longhaul travel with allergic 2.5 yr old

[TheInvisibleHand]

Just looking for some tips really. Travelling to the US in a week or so with my 2.5 yr old DD who is allergic to dairy, eggs, sesame, peanuts, hazelnuts, pistachios and kiwi. We have a 10 hour flight out there on BA. Will see what they can do for her meals, but assuming they are not reliable. I guess we will try and take at least one cooked meal along with us, as well as sandwiches, snacks etc. Drinks should be OK with what is on board. Has anyone had any trouble with security restrictions and taking lots of own food on board?

I would take all food and snacks with you. They only do meals in certain dietary categories as opposed to catering to individual allergies.

I used to have to order a vegan meal for ds when he had nut and egg allergies (now only nut, thankfully) and a fruit plate for me. He had his pick of what he liked but the choice was uninspiring! The fruit platter could be a problem for you with the kiwi.

If you decide to order any special meals, do so as soon as possible and confirm at checkin. Often they don't turn up.

They never seem to have ingredients lists for each meal either, so you never know what you are getting unless it is individually packaged e.g. cheese, crackers.

Wipe down all hard surfaces with wet wipes as soon as you sit down. Transfer piriton into a smaller bottle to comply with liquid limits (put larger bottle into suitcase - pharmacy were very reluctant o give me anti-histamine when I forgot his piriton and he had a reaction) and keep any epi-pens on you.

We alwasy take a GP's letter confirming the need for an epipen to be with us . No one has ever read it but we have flashed it a few times.
I agree with all daftapeth has said, def take as much food as you can and don't rely on them having anything suitable ,if they have it'll be a bonus.
Confirm your dietary needs by phone and on checking in as well as when you board so they have a heads up who you are.

We have been handed a bowl of nuts for nut allergic ds before so just be careful.

I have never had a problem taking food on board for ds , infact never said anything about it.I usually take fruit and bread though . He is fairly good and sleeps quite a lot.

I would also recommend taking your own blanket for your dd .

Thanks both. That's helpful to know - I was thinking none of the standard meal categories really fit with DDs allergies.

I guess its a long flight so I would need a bit more than fruit and bread for her. Also have a one year old with me who I have to cater for, so we will be laden!

Good tip for the piriton. We do have an epipen, but luckily never had to use it so far. Wouldn't like the first time to be on the plane though.

Thanks also for reminding me to take the letter.

This trip is going to be really awkward generally. We'd normally self cater to avoid allergy trouble, but its for my brother's wedding and it made more sense to stay in the wedding hotel. But feeding DD for the week is going to be a bit of a military operation....

ditto what has already been said. We always take a letter from the GP and a back pack full of food in case of delays and to tide us over until we find somewhere to buy food at the other end. Customs is usually OK if the bags are still sealed. Fruit is usually the major no-no. We've had a few issues with nuts on the nut free fruit platter,a hazelnut chocolate bar, no labeling or labeling we can't read (we usually come through Asia) etc and these seem par for the course so I just don't give him airline food at all now.

I've only had one major problem and fly from NZ to UK and back each year and make other shorter flights (apart from the ). When flying with Cathay Pacific once they tried to take the epi-pen off me and said they would bring it if needed . I stood my ground and they gave in.

there are import restrictions so any food you take may have to be dumped on arrival in America. That is certainly true of fruit and meat but a kind man allowed breakfast type bars (with dried fruit) in on the grounds that were "candy", which is permitted. Epipens are likely to be more of a problem than usual after the recent bombing attempt, that letter may actually get read. Our hold luggage was searched both ways and the locks cut off even though they weren't actually locked.

My experience of BA has been better than any other airline although we only have nut allergy to deal with. They do try to find things for you - they brought us fruit and offered extra cheese, although that wouldn't help you. The food is not what a child may want to eat so taking your own is wise anyway.

We've found most expensive hotels (which I guess it is for a wedding) are pretty good about preparing special food for children.

