….
Tree nuts Our in-flight meals may contain tree nuts, such as walnuts and cashews. We do not currently offer an alternative meal free of tree nuts.”

I think on the positive side is that there are many people who have nut allergies - and we do hear about it when tragedies happen - so I am taking from that that actual tragic incidents are rare. I have to believe that as DS has a nut allergy and I do worry about him - but I do take reassurance that tragedies from nut allergies are rare compared to the number of people who have them.

I am pleased that some airlines do take this seriously though

Also just going to add about people saying that they aren’t warned in advance. Every time we fly we ask that a special note be put on the booking about nut allergies and every single time the ground crew and flight crew have not been made aware and we need to go through it all again. It’s not the person with the allergies fault that you aren’t warned in advance.

Don't forget her cooler bag intolerance to stop her food going off and her plastic box allergy which will prevent crisps from getting crushed.

In flight they certainly are rare, probably due to the policies most airlines already have in place.

It’s been a while since I had reason to but I think anaphylactic shock is well down the list of common reason for diversions, the most common reason you usually see is chest pains/cardio vascular issues.

@notimagain I was thinking the same. I presume a diversion is v expensive for the airline so that's their worst case scenario. The mark up on peanut products on board is probably high and worth the risk. God knows they are driven by profit rather than passenger convenience so they would ban any product likely to cost them money.

This actually isn’t true.
I flew 12 weeks ago, peanuts for sale on trolley and announcement afterwards to not eat them due to allergy sufferer.
a passenger said “I won’t open them again”

like many places, they’ll tell you what you want to hear.

That’s strange, I don’t think peanuts have been on the trollies, BA mainline at least, for years, the closest I’ve seen recently is bags of dusty pretzels or similar….yum yum…not….😝

Wonder if there had been non standard catering loaded somewhere down route.