Travelling with an Allergykid

Travelling with an Allergy Kid

We were super lucky to be taken away on holiday to Mauritius with my Husband’s entire immediate family. Never mind super lucky, probably more like super spoilt!

Now I am a pretty organised person and the last time we travelled overseas it was with my little one who was dairy allergic and Soy intolerant !! I took a heap of stuff with us last time so that she could actually enjoy herself and we didn’t have to worry about food all the time.

This time it’s my one of my twins who is Gluten intolerant. We did Coeliac blood tests which came back negative but apparently they usually do in younger children. Either way if she does cheat, it doesn’t only affect her stomach, she literally goes grey, gets extremely tired, moody and just generally doesn’t feel well. So all in all the cheating isn’t worth it !!

It’s a long days travelling. It’s a 2 hour flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg with wait at the airport and then a long flight to Mauritius with an hours bus trip from the airport to the resort. This unfortunately usually means you are eating a lot of snacky store bought food whenever you can get your hands on it.

This is obviously not ideal as most snacky foods are all gluten based which means we needed to make alternative arrangements.

Here are a few tips that helped us on our trip :

• AIRLINE FOOD – I started by emailing our Travel consultant or you can contact the airlines directly to ensure that they get a gluten free meal on the aeroplane. Just be careful as my daughters one meal was just a plate of fruit which is not going to fill anyone up for very long.
• SNACKS – We had packed a bag of snacks for all of us to snack on during the course of the day, so this helped fill her up a bit. We included things like :

          – Nuts/Seeds

          – Eskal Gluten free pretzels

          – Trek Gluten free snack bars

          – Baked Glutagon Gluten free banana muffins

          – Dried fruit

          – Futurelife Crunch Gluten free cereal

          – Woolworths Gluten free biscuits

          – Apples

• ENTERTAINMENT ON THE FLIGHT – Each of our kids get a backpack of snack and goodies to keep them entertained. I am super organised but I have three kids so I don’t have time to put all these Pinterest crafty ideas together, which means it needs to be quick and convenient…..hee hee !!!  My twins are 10 and my little one is 7 and this is what their backpacks contained :

          – Book to read (or three for my Abi who reads like crazy)

          – I print free colouring pages, word searches, blockword puzzles so that they don’t

              have to take a whole book of each with them. We put them in a Flipfile so that

              it’s all kept together and they have something to press on.

          – Some pencils, colouring pens etc

          – A journal to write/draw in

          – Cards (Uno, Top Trumps, Rummy) so everyone can play

          – Electronic devices of course.

          – We play games like noughts & crosses, hangman, I Spy with my little eye, Catagories.

             Here is a fab link with Pen & Paper games with free printables:

             http://www.todaysparent.com/family/activities/pencil-and-paper-games/image/8/

• EAR ACHE – All three of my girls suffer with Hayfever and genetically have narrow Eustachian tubes in their ears. All three of them have had sinus wash outs, grommets etc along the way which means they always struggle with their ears mostly on the flight decent. We gave tried all of these usual tricks :

         – Chewing sweets

         – Yawning (pretending to yawn)

         – Blocking your nose and blowing gently

         – Over the counter Pain killers

         – Paper cups with paper towels that have been soaked in very hot water, shoved at the

            bottom and placed over each ear. It sounds strange and looks even stranger but for

            some reason this did actually help a bit.

Our best trick which so far has worked the best is we bought a Decongestant syrup and nose spray and gave it to them an hour before we were scheduled to land. We just bought Sinuclear and Illiadin and this combination worked like magic !!! No sore ears or tears !!!

• Medical supplies – Yes I am THAT MOM !! I always have First Aid Kit with me where ever I go, which means I travel with a BIG bag of goodies when I travel overseas. Everyone’s kit will differ but my suggestion is to make sure you double check the amount left in your Asthma pumps, antihistamines, check expiry dates on Epipens etc and get a second one if need be as you don’t want to run out while you are away.

My theory is if I am prepared, nothing will happen which is usually the case. I took everything on my list except an antihistamine syrup for some very strange reason and guess what? Both my big girls were bitten by some little bug that caused them to be covered in what looked like mosquito bites on steroids! The antihistamine cream helped for a short while, but the itchiness was driving them crazy so I had to take them to the Resort Nurse so that I could get an antihistamine tablet for them. Thankfully they only needed one.  This is what I would usually take with me :

– Antibiotic – (I phoned my GP and requested a prescription)

– Antihistamine cream

– Antihistamine syrup

– Neurofen

– Panado

-Thermometer

– Plasters (water proof especially if you are going to be swimming)

– Rehydrate

– Imodium

– Zofer dissolvable tabs (for nausea – you will require a prescription)

RESORT FOOD….Eeeeeeekk !!! We were going to be at the resort for 8 days. There was no way I could take enough gluten free alternatives with me for that long a period.  I emailed the general Clubmed email info address to notify them of our arrival date and length of our stay and that our one daughter was Gluten free.

I had no intention on insisting on gluten free options, but I wanted to inform them that I would be bringing some gluten free pasta and bread along with me and that I may request one or two foods to be cooked separately for Abi. They replied with the Head chefs email address, how amazing is that! Initially I felt a bit silly emailing him but then I thought, why shouldn’t I? My child has as much right as any other child in that resort to have an amazing time. So I SPOKE UP! I emailed the Chef, introduced myself and what our concerns were. He was unbelievably accommodating and emailed me back to stay that he did stock gluten free products and would assist us in any way he could.

I made a point of introducing myself to him when we arrived and the rest as they say is history. He made Abi gluten free pancakes for breakfast every morning, they baked her bread and muffins and if I had any requests I would give it to them in the morning. I asked for gluten free spaghetti and even pizza which they made happily !!! I had one very happy little girl who had a fantastic holiday !!!

Another tip is to make sure you know where the nearest hospital is and how you will get there in case of an emergency. Notify the hotel, resort or where ever you are staying of your allergies and make sure that there is either someone on duty all night at reception or that you have the relevant emergency numbers on hand.

Last but not least, ensure that your child is wearing their Allergy Awareness wristband especially if they are going to something like KidsClub like we did at Clubmed.

If you have any other awesome tips or tricks, please share them on our facebook page or drop us a mail at bonnie@allergykids.co.za or Chantal@allergykids.co.za.

Chat soon