Thanks again all. All very helpful. And yes, it is a relatively expensive hotel we are staying at so I hope they will be accomodating.

I think most places in the US are quite allergy conscious- not least because of how litigious they are!

We had no problems with ds on the 5 or so occasions we have been there - apart from the time he had a bread roll with egg wash on and that was my fault as we bought it ourselves!

BA are quite goo and are nut free in terms pof food they offer, I think. They also carry epipens onboard which not all carriers do.

We have never carried a letter confirming ds' need of epipens but it's probably a good idea now as suggested (note to self for any future travel).

If you are travelling anywhere disney, they have been one of the best places to visit with an allergic child. Not necessarily in terms of choice (although that is improving) but customer service i.e. they have a folder in each eating establishment that lists all ingredients in each meal or the chef comes out personally to discuss requirements. Was fab!

Have a great trip and hope all goes well.

we have travelled quite a lot with dd1 nad dd2 who are dairy and gluten allergic.

you cannot rely on the airline to cater - they do not have useful food categories, imo, and some of the meal choices are, quite frankly, unintelligible.

book as early as possible, but do not be surprised if what you order either doesn't turn up or is not actually suitable.

take as much as possible with you, as well as a letter from doc stating why you need to take these things on board.

i have managed to travel (to US) taking along far more liquids than normally allowed, due to dd1's ASD (she wuold only drink one type of juice at that point, from a 200ml carton ) and also taking along "wet" foods (airline guidelines usually say take along dry foods, eg sandwiches/snack type foods)

lakeland do an excellent thermos which is widenecked, and keeps food reasonably warm for up to 7 hours. they have saved many a situation for us.

I usually use dd1's handbaggage allowance to pack food for both girls, and dd2's allowance to pack spareclothes/toys etc for both. trunki suitcases are a good size to pack lots of food into, and are also a welcome distraction for children at airprts (and on holiday too!)

Before now, I have taken along for the girls in a thermos:

fish pie
sausages/chicken nuggets
curry
spag bol

as well as the more usual snacks: raisins/dried fruit bars/crackers/fruit

we found the US to be really good at listing what was in various meals, and reasonably good at catering for allergies (Australia was better, which was a surprise to me). we were self catering, which I find easier than stressing abut allergies, but when we did eat out staff were very helpful

can't agree about Australia - annoying nut warnings on everything and about half the people didn't know the meaning of customer service. That includes most Qantas staff (one was lovely though). I'd never want to go back there.

ah, well we don't have to deal with nuts

but I was amazed by the amount of gluten free stuff found in restaurants.

and the willingness to deviate from menus to accomodate dietary issues.

we did have huge issues with Qantas, but apart form one leg of the flight, found the cabin staff to be really helpful, much better than BA staff.

Thanks again all. I was deliberating over a trunki, might go for it. Hadn't occured to me to take a thermos, but that's a good idea.

Maybe double check that a trunki still conforms to the size of bag that is permitted onboard. They did reduce the size allowance for a while after the last scare and lots of previously allowed bags became too big.

We usually take the whole bottle of piriton with us - never had a problem but make sure it has the prescription label on

Just came back from South America flying BA (15 hs) with my 3 year old allergic to nuts. It was the first time we were flying after dicovering his allergy and I was very nervous to be honest. Wouldn't risk taking any food from them as you cannot risk a mistake, even from the nicest and kindest crew. I took GP letters, 2-3 mini Piriton bottles in case, and obviously your Epipens. As our flight was overnight I made sure my son had a big late lunch on the day so was not that hungry in the evening. Took some cooked bits of chicken, pasta, veg sticks, biscuits, fruit etc, bought a pint of milk in the duty free and lots of (in our case) Fab Baking boys flapjacks and cupcakes. Also made an apple cake that was very popular for breakfast.It was great and we had a very calm flight and I have to tell you I was so so so nervous about it. I had read in mumsnet before someone saying not to risk having any plane food and to be honest it was the best bit of advice. You just don't want to be in a plane asking a busy flight attendant what's in the food. My fear was: what if they just make an honest mistake? Just take your own. Once we were there, restaurants were brilliant as most of them are grills so any meat/fish/chicken/veg cooked in the grill was safe to order with no marinades at all. Very plain food where you can see each ingredient and nuts are quite expensive so most restaurants would only have almonds for desserts only and that was it. A few places were simple nut free kitchens. People were very kind and although nut allergies are not common at all there (labelling was not good so did not buy any choc, biscuits, ice creams...), every waiter and chef was absolutely wonderful.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to post - this is all really helpful stuff. I'll try and decant the priton into smaller bottles and maybe also buy some airside (we'll have to pick up formula for DS in any case).

