Child with a serious food allergy on a long haul flight . . . advice and experiences please!

[BalloonSlayer]

DS1 is nearly 9, and due to his allergies to milk, egg and nuts (as well as my aversion to flying and the horror of flying long distance with young children) we have not flown to see my sister in Australia since he was a baby.

DH is fed up with this, and I have finally decided that he is right and I need to stop being so pathetic.

Does anyone have any experience of this? I know airlines do special dietary requirements, but DH is a vegetarian and frequently on planes gets told that the vegetarian food has run out or is not available, so tough. What if that happens to DS's specially ordered food and there is nothing for him? What if they get it wrong?

Can we take food on board for him? I thought this had been banned a couple of years ago due to security scares.

Are some airlines better than others?

Also, while I am on, are there any easy stopovers on the way to Australia? I mean somewhere nice we could stay for 2 days without too much hassle, given that we are not seasoned travellers?

Long haul, it's not too bad. Very occasionally they have forgotten my meal, but are super apologetic and go and find things for me from club/first class to make up for it.

I'm not going to say that the food is good - it ranges from OK to rather yuck (this is mainly as the allergy meal is usually gf/df/ef/sf), but it is there, and only once (and I travel a lot) has it not been gf (my requirement).

Meals on Quantas were better than BA last time I went to Oz.

You can take food with you as long as it isn't liquid/paste, and you'd have to leave leftovers on the plane

I had a bit of a difficult experience last time I went back to NZ, with DS1 aged 3.5 (he has a serious dairy allergy). It won't stop me going again but there are some things I would definitely do differently.

We went with Singapore Airlines, and the person I ordered the flights with in their Paris office was totally useless. She advised getting some particular meal (non-dairy vegetarian I think - I wasn't sure whether it should be this or non-lactose since his allergy is to milk proteins) and then when it came on the first leg it had milk and cheese with it, so I sent it back and eventually they found some instant noodles for him. Second leg I think he slept through most of it and was only awake for b/fast which was ok as it was bread.

On the way back I'd changed the meal order to a lactose-free one, but again on the first leg it had milk. I queried this and was told it was just a mistake but the rest of the meal would be fine - he had one teaspoon of the dessert and said he was having a reaction. Then proceeded to vomit, hives etc so I medicated him but we still had 6 hours of flight left so it was pretty horrible. I went and saw them in Singapore and insisted something be done, so they managed to get him a very very basic meal with no sauces or anything for the next leg and it was ok.

He also had a reaction at a cafe at Auckland airport (where I had ordered a soy hot chocolate for him and explained he was allergic, but they didn't rinse the filter/container properly - never again will I trust a cafe to do anything!), so the whole trip was pretty scary as I was on my own with him.

However... what I would do differently: ask to speak to a very high-up supervisor right from ordering the tickets to make sure of the best possible outcome for the meal, and insist on the seriousness of the allergy and its consequences. I would also ask about taking food with me - I know we can get little packets of ravioli that could just be heated up, for example, which would be ideal. The security restrictions are on liquid rather than food. And obviously make absolutely sure you have all meds easily available.

Re stopovers, personally my preference is just to stop at Singapore airport for about 12 hours and take a room in the hotel in the airport, which has a swimming pool. It gives you a rest in a real bed but without the hassle of having to do tourism etc - not to be negative, but in the midst of those long flights I'm more interested in resting than tourism and would rather do the tourism in a better state.

Personally I'd pack all the food your ds is likely to need on the flight - sandwiches, crisps, snacks that you know are fine with his allergies. As he's so severe, I wouldn' t take chances with airline food at all, just drinks.

An earlier poster is right, as far as I know, in that it's just liquids that are limited (through security, though you can buy airside).

Food often cannot be taken into a country, but you just need to throw away what he hasn't got through on the flight. (Sniffer dogs found the remains of our ham sandwiches, but we'd eaten them all!)

Long haul flights are usually better for pre-booked meals, and I think your dh has been particularly unlucky if he's pre-booked and not had a vegetarian meal available

we flew to America last year with 2 food restricted dds, and are off to Australia this year.

you can look up what airlines will carry, as some foods (like ones in sauces) are restricted.

My dds are gluten and dairy free.

we were able to book a meal for dd1 (can't rmember what the permutation was, as there is no gluten and dairy free option) but it was salmon and rice salad (dd1 was 3, and is autistic, so she didn't go anywhere near it!)

we took loads of stff with us, together with a letter form the doctor saying that dd1 had food issues (due to autism, and due to intolerances)

we will be doing the same again when we fly to Oz this summer.

