Advice on travelling with food allergies

[Teapig]

My DD is 1 and has some serious food allergies (anaphlaxic sp? to dairy and egg and a lower level allergy to peanut which means we must avoid all nuts until she has a food challenge) and eczema. We would like to take her on holiday to America this year or next but the thought terrifies me.

Any advice on how to do long-haul travel with food allergies would be great. I have no idea about what to do about food on the flight, do let you take your own? She has oat milk, would we be allowed to take that on despite restrictions on liquids.

And we're on holiday, I am thinking self catering but I don't know how good the labelling is in the US or how easy it is to get hold of dairy-free alternatives like oat milk.

Ideally we'd like to eat out a bit but for some reason that worries me even more than it does when we're here. I guess it's because should the worst happen at least we're on home ground, I know I can call 999 quickly if it came to it.

I don't want my DD to miss out so I could really use some advice on how to make it possible. Any advice is really welcome x

America is fine, labelling is good generally. Where are you going? We went to California where they were really good at accommodating DS with a similar range if allergies to your DD when eating out. We also did self catering and brought a small food flask so I could pack him hot food to take with us in case we couldn't find a suitable restaurant. Certainly no one stopped us feeding him his own food, but I did explain re allergies so I think hey were relieved at not having to cater fit him.

DS had soya milk and we brought small cartons onto the plane but I think you could pre order the larger ones to be picked up at Boots past security. DH had to open one of the cartons and let DS drink it in front of security but they are pretty used to this. Not sure about oat milk though. Make sure you have a letter from the doctor/hospital for the epipen.

I think the US should be pretty good about labelling etc. Almost all the resources I use for cooking for dairy/egg allergic DD2 come from the US. I think a lot of restaurants will be pretty clued in.

We're doing a long-haul flight next year and when we were booking flights we also asked about taking oat milk on board. We were told no for an over 2yo, but under 2s are often an exception, so I'd check directly with wherever you are flying from (and for the way back too).

If you are ordering a meal, most airlines usually have a vegan option - but it usually means it isn't a kids meal. The other option is to order the "fruit only meal" and pack lots of snacks to supplement it. There seems to be standard advice to phone the airline a week before, and then 48 hours before to confirm that the meal choice is noted.

Good luck! Out destination is going to be a bit harder (Japan) but we don't have anaphylaxis to worry about (although reactions are still pretty unpleasant)

DS has a dairy allergy.

We took him to the US last year and didn't find it too difficult.

In terms of the plane, take as many snacks as you can. Virgin 'forgot' to order DS' dairy free meal despite me calling goodness knows how many times to check. They then provided him with a spare vegan meal (curry-he's 4!) and butter which contained whey which they claimed was dairy free- when I pointed out it wasn't they said they used it all the time!

I'd probably take uht oat milk in your case. Large amounts wouldn't be allowed in your hand luggage.

Eating out in the US was brilliant. They chef came out and spoke to us the second we mentioned allergies and always had options for DS.

I know you have egg and nut to contend with but I don't think you'll find it too much of a problem

we travelled to Florida last year with DS who has egg, nut and sesame allergies (anaphylaxis) and it was a breeze, the only thing to watch out for is for some reason a lot of bread contained egg wash, which was a bit annoying as bread isn't something that causes us a problem in the uk - also some things like chicken nuggets in disney had egg too, but again there they prepared a fresh chicken breast for him instead. i think you can sue a restaurant that gives your kid a meal with an allergen you have asked them to avoid so they are super careful - everywhere we went. we self catered too and it was quite easy - we don't have to avoid dairy but there appeared to be plenty of milk alternatives in the supermarkets. you would be able to take enough milk for the flight onboard, and take long life in your suitcase for first day - we took lots of snacks/sandwiches for flight out, flight back was overnight and they slept all of it. there are a lot of children with allergies in the US so its not something unusual over there.

Thanks for the advice and tips.

Buga, we are going to California. It's good to hear that you had a good experience over there. I haven't heard of a food flask, I must get one of those. I hate DD having to always have cold food when we take her food out with us. I hadn't thought of having the milk delivered to Boots at the airport, that's a good idea.

vvviola, that's interesting re the advice from the airlines. I will definitely check with the airline. I don't like the idea of DD having to have a fruit only meal, that seems pretty rough for an 11 hour flight but good to know that some airlines do vegan options. Have fun in Japan!

PickledMoomin (great name, I love Moomins), I usually fly with Virgin and your experience of them catering for allergies doesn't sound good. I have to say it scares the bejesus out of me giving her food that I haven't prepared at 40,000 feet. I will definitely be taking a heap of snacks.

pashmina, that's good to hear. Although we'll do self catering it would be good eat out so great to hear you had such a positive experience of that.

For some reason being off home turf terrifies me when it comes to allergies. I think we just need to do it to see that really it's not this huge issue and no different from managing at home.

We had a thermos food flask but am currently using one of these from aldi which DS prefers.

Whereabouts in Ca are you going to? We found Albertsons a good supermarket for getting free from stuff. They had lots of milk alternatives and other bits and bobs. They may not in a free from aisle specifically but there was more variety than UK supermarkets (though this was a few years ago).