DaftApeth - have double checked the size restrictions against the trunki, still looks OK.

babybarrister - delays are very much in mind, especially in this weather. I think our hand luggage will end up being mostly food.

madre - I fond memories of Argentine grills - that is really easy cuisine for coping with most allergies! Cake is a good idea - DD is keen on mini banana muffins, so will make a stash of those. Our flight is around 12.30pm, landing around 3.30pm local time, so does potentially mean lots of waking hours and feeding...

It is really all the extra security surrounding flights to the US at the moment and what that might mean for what they let us take on board which has me a bit worried.
I spoke to BA today and they really weren't helpful at all about any guidance about what we might be allowed to take through or not. Conversation also confirmed what everyone here has said - none of their meal options is guaranteed to be free of all of her allergens.

Hopefully once there the US should be a relatively understanding place to cope with allergies. At least Denver is my SIL to be's home town, so if things get tricky I am sure we can do some cooking for DD at her family's home.

Good luck -sounds like we all have the same ideas and experiences here - I've always taken my own food (sometimes to forget the whole bag on the side before we left - a lot of crisps were eaten that flight and I was in the dog-house!)
One other thing - I take pill form citirizine with me as an emergency back-up in case of the piriton being removed - it can always be swished about in ribena to disguise it ...
mmm - and bad mummy of the week, I feel a 'just-in-case' back up dose of piriton on the flight is a good thing and helps them sleep ... yep - bad mum!
Have a great holiday - there is no harm in your children living off crisps and squash every now and then,
enjoy!
x

Cetirizine pill is a brilliant idea, and yes, don't forget the whole bag in your hall, almost happened to me too. Crisps, yes!
Have a lot of fun! Another thing is that I took food for the 3 of us (DH, DS and me) as I didn't want to eat plane food next to DS to avoid trouble. When he was asleep we managed to eat some plane food... reg. a "just-in-case" does of Piriton, thought about it too, but read in the A.Campaign site that it was not a good idea as it could hide the beginning of a reaction ... does anyone know about this?

we were also told by consultant best not to give precautionary antibiotic.

Last time we flew I asked our gp for steroids (tablets) as some adults with nut allergy carry them and my child is teenage now. He was happy to prescribe them but he's clueless about allergy and probably trusted to me! If you can phone your consultant might be worth asking about carrying steroids as a precaution.

sorry antihistamine not antibiotic.

We've always carried steroid tablets or drops in case of a reaction and have sometimes given them, although living in France/Luxembourg so maybe they hand them out more easily here!

Thank you all again - I'd never have thought of cetrezine!

Just a quick post to say thanks to all - we made it there and back with no mishaps. Glad (thanks to you all) we were prepared though. Best was our attempt to order room service pasta for DD.

Placing the order: Can we have plain pasta, no topping sauce, or anything as DD has dairy allergy

Waiter: Here are your noodles and cheese

Me: Sorry, she has dairy allergy, can we have them absolutely plain

Waiter, 15 mins later: As you asked for, buttered noodles

Me: She is allergic to milk and milk products, can you just cancel the order (DD fallen asleep at this point)

Waiter: Sorry, sorry. Is there anything else we can get for you, a glass of milk?

???