Lakeland do a really good thermos flask, which keeps things hot (well, warm enough) for up to 7 hours, so that gets you through a good part of the first half. last year (11 hour flight) I took fishfingers and nuggets for the first meal, and home made fish pie for the second. we got through security ok by explaining and offering to taste.

take along a LOT of nutritious filling snacks too. we take Larabars,, but no good for you as contain nuts.

cereal is always an option - you can take along your own rice/soya/oat milk (or whatever you use) as long as you decant into 100ml bottles, although again we took 200ml cartons last year as dd1 would only drink one type of juice formt he carton. Again, we explained, and they took them away and screened them, but we got through ok. you can take as many 100ml bottles as will fit inot your clear plastic bags, and then multiply that by how many people flying... again, this is what I am planning for dd1 this summer.

we are flying ia Honk Kong, with a 4 hour stop, i think. we didn't want to stop for a couple of days precisely due to the food issues - would rather plan for the flight times (23 hours in total, so really only need 3 meals plus snacks) and then get to Australia and sort out our food form there, rather than having to run around finding food at stopovers.

will have a think, and see if I can remember what else I did/took

I have read a bad story from an adult who flew Qantas. Their "nut free" meal was mistakenly given to someone else. The staff were happy to let him starve until he made a great fuss and got someone to fetch fruit from first class. Their attitiude to allergy is basically take your own food.

BA are possibly the best, they carried another nut allergic person who reacted on a flight when the (American) airline she'd been on refused to let her back on board.

I suggest making your own flapjack with stork instead of butter. Take pepperami if he will eat them, Kinnerton free from chocolate if he'll eat dark chocolate and bananas (but you can't take uneaten ones into Australia). The ban on liquids is being lifted, you may be able to take some on board. Good luck.

Gosh thanks for the responses everyone.

Not as encouraging as I had hoped, but I am glad to have heard the truth I suppose.

DS1 is such a good eater, best in the family. I hate the thought of the oher four of us being served steaming hot meals while he's stuck with sandwiches. Although DH has volunteered to have sandwiches with him to keep him company, and DD will probably refuse to eat airline food anyway.

I have to comfort myself with thinking that DS1 will be in his element with the meat-and-potatoes Australian diet.

we have flown to USA , took our own food for the flight.
we did inform them of the allergy situation, but didnt expect much response.

childs on flight meal arrived, and of course nothing was safe, we didnt expect it too, just wanted to have the chance to look at it!

allergic child was happy to eat own safe food, with plenty of his own treats.

it was no problem.

we did the same on the way back, by simply going to a supermarket and packing a selection of safe food for the flight.

best to be warned so you have your letters ready for their medication (I've never had to show one) and your child doesn't starve.

On a flight to America our baggage was checked both ways, including destroying the lock (which wasn't locked so no need for it).

BalloonSlayer - I suspect we're putting you off. You will note that several of us do fly - even longhaul - despite having severely allergic children. My family are even going to Australia this year, although I really wish I'd read the Qantas story before we'd booked with them. I am going to try and get a steroid prescription for the flight, although we don't normally carry steroids. We decided to stop in Tokyo on the way back as the Japanese don't make much use of nuts in cooking. I am terrified - but have printed out my translations and am reassured that there is a McDonalds near our hotel.

Our insurers don't charge us extra for the allergy, there are few reactions on flights. With care you will probably be fine but you do need to plan ahead.

We fly to Australia most years with my DS aged 13 who is also allergic to eggs, dairy and nuts. He is most allergic to eggs and has an epipen. On the flight I put all his medicines into a clear plastic resealable bag and carry a letter from a doctor explaining that it is essential that has them with him. That has been checked once, in Singapore, just after the no liquid regulations began.
We usually travel Singapore Airlines as we have found them to be the best. I request an egg free dairy free nut free special meal and I phone about a week before departure to double check. They focus very much on the nuts and ask if we need the flight to be nut free. This is because on most of their flights, peanuts are distributed with drinks. My son's main problem is eggs and we have been on flights where nuts have been handed out ...fortunately my son was fine, though the first time this happened I was travelling alone and gave him piriton as a precaution. They make a special announcement if there is a peanut allergic person on the plane!!
I always carry food in a cold bag on the flight. Jam sandwiches, breakfast cereal, crisps, sultanas, grapes. None of these can be taken into Australia if not eaten and must be disposed of in special bins. If you take a small tin of tuna or sweetcorn, that can be declared and allowed in. We have done the flight about 9 times and so far all has gone well (touch wood!!). We avoid eating at the airport apart from occasional french fries and have used the swimming pool to refresh. We did stay over once in Singapore for 2 nights and DS loved the buffet breakfasts and dinners, but I found it all quite stressful. We are going again this summer. Just be prepared with some emergency food and don't eat anything that looks suspect...eg, bread rolls put on every meal tray, including special trays!!!
Good luck!

MumOfTwoToo - do you know if snack bars or flapjack can be taken into Australia? I was allowed to take snack bars into America on the grounds that they were "candy" (although I couldn't take dried fruit on its own I could in "candy" bars - maybe I just got a kind security man or one with an allergic child!)

Tatt - I don't think that I have asked about cereal bars. I have declared chocolate bars in the past and been allowed to take them through.

You could try an unopened box and declare them on the customs form, understanding that you might lose them. It's always safer to declare as they have sniffer dogs at the airport (in Brisbane) looking for fruit and cheese, and massive fines for anyone caught breaking the law. The dogs have shown great interest in my empty cold bag in the past as they could smell the fruit that had been in it earlier.

The cereal bars for sale in Australia nearly all have milk in them, we have found.

