translation card moral issue, are we wrong to do this?

[eragon]

have ordered some translation cards to use when we go on hols.
my son has the full set ,the restaurant card, asking for medical help, etc.

we have also got a resturant card for my daughter.

the problem is that the card explains about life threatening food allergy, and truthfully only my son has a few of those, however my daughter only has two severe food intol. but it is NOT life threatening.
Others with food intol tell me that they use these cards, and i am not that comfortable with this idea.
our life is hard enough with getting across that idea that life threatening allergies are real, how can we lie ?

this can hardly be helping us in the long term to get this message across can it?

Why does it matter? As long as the restaurant doesn't give your child the food she has the intolerance to, I would care if they thought it was an allergy.

If I understand what you're saying correctly - it is hard enough to get others to take allergies seriously when people deliberately overstate the reaction they might have to certain foods, and you are not comfortable with being one of those people? - I am in agreement with you 100%. However I think for me, I might be inclined to look at it differently in a foreign country, where I am not necessarily able to get myself understood in the way I am at home, where I am not familiar with the medical/hospital system, and where I don't know how clued up the general public are about allergies in the first place.

I think in that sort of situation I would be prepared to uphold a bit of a double standard in order that I could enjoy my holiday with the least amount of stress possible. You may not agree, but tbh at the end of the day my priority is my ds and if that means I have to overstate his allergies a bit in order to keep him safe that's what I am willing to do. In this country, yes, I would certainly try to avoid going over the top about a possible reaction but then I am much more in my comfort zone here.

Anyway, all of this is theoretical as I don't even have the nerves to get on a plane with ds right now! You are obviously far more brave than I am

Where are you off to, if you don't mind me asking?

There are companies which produce cards where you have a choice of 'my child has serious allergies to...' and 'my child is intolerant to...'. However, in your position I'd be concerned that they may mix up which child is which and may not be careful enough over the child which has the serious allergies.

That's not a risk I think anyone with an allergic child would be willing to take.

In other circumstances where someone has a child with intolerances and no other children with allergies, I think they should get the less severely worded card.

Just reread my post and realised it's all about me rather than anything to do with your own dilemma. Self-absorbed? Me?

So, I'll go again:

What likeaninjanow said

Thanks for your opinons,

daughter is going on a sch trip to germany, but i have supplied enough food for her and although she feels sick for a day, and has an itchy throat, thats as far as her intolerence goes.

as a family of 6 we are going to france, and some of it is self catering, but we will be eating out quite a lot.

we have used the cards for our son with the severe allergies and they really work quite well.
when son was about 3 one waitress did go pale and say 'la morte' in shocked tones, and i was glad that son didnt understand at the time!

we have been to spain , italy france and usa. Have had a few minor problems, but in consideration this country is still the one we have more problems in. A restuarant refused to allow us to step in the door once.
Another refused to serve him , but said the rest of us could eat, he was about 6 at the time. I ran to macdonalds and let him eat that, the waitress was shocked and asked us to put the food on the plate, I refused and said i was more than happy to advertise macdonalds in pizza hut!

local small resturants are more helpful and go that extra mile, and the same can be said of those abroad.