Travelling to the US with food allergies

[Teapig]

We're going to the US in early October with DD who is 17 months and seriously allergic to milk, egg and sensitive to nuts. It's our first time flying with a little one and frankly I'm bricking it. Especially after the horrible incident in the news a couple of weeks ago where a little girl went into anaphylaxis because someone opened a bag of nuts.

Any tips and advice anyone has on coping with allergies on a plane, abroad or just helping a little one through an 11 hour flight would be fantastic.

One particular concern is that I need to take her milk with us. She has oat milk, not powered formula as she's a toddler now. I have a letter from the allergy nurse and I'm told I should be able to take the milk on the plane if we taste it. Has anyone ever run into any difficulties with taking milk on a plane? I have no idea where to buy dairy-free products in the US and after an 11-hour flight I'm sure she'll want milk after we've landed at some point. Has anyone ever taken milk into the US or know how to try to find out about this? I just want to have enough with us that I don't have an upset little one crying for milk when we're schelping through the airport, getting a car, driving to our hotel etc and have no means of buying oat milk at that time.

Sorry for the mega post, anyone tips would be amazing.
Thanks!

Where are you going in the US? I generally find it pretty easy to find health food stores, and love Trader Joes and Whole Foods.
Pack a carton of oat milk in your hold luggage, and take one with you on board (plus an empty bottle to decant) and then declare it at security with the letter

have been to USA twice with our allergic son, eggs/nuts/beans/yeast extract/kiwi allergy etc! (not milk though)

we brought own food for son on plane, he did have to sip his liquid antihistamine, so you might need to do same for other food liquids.

get a doctors letter , from GP or allergist, describing medical condition, medical issues and need to take own food.

get extra medical insurance just in case. it cost us about £150 just for our son.

you might want to wipe down the seat and tray, but wipes alone don't do much to remove visable food traces.
I think you can buy seat covers online I think its an American company that some people use for children with allergies. other than that you could spread a blanket down. my son was 10 when we went so much older than your child.

medication, get extra autoinjectors if can from doctors for the flight.
split in to 3 separate packs : 1 for me, 1 for son to take on flight and one in suitcase should one go missing. we had about 5-6 on flight

As for food, large supermarkets are best, USA like us has plenty of allergic people and do have free from sections.
Even if you are staying in a hotel, buying food and eating it picnic style is possible and eases the stress of finding 3 safe meals a day iyswim

on our first trip to USA we even took an internal flight with son, and had not problem we stuck to taking our own food and we were all ok. no problems at all.

travel is totally possible with food allergies, and with lots of preplanning is worth doing to raise your confidence and eventually your child as they grow older.

please ask any more questions and I will do my best to help.

Babiecakes, that's a good idea re asking the airline to make an announcement about nuts, I'll definitely do that. We are snookeres with her biggest allergies - dairy and egg - bu t we'll just try to avoid any possible contact.

CMOTDribbler, we're going to California. I'll check to see whether there's a Trader Joes and Wholefoods. I'll definitely look into declaring oatmilk at customs, I just want some to tide us over.

If you are going to California there will be non dairy as that's the epicentre of the non dairy revolution. Trader Joe's were started in California...

eragon, such a good point about increased medical insurance, I hadn't thought about it. Thanks for the tips on seat covers too. DD won't have her own seat but she will use a skycot to sleep and I'll bring a blanket for that. It all seems quite scary as we haven't dome this before but I'm sure it will be ok. Thanks for the advice!

We always take some sandwiches and snacks for the flight for DS, and enough milk for the flight (2 of his cups) - we were in Florida last year and my DS is highly allergy to egg - the main thing we noticed that was different from here in the UK was a lot of the supermarket bread contained "egg wash" it wasn't impossible to find ones that didnt but many did.

The US caters really well for allergies in general as they are so common. We often had the chef come out to talk to us in restaurants after we explained to the server about the allergies.

I recently flew in the evening with my 2 year old who is on lactose free milk and i was told he was too old to take milk through security, i explained it was lactose free milk and they were totally fine after that.

Thanks pashmina, that's good to know. I will check the bread very carefully.

Been to California with our child at around age 1 with the same set of allergies. As a PP has said, it's easy getting free from stuff there, all the big supermarkets have tons of options. Certainly more dairy free products than the standard UK supermarket. We went to the local Albertsons in LA. Most of it was soy and coconut based though, don't recall seeing Oatly there.

Eating out wasn't too difficult as the servers and chefs seemed very on the ball with allergies but we brought a hot food flask along and self catered so always had back up food for him in case there was nothing suitable. Only really had to let him have our own food when friends wanted to meet up in a Chinese restaurant.

We brought smaller cartons of soya milk and DH had to taste one but no problems getting through, packed the rest in check in luggage. Also brought our own food for the flights and wiped things down. We had an absolutely brilliant time, hope you do too!

Thanks rum, that's really good to hear. For the milk you took in your luggage did you declare that and did you run into any issues there?

I'm getting quite worried about the whole thing, I remember we're there to have fun.

Where in CA? Trader Joes is pretty common there, and I know where at least one Whole Foods and vegan restaurant are in San Fran (Palo Alto area).

CMOT, we'll be in Thousand Oaks and then San Diego. I googled after you mentioned Trader Joes and Whole Foods and they are both within a 10 min drive of our hotel in TO so that's perfect. Thanks for the tip!

Excellent! Have a lovely time in San Diego - its one of my favourite places to visit on the west coast

I would recheck with the airline re your DDs suitability to use the skycot because she may not actually be able to fit into it.

CMOTDibbler, I've never been to SD and interested in any recommendations you have. Do you have experience at ordering allergy-free food in the US? DD often ends up with jacket and potato with baked beans here if we order her something, it would be lovely if she can eat out at least a few times.

Attila, excellent point I will double check the Sky Cot.

I'm gluten free, and travel a lot for work, so I've done a lot of ordering! I usually do a bit of research beforehand to see where the local allergy community recommend. I speak to the waiting staff, and most non chain places are very helpful and will work with me.
The fish is v good, and I've had some epic sushi in SD

I didn't declare the milk. Didn't even realise I would need to! I doubt it would be a problem though for personal consumption even if you declared it.

Sprouts is also good for foods. I always stock up on foods from the US that I can't get here. I stopped taking my son's soya milk on the planes when I thought it through it was only 12 hours. I did pack a small one so that we had something on arrival and bought everything once arrived.

Thanks all, really helpful advice. I'm starting to look forward to it now.

I don't know how you do it but I have heard of some people reserving milk in boots airside at the airport. So you go through all the checks that would confiscate liquid and then do like a click and collect from the boots in the departure lounge - would that be worth investigating?