Best country to travel to with a child that has multiple severe allergies?

[MyVIsForVendetta]

Never taken them abroad before!

Anaphylactic to dairy, egg, nuts and shellfish.

I haven’t been brave enough before and unsure whether I am now.

I know an English speaking country would be good - Ireland, wales, America etc but would rather something more along the lines of Spain or Greece or the like.

i have no idea where to start.

If it was “just” nuts or “just” dairy I think I would have more confidence but I’m not sure.

Any experiences?

thank you!

Italy. Probably better in cities like Rome - saw a lot of detailed allergy menus there, before they were common in the UK and was really impressed.

Used to tourists and apparently there is a lot of coeliac in Italy so also used to allergies.

The key thing really is language and infrastructure. Can you afford to take risks with language, potentially not understanding an allergen? And does the country's infrastructure provide regulations to strictly govern food health and safety and the infrastructure to handle a sudden acute emegrency?

How about finding a self catering somewhere like malta or Cyprus?

Bump.
For anyone with experience of taking a kid abroad.

😊

DS has multiple food allergies. Although non ige so not as immediately serious, he is very sensitive so we have to be careful about cross contamination and any reactions would wipe out the rest of the holiday. Dairy and eggs are among them, so I do have experience of those abroad.

We do self catering, and have only been to a country where I speak the language. The supermarkets there have a fairly big free from section, and the allergen information is usually printed in multiple languages including English. The labelling is an EU requirement so should be fine anywhere in Europe. The only 'meals' out we do are coffee and cake where I take along suitable free from biscuits for DS. Restaurant menus are actually better than the UK at labelling allergens, with it all being labeled as standard. However, it's tricky as a visitor to get a sense of which restaurants are known to be good with cross contamination and which ones are less good - so we don't risk it. I'm happy cooking though, so it's not a make or break thing for me.

If you are looking for a more package deal type holiday, it might be worth joining one of the celiac travel groups on Facebook. There are recommendations there for hotels that are good with celiac / other food allergies, I've seen people mention some where the chef has been calling them daily to plan meals for example.

Following with interest.

Baby is currently allergic to all nuts (except almonds), egg, sesame (tahini) and soya. Looking at a map that basically excludes from Greece all the way to the Far East 😭!

These are valid concerns. If you follow Adam Fox (the head of allergy at st thomas’) on instagram he gave a good check list for travelling abroad at the start of the summer. Things like

• whats the emergency number (relevant if you have to use an epi pen)
• where the nearest hospital is

I’d go so far as having emergency phrases already translated:

I would be very very careful about eating in foreign countries. There was a girl that died in Morocco and her mother was fluent in the language and they still didn't understand/take it seriously metro.co.uk/2024/08/06/promising-student-died-holiday-mum-reaction-chicken-chips-21368702/amp/

Spain had allergy information available (all eu countries should as it's a requirement). I would avoid France because they tend to be inflexible on menus traditionally though are getting better. Germany tends to have good and simple menus

The allergy code numbers are eu wide i should add.

This is our life. Sadly, we only ever go to countries where we speak the language very well, and can access an A&E/ER location quickly. And we take all the epipens and steroids.

Not airborne though, right? Because then you have the plane issue.

Bottom line us you can control what you eat and maybe go self-catering but when other ppl around affect you, it’s beyond your control. I have always felt sorry for those with severe perfume allergies too.

DD has a nut allergy. We’ve visited France, Italy, Spain and Portugal so far with her.

Italian city restaurants seemed very set up for allergies, lots of detail on the menus (in several languages) and they asked about allergies when taking our order.

France was good for self catering, local supermarkets had whole allergy aware aisles, which I was surprised about given we were staying in a fairly rural area.

Spain and Portugal we managed but not such a choice of food, things were well labelled in supermarkets but eating out a bit harder. Spain was slightly better for eating out. Staff were very helpful but didn’t seem quite so used to allergies.

Hardest thing I’ve found was bringing enough food for the airport/flight back home. I have now learnt to take Tupperware on all holidays with us!

My cousin has severe allergies and has been to Germany and Spain without issues. He made sure he learnt the words for his allergies though ie rape seed oil

Would what you eat affect your son?
If not
would self catering mean you could prepare safe meals for your child to eat whilst you are at restaurant?

I would have thought that few restaurants would object to a child eating a packed lunch/dinner whilst parents eat from the menu.

As far as hotels, I would avoid buffets because even though they have free from sections that relies on other customers not cross contaminating food. Cruises do tend to have excellent allergy set ups, larger ships especially have medical facilities on board, but no idea about the combination of allergies

Interestingly Air France are the only airline I’ve come across that do a “low allergy” in flight meal. No nuts, gluten, dairy etc.

most other airlines do the usual gluten free, vegetarian, dairy free, nut free meals. Which is no use to a child with a gluten and dairy allergy.

I'd start with pricing the best travel insurance.

Cyprus, because of its history with Britain, means that the language barrier isn't the same as in other places.

https://theallergyteam.com/travelling-with-food-allergies/#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20Mediterranean%20countries%20like,to%20Portugal%2C%20France%20and%20Italy.

Both my DC have anaphylactic allergies.

I would say Spain's probably the easiest country we've been to in terms of dealing with allergies.

The food is pretty straightforward, it tends to not have fancy sauces so easy to find some thing on the menu for the kids to eat. The allergen labelling is very good too.

Greece comes a close second.

Italy was fucking awful. Many times the restaurants point blank refused to serve the kids any food.

Denmark was ok, although we tended to find it harder to read the menus than other countries. The ambulance and hospital service were amazing though, not that you'd want to experience that part. 🙄

My DC have allergies to milk, eggs,nuts and sesame btw.

Scandinavian.
English is spoken and healthcare is good.

We've found going to all inclusives in Greece and Portugal less stressful than eating out in different restaurants.

They never let the kids take food from the buffet, they have been assigned a waiter and they tell them what food from the buffet they would like and it has been cooked separately for them.

kosher meat restaurants might be good options for someone who has an allergy to dairy and seafood.

annaliseabrams.medium.com/10-best-kosher-vacation-spots-youll-love-4c3e5237a729

If I was you I wouldn’t go to any country that didn’t speak good English