12 March 2009

Travel and anaphylaxis

Having recently had some dietary restrictions placed upon me, I got to wondering about what you would do if you were travelling and you or your child had severe allergic or anaphylactic reactions to food or environmental stimuli. I have a friend who has a child with life-threatening food allergies. I asked her how they do holidays.

She said that they generally go to her parents' place (out of town) or other relatives. They did consider a trip to New Zealand (only a few hours on a plane), but she quickly realised that they couldn't even do that. She pointed out that many airlines still serve peanuts, and there would be a very high chance of there being peanut residue in the seat upholstery. Let alone not knowing what ingredients are present in the airline food - even if they brought their own, because those around would still be consuming it, and that's not even thinking about the food or other allergens available in different holiday destinations.

I had never considered this before. I now have great sympathy for the difficulties that people dealing with such allergies have to overcome in order to do a simple thing like going on holidays. If you have succeeded in holidaying with an anaphylactic, please let us know how to do it!

2 comments:

  1. Hi There,
    My daughter has Anaphylaxis to Nuts and Sesame, and we too are concerned about flying overseas with her because of the threat of peanut residue. We mainly travel within Australia, as we have found that most airlines have forbidden serving Nuts/Peanut Products on board once they know that they have a little allergy sufferer on board. I was so concerned about my awareness to my daughter's food allergies that I created a range of Allergy Awareness Products for children, including Badges, Stickers, T-shirts, Bracelets, Wristbands and more, in bright fun colours and with cute characters that kids love, and create awareness to their allergies and/or medical condition. All my products can be viewed and purchased online at www.starallergyalerts.com.au. I am based in Adelaide, South Australia.
    We also offer customised Badges in different languages, so that the allergy alert won't be lost in translation! Our products are perfect for travelling and holidays to alert others to the fact that the child has food or medical allergies. Donna Rendell.

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  2. Thanks for letting us know about your products, Donna. I'd say they'd be really helpful for raising awareness, especially the other languages option!

    I'd love to hear more about how travelling with a person with anaphylaxis can work, if you ever have the time. :-)

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