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When it comes to food allergies, there is (literally) no room for error. Food allergies are life threatening and can manifest in many forms from hives, to swollen lips, vomiting, diarrhea, anaphylaxis and more. The risk of accidental ingestion, cross-contamination, or sadly for some, simply inhaling the allergen, is real; especially when you’re traveling and completely out of control of the environment you’re in. Because we’ve been living with Leo’s food allergies for 11 years, we understand what we need in order to have a trip that is as safe as possible while traveling. Before we jump into the items we feel are essential for traveling with food allergies, we want to give you a quick background on Leo.
Leo’s first anaphylactic reaction was at 8 months old to a homemade muffin. We literally had no idea what he was allergic too since there were so many ingredients in that muffin. From there, we began to see more and more reactions, realizing he had severe food allergies. By the time Leo was 7 years old, we found a new doctor who could help us manage Leo’s allergies better. He had been scratch tested many times prior to us establishing this doctor, but our first visit with the new office resulted in 76 scratches on Leo’s back to determine every possible allergen.
By the grace of God, we’ve been able to use certain doctor-monitored medical techniques to help Leo eliminate some of his allergens, and therefore, some of our stress. But Leo is still allergic to a few things, peanuts included. In fact, his peanut allergy is so severe that the tiniest trace amount of cross-contamination can send Leo into anaphylaxis and in need of an Epi-Pen, Benadryl, and prayer. The severeness of this particular allergy causes high stress amongst all of us and makes it a challenge to eat out and travel. But we choose to not live in fear, and instead live by the Word of the Lord, as well as the knowledge of what we can do to protect our son from potential reaction-causing scenarios.
Epi Pens, Benadryl, & a Special Carry Case
No matter where we go, even if it’s the beach, we always bring Leo’s Epi-Pens (2) and Benadryl. We also have a special case for them so it’s easy to grab and go and there is no need to “pack” them individually. While you can purchase specific Epi-Pen carrying cases on Amazon, we prefer using smaller pencil cases simply because our bottle of Benadryl tablets doesn’t fit in an Epi-Pen case. But if you have blister packaging for your Benadryl, an Epi-Pen case from Amazon works great. We recommend putting your child’s name, date of birth, their list of allergies, and emergency contact information in the case as well for the off chance you’re not with them and another adult needs to get ahold of you.
Cleaning Wipes
Travel size cleaning wipes are essential to pack when you’re traveling with someone who has food allergies. Having the ability to ensure a surface is clean from any potential allergens at a hotel, on an airplane, on a cruise ship, or even in a rental car is a huge stress-reliever. While cleaning wipes don’t guarantee complete, 100% cleanliness that wiping something down with a spray and a rag does, it cleans surfaces and crevices well enough that there shouldn’t be any cross-contamination issues. We never know if the person who sat in Leo’s (or any of our) airplane seat on the previous flight was eating peanuts, a peanut butter sandwich, peanut butter crackers, or even a peanut butter protein bar. And while airlines do clean airplanes in between flights, we cannot personally rely on the complete relief of any peanut products in the area of the plane we will be.
P.S. Check out these disposable airline tray table covers to take the cleanliness and safety one step further for air travel with food allergies!
Hand Wipes
Just like cleaning wipes are important to wipe down surfaces before Leo uses them to eat, put items he regularly touches (like his Kindle), etc., it’s just as important to have something on hand to clean his hands before he eats anything. Just like any other kid (or adult), it’s normal to touch surfaces like escalator handrails, elevator buttons, door handles, arm rests, and just about any other surface within reach. Because of that, we always make him wash his hands before he eats anything. He’s not allowed to touch his food before he eats, and he’s very used to it at this point. But if a bathroom is not available, we need to access something that will allow him to clean his hands before eating. Hand wipes are the perfect option, and these travel ones make them easy to pack!
Lunch Box
Whenever we travel, we always pack a lunchbox for the plane ride or road trip. And the benefit of bringing the lunchbox on the trip is that you’ll have it to pack for your daily excursions. You can find lunch boxes that don’t take up much room in your suitcase or carry-on bag, but will be a lifesaver when you need to pack food for the day for those “just in case” scenarios when you might not be able to find a restaurant safe for your loved one to eat at. Trust us, it’s happened to us more than once and we are always glad we took up extra room packing a lunch box for easy food transport!
Easy Snacks
What good is a lunchbox if you don’t have snacks to put inside of it? We always, always pack snacks and food on trips. If we know we can purchase food wherever we go, we wait to buy the majority of it whenever we reach our destination. But if we are unsure, we pack quite a bit to make sure our boy has enough food to fill him up and not feel totally left out from eating with the rest of the family. Things that we pack for flights, outings, and excursions include crackers, chips, beef sticks, raisin packs, bananas, mandarins, apple slices, applesauce, seaweed packs, fig bars, dry cereal, and carrots.
Sick Bag
Unfortunately, we’ve had enough throwing up instances between Leo’s allergic reactions and Gabe’s motion sickness that we always have sick bags on hand. Our secret tip is to snag a few from the airline seats. We do this often enough that Leo and Gabe always take one when we leave the plane. But we cannot tell you how many times we’ve used them. And trust me, they are better than a plastic grocery bag! If you need to use a sick bag for any reason, the ones from the planes close up and are usually sealed on the bottom so nothing will come through. We know it sounds weird, but we promise you won’t regret having one or two on hand. In fact, we keep one in each vehicle (for Gabe) and one or two in our carry-ons.
