Worried about holiday in France with numerous allergies

[HannahandSeb]

We are off on our hols on Wed to the French alps and it is our first holiday abroad since we found out DS (who is 2) is allergic to tree nuts, peanuts, all dairy, eggs and lentils.

I am a bit concerned as to what we are going to feed him, esp for breakfast and if we are out and about as I have no idea if they sell soya milk there or use milk/eggs in bread.

I'm trying to look forward to it but a bit concerned I'm not going to be able to relax. I've got so used to reading labels over here but can't seem to find any translations of ingredients in French.

Anyone with experience of this? Thanks

hi, I live in the french alps. You should have no problem getting soya milk in any larger supermarket, and baguettes definitely don't contain milk or eggs, only flour water and yeast. Other than that I can't help much, don't have any allergy issues in my family. hth

What translations do you need? Maybe we can help?

The one to look out for is butter ime, as it is more used than vegetable oil. But you should have no problems finding what you need.

I probably need to know things like lactose, whey powder and any other words for egg that might be used. I'm sure it will be fine when we get there but explaning to people when we eat out might be hard. I have no idea what peanut is in french or even how to say my son is allergic to...
My husband can speak quite good conversational French but I'm not sure if he would be able to explain the severity of his allergies and that we have to carry an epipen, mainly for the milk allergy. I find it hard enough trying to get people to understand in our own language!

Thank so much for your help.

lactose is just lactose. Not sure about whey powder, never came across it in ingredients - usually it says poudre de lait. Peanuts is arachides, in the context of allergies (cacahuetes as peanuts that you eat/peanut butter).

There does seem to be some awareness in France about dietary allergies and in most towns I've been to there is a health food store with most of what you need. I had no trouble when I had to be dairy-free for a year.

I would start out by saying 'mon fils a des allergies alimentaires tres severes' and ask them to tell you exactly what the ingredients are. Ime french restaurants are more willing/able to cooperate than UK ones.

Have a nice holiday!

One tip maybe is to use Google Translate on a list of all the ingredients he's allergic to, I think I did this for someone here a while back. Hang on, I'll try and find it and post the link to it, it was just for dairy probably but it's a start...

OK, here's the link: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/29/379554?fm=7730399#7730399

I'm more than happy to help if you need any other ingredients translated, I need to get into practice myself, we're going to France in August and DS has pretty much the same allergies (except lentil) - I'm excited and a nervous wreck all at the same time!

Allergies are fairly well catered for in France, at least in Paris where I used to live. There were sectionsin the supermarket for wheat-free stuff.

Normal bread (baguette) won't have eggs or milk in it. If you buy bread at a boulangerie it will be baked on the premises and you can check with the baker (if you speak French or find someone to interpret) which bread products do and do not contain dairy/eggs.

If you eat in proper restaurants, they will normally be happy to prepare simple food that is on the menu to your requirements ie omitting sauces, butter etc.