Hi
I've been let down so many times by airlines that I now take meals with me for my DS. As much as you can ...
i would still book the meals before hand, and ask to ensure the cabin crew have their ingredients book with them - do this again at check in and when you get on board. I'm normally told all is well until I'm on the plane and bingo the excuses hit come. You can ask for the airline to stop selling peanuts if he's that allergic - they are ALL happy to do this - just talk to the staff on board.

BTW - all flight crew have epi-pens.

Don't count on anything ... And if they get it right - hurrah!

good luck!

We have flown with BA to the US quite a few times with ds who is allergic to eggs and nuts and has an epipen.

When enquiring about a special meal for him, we had to book a vegan meal. We were told that the flights were nut free (although there is no guarantee that other passengers will not bring nuts on board).

I tend to order a 'fruit plate' for me and a vegan meal for him. This means that he can at least have something healthy if he would not eat the vegan meal (which he would not, of course).

I take sandwiches, biscuits, hot cross buns, chocolate, crisps- basically, anything light and that he likes to eat. I wouldn't bother with a flask but then flying to the States is shorter than to Oz.

Of course, I also had his meds with us on board.

BA did not have a list of ingredients for their meals available on board which I thought was ridiculous. Although some foods were individually packaged with their own ingredients listed.

Have you tried camping in the Lake District?

if you haven't been yet I will post some information that may help.

I am bumping this as we are going in a few weeks < quiver >and I wanted to be able to find it again easily - had to do advance search this time!

well we survived our trip to Australia last year. The staff at the airport (Brisbane) were more concerned with what medication we had than what food we had on us. We didn't have any fresh fruit left but did have snack bars, which we took into Australia. Take chocolate with you as finding dark nut free chocolate in Australia is virtually impossible. Cereal was also a pain, we ate bacon butties every day for breakfast.

Sainsburys have just brought out a new range of "free from" snack bars and at least one type is nut free. It is likely to be milk free but you'll have to check the egg. Has his egg allergy been checked recently as many children do outgrow that one?

Oooh hello tatt, I didn't see your post. Thank you so much for replying.

How interesting that you actually managed to take food into Australia! I thought they were super-strict.

Hope you all had a great time.

DS1 is only "officially" still allergic to nuts. He had a negative skin-prick test to all nuts a few years ago. We got an appointment for a peanut challenge. Arrived with our packet of peanuts and jar of peanut butter. They put peanut butter on his skin under a plaster. While we waited they did a skin prick test for peanut as a double check. It was positive! So challenge was abandoned (although the peanut butter on the skin did nothing). The nurse said that when they are growing out of an allergy a skin prick test can be negative one day and positive the next. Anyhoo - since then funding has been cut and we have not been able to attempt another challenge. We have never been super-vigilant over nuts anyway, we were advised (8 years ago) to take no notice of "may contain traces of" stuff unless he had actually reacted to it, and although I think nowadays that is considered too lax an approach it has worked well for us with ref to egg, milk and nuts.

The egg allergy has been checked recently and it is going down but still there. Milk is the big problem. He got milk knocked over him recently and was quite frightened. I on the other hand was blase as I thought it would do nothing even if a tiny bit did soak through his clothes. But he got a wheal on his hip about 10cm wide - eek!

All that blathering is to explain that we should be ok on the nut front I hope because we don't have to be too vigilant anyway.

I have relaxed a bit knowing we can take food on the plane. TBH DD and DS2 are more likely to cause problems, both being PITAs who only like chicken nuggets.

this sort of thing makes me so cross! The people who die from nut allergy are those who have been told their allergy is "mild" or not to worry about nut traces. Your child is either allergic to nuts or they aren't - did they do a blood test as well as the skin prick test? How positive was the skin prick test? Have they mentioned resensitisation to you? You actually need a food challenge to find out one way or the other.

TBH Tatt I was scared bloody stiff of the nut challenge and relieved when it was abandoned. Even if he passed it I wouldn't let him have nuts, I don't think.

He has never eaten nuts in his life. I think he got his peanut allergy from the cream I used to put on his severe eczema as a baby (as I avoided peanuts) and the allergy to almonds and cashews from the curries I used to eat while pregnant and BF (I checked with the midwife when pregnant with him if I was supposed to avoid all nuts or just peanuts and she said just peanuts). The nut allergies were discovered when doing a general skin prick allergy test after his bad reaction to milk. So I have no idea how bad a reaction would be. Although the wheals were always much smaller than for egg and milk. Hey ho.

I am more irritated that we have to go on treating him as allergic when he probably isn't - but as I say I still wouldn't risk it!

they do the challenges really carefully and it does make life so much easier if they pass. And there is a fair chance they would pass if they've never actually had a reaction (see test information below). But if they pass its actually quite important they do eat nuts. possible improved test

I informed BA of my son's nut allergy and was informed there would be no nuts on the flight.

BOllocks! They gave me almond cake for pudding - lucky I didn't share it with him, having been assured there were no nuts on the flight!

In short, don't trust the airline. They don't really understand how allergies work. Make sure you have enough food you do trust with you.