Kids with allergies, holiday destinations you can trust…insurance etc..

Eldest (3.5yrs) has a severe ‘pea’ allergy we would really like to go on holiday somewhere relative close by and cheap, like majorica, but are really worried about hotels abroad and ability to deal with an allergy (and to complicate it, one not on the official allergen list).

You’d think pea would be relatively straightforward, but they bugger about with food and it can be found as pea flour in things like sausages and burgers and in particular veggie or gluten free stuff.

So first order is find a place, probably all inclusive, which we can trust prepares food correctly. Second order is promixity / quality of health care and third order is insurance providers / cost.

If we can’t do all inclusive we may have to do self catering but that is as much of a break for wifey, plus we will still have to rely on local food being properly labelled.

Anyone have a little one with allergies and go abroad on holiday? If you’ve been somewhere that was great please let me know!

I’d suggest the best place to start might be a forum / Facebook page etc for parents of children with the same allergy? I am sure there must be a support group out there somewhere???

If you went self catering, you could do some of the cooking to give wifey a bit of a break. Sounds like she needs it…..

yes wife is on there, but for some reason, despite my suggestion, doesn’t appear to want to actually post on it, I am not entirely sure why not. I suppose I could always go on there, but it’s currently ‘her’ thing and I don’t want be too pushy about it – hence me asking here!

Interested in this thread as my lad has a number of allergies, pea included, and we’re currently wrestling with destinations.

Previously we’ve always done self catering cottages in the UK, s8mply because we have complete control then, but we’d like to go abroad this year.

I’d personally ruled out all inclusive, as it’s bad enough getting a single restaurant to tell you what’s in their food, but an entire resort? Too much risk, especially in a foreign language as well.

Probably look for a self catering villa somewhere where I speak enough of the lingo to be able to read packets in supermarkets, so that’ll be Spain, Portugal, France or Germany, and just not eat out.

Probably have hassle getting his Epipens through the airport as well. Might just stick with UK again.

Probably have hassle getting his Epipens through the airport as well

never had a query (now ‘teen antigee nuts allergy) plus has another medical condition/emergency medication and has proper syringes – never had a query – guess operators are trained to ignore

inflight food is a no no though

We’ve been looking at trying to getting reassurances from the big package deal providers like Tui if they cover it, but not really great answers so far, and you pay a premium for them.

I think we will most likely end up in the uk again, possibly a flight as he is desperate to go on a plane. Maybe channel islands.

It is really quite stressful trying to organise something which should infact be the opposite. Luckily since he has been diagnosed a year ago we have had no more hospital trips, it took 3 ambulance rides / a&e visits till it was worked out what was going on. But we are absolutely on it with checking everything – because you have to be.

Allergy clinic says it seems to be becoming much more common, but they don’t know why. Especially the pea allergy which used to be extremely rare.

And Epipens are a nightmare, we still can’t source replacements for our out of date ones

My eldest daughter has had a severe Gluten intolerance (not Coeliac-but same symptoms) since birth.
My Wife also has a severe allergy to aubergine.
We’ve found Italy to be surprisingly good for food allergies – went to Sorrento last Easter and almost every restaurant had gluten free options – one even had a segregated kitchen.

Although we holiday in France quite a lot, we’ve found France to be pretty poor regarding allergies in general, although the supermarkets are getting better.

If i were you i’d go self catering, and research restaurants before you go.
The suggestion above re- Facebook group for your particular issue is a good one.

Allergy clinic says it seems to be becoming much more common, but they don’t know why. Especially the pea allergy which used to be extremely rare.

Is it just peas, or all legumes? My lad is all legumes.

And Epipens are a nightmare, we still can’t source replacements for our out of date ones

Same problem here. We’ve got a repeat prescription for them, but often the pharmacies simply don’t have them. We have to have three as well, two for school and one for home, and they seem to go out of date in seconds. We’ve just got into the habit of keeping a close eye on the dates, and a month before we start looking for a pharmacy who has stock.

His is specifically peas, but we’ve been told to avoid introducing him to legumes as when he was retested his reaction had got more severe to peas. I had some stupid idea that it might have gone away / got better, and it actually got worse…

I think he has had peanut before, but basically out of safety we screen it out

We have a repeat prescription too, but all the pharmacies seem to be out of stock whenever we check

Thanks for the suggestion of Sorrento – will take a look.

Do you guys find travel insurance an issue?

As said above Italy is generally very accommodating of strange food requests (and the food is much better generally than in France! GF is vegetarian and France was shit for eating out). Wouldn’t restrict it too Sorrento.

We went to Majorca for a number of years to the same hotel due to the fact they were great with an egg allergy. Search for Lagotel Playa De Muro.

If you put the effort into the following it will pay off:

– Learn the local language for severe allergy and the food
– Take a card with you that details the condition and the severity
– Make friends with the staff
– Get the little one to show the card with the info. Most staff will love the attention and take them under their wing.

All inclusive is actually really good as you will build up a relationship/trust with the staff and avoid the stress of doing it every night at a different restaurant.

These worked for us in Turkey as well where language is more of an issue but having some basic phrases and just giving it a try will really help.

And there is a local hospital about 500m from that hotel.