Aibu to expect an airline to offer allergy friendly food for my almost 2 year old son?

[danishkids]

We will be traveling with Qatar airlines in July. We will be traveling with your 22 month old son who has allergies. To milk egg and almonds. He carries an epi-pen for the milk allergy.

We have been informed that they can only offer baby glass jar food for our son and some apples and bananas. The glass jars he can have (due to his allergies) are age 6-9 months.

He eats the same food as us. We have ask for a child’s meal instead, I have even offered to pay for it. The reply I get is that I should take my own food. However with no microwave or fridge. With 3 flights over 26 hours.

Baby fruit will not sustain him for that long.
I feel Like they are being unreasonable.

FYI you can order allergy meals for adults.

Sorry OP, I did pick up it was too late now. You'll be fine!

I doubt she'll persuade cabin crew to give her an extra meal. Possibly at the end if there is one left over but where is it physically going to go? They only have four trays between them. I'd expect the crew to refuse on that basis.

As a Mum of a child with multiple allergies I think I’d order the allergy meal for myself for my child to eat. Then I’d purchase airport food for me to eat on the journey. That seems the best way to solve it in my opinion.

She can’t order an allergy meal for herself without a doctor’s note. She’s tried.

I think I’ll just do as advised by some lovely people here.

I will take dried things with me... crackers, bread sticks, pasta, some vegetables (for the first part of the journey) and then some other snacks too. Maybe some dried noodles if they are free from dairy and egg.

Maybe a tin of sweetcorn (he loves that)

Quite a few of you have written that I shouldn’t expect more.

Normally I would agree. However when you are promised that they will cater for you. Then you receive a mail stating that they won’t and that they can’t give you the baby food suited to older babies eg, spaghetti bol. (In a jar) . And that the can only offer purees for 6-9 months.

Today my boy ate...
porridge
A banana
An apple
2 slices of rye bread with cold meat
A roll
Some carrot sticks
2 portions of pasta.
A half chicken breast
A large handful of broccoli
And a Cookie (dairy free)

(Somedays he will eat more) he is a very healthy baby, not chubby at all! He just loves food.

Some apple purée won’t do.

So of course I shouldn’t be expectant, but if they state on their website that they cater for infants and try to cater for people with allergies,
They also say that they have an allergy form( which they promised to send but failed to)
The baby jars for his age +12 months is not suitable for him then I think it would be nice that I can then Have the option of buying a child’s meal, adults mean or be offered an alternative.

The problem is, you’re not prepared to pay for a seat for him but you want them to bend over backwards to cater for him.

Order a vegan meal for yourself. It’s highly unlikely that it will contain almonds.

I’m surprised you aren’t planning to use a car seat for your other children, particularly the three year old.

Good luck with taking a tin can of sweetcorn on a plane OP.

The lid would become a leather weapon so I'd be astounded if it was allowed.

^^ lethal not leather! 😂

I am actually willing to pay for any costs of an extra meal.
I was also informed that a child fare would cost around 800 pounds, to upgrade him to his own chair. However apparently there isn’t more room for him. I don’t know if that means the flight is fully booked or if there is no seat near us.

And bending mover backwoods. I’m not asking for gourmet food. Just something to fill his stomach. (They have a non dairy option in the adult menu) which I would have happily paid for.

After all of this o would also have paid for a child’s seat

As for the sweetcorn I never thought of that

OP, why can't you order the non-dairy option for yourself.

I simply don't believe you need a doctors note for that.

Some people choose not to eat dairy but it's nothing to do with any medical condition- it's a lifestyle choice.

Sometimes even an adult allergy meal isn't an option. This from Virgin recently:

In regards to your meal, to ensure the safety of our customers travelling with nut allergies, we need to be 100% sure that we can fulfil a true nut friendly product. Unfortunately, nuts are not declared as an allergen in all the regions we cater in and the list of nuts varies from one region to the next. This makes it impossible to guarantee a nut free production environment and supply chain across all our network caterers. So the decision has been made to stop offering nut free meals.

I have currently added the vegetarian meal for you and it's unlikely that it will contain nuts, but we cannot guarantee this. If this is not suitable, I can look to order a fruit plate for you and/or you can look to bring your own food (Please note: we’re unable to re-heat meals on board).

Basically: this allergy stuff is all far too complicated and messy for us... sort it out yourself please.

Flights are nearly always completely full nowadays. A child fare to the other side of the world is £800. In fact, that’s cheap.

It’s up to you to get his stomach filled. He’s your allergic infant who wow haven’t paid for a ticket for. Take some food and give it to him. It will be fine.

but if they state on their website that they cater for infants

The child development definition of an infant is 1 to 12 months of age. So when they say they cater for infants, they won't mean a 22-month-old. Space is planned down to the last mm on planes, they will be able to carry meals for the number of seats they have. So I can see why they are saying you can't just pay for an extra one for a child with no seat.

I don't think the airline are being unreasonable, but glad you found a solution now.

Perfectly possible to take plenty of food which won't spoil. I've done Sydney-London countless times.

Is it possible to freeze chicken to take on the plane kept in a small cooler bag? For corn you can transfer to either a plastic bag or small plastic container.

Your ds is a toddler, not an infant....
Not sure why everyone is surprised by my suggestion of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I am American...it's a dietary staple here and actually quite handy and healthy. I would avoid anything that's messy when you eat it like sweetcorn. I travelled from London to LA 2 or 3 times a year by myself with my two children starting from when they were infants. As others have said....DO NOT rely on the airline to provide food or entertainment. Do not assume your child will sit quietly in your lap (even if normally they do). Bring a change of clothes and enough nappies for twice the length of the journey. Bring all essentials (medicine, phone charger etc.) in carryon luggage in case your bags get lost (it does happen).

For the corn and chicken, would using a heat sealer work? One of those things that sucks all the air out and seals it shut tight, and then you cut or peel it open later?

When I travelled London - Sydney with my 3-mth and 21-mth old children, we brought lots of snacks (rice-crackers, raisins etc..) and little cans of baked beans (which is the only meal my toddler would eat at the time). Any leftover food won't be allowed into the country.

As a teacher, I also never bring any nuts or nut products on trips (all schools in which I've taught have been 'nut-free' due to the potential for dangerous reaction from those who are highly allergic to them). I'm always a bit when I see nuts in foods in enclosed spaces!

It's also a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way to have a child on your lap (and we were in Business Class so had the bigger chairs/legroom) Don't expect to sleep, OP!

SofiaAmes many people are allergic to peanuts, some are so sensitive that they can react to peanuts without eating or touching them. To take peanut butter into an enclosed environment when you could be seated near someone with a sensitive peanut allergy is irresponsible. My nephew had an unexpected anaphylactic reaction when he was 2, ironically from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Luckily they lived next door to a doctor, even more luckily the doctor had come home for lunch and was able to administer adrenaline until the ambulance arrived. They don't have ambulances on airplanes!

Just take your own food. Plane food is rank unless Business and the child's meal is often random and rank (pancakes with baked beans and a chicken sausage- thanks Cathay). I do long haul with my two fairly regularly and I just accept that nothing nutritious will be eaten in the 16 hours between leaving home and arriving at destination, but it wont kill them to leave on Pringles, jerky, sandwiches and fruit bars for a day.

Agree with others that if you order yourself an allergy meal then he can eat yours and you can eat the Pringles and fruit bars.

Re arm rests going up: I’ve only flown Qatar Airways once and one of the reasons I didn’t like them was that the arm rests only went up about 45 degrees so hard for kids to stretch out. However a friend subsequently told me that all arm rests have a little button underneath that raises them right up for cleaning. If you feel about on the bottom surface of the arm rest and find a hole, you’ll find a button inside. Push that and arm rest goes right up. I’ve managed that on almost all flights since, even aisle seats that normally don’t lift at all.

Good luck.

You presumably wouldn't need a doctors note for an adult vegan meal. You can supplement this with long-shelf-life snacks and a big plate of chips at each airport.

OP I’ve said this before and I will say it again - with those allergies and the fact you need an epipen, I absolutely would not trust the meals on ANY airline. I can’t believe you’d be willing to risk your son’s life rather than just take your own food. This isn’t Europe - and even in Europe mistakes can be made. If he has a reaction on a long flight you are really in trouble. Look at what Virgin wrote above - even they can’t guarantee allergy free meals.

This is mass, cheap catering. It’s not worth the risk.

And i would say that there is a high chance of almonds on the vegan meal. This is the Middle East, they love a nut.