7 Simple Tips for Less-Stress Food Allergy Travel With Kids

Traveling with Food Allergies Doesn’t Have to be Stressful

Our family loves to travel. We enjoy it so much that we have a canvas map mounted on our family room wall with pins of the places we have been, upcoming trips and places we hope to go next. After we found out our oldest had food allergies we were quite concerned how and if we would be able to find a way to travel again and keep him safe from having an allergic reaction or anaphylaxis. Traveling with littles ones was stressful enough, so how exactly did families with children with food allergies manage it all while being away from home?

Now our travel may have looked differently over the last few years, since having children and learning about my son’s food allergy diagnosis, but we have learned to adapt and mostly, have limited our concerns. The first few trips can be intimidating, but after getting the hang of it, traveling with a food allergy doesn’t have to be so daunting and can be quite enjoyable!  Eventually the preparation will become like a recipe you follow!

For the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus on our travel and staying at a hotel or rental. We can get into a lot of nuances for other types of trips as well- camping, flying, road trips,etc.  so for now I’m going to stick with making your trip fun and safe in regards to general menu planning and execution.

Research Food Allergy Safe Hotel Choices

Step 1. Do your research. Our ideal situation is having a kitchen or kitchenette available. Having a full size fridge, microwave, stovetop, dishwasher and sink is top of the line for us. We can get by without an oven personally for our allergies, but the stovetop is clutch and microwave is essential. I’ve learned to create a menu based on what kitchen appliances I’ll have available to me. (More on that next). If I’m not 100% certain on what amenities my hotel room will include I make sure to call and confirm in advance. Some hotels will even deliver a mini-fridge or microwave to the room if they are not standard to be included. Don’t be afraid to call and see what your options are. Decide what food prep amenities are important to you and go from there.

Step 2. Plan Your Menu Accordingly. I like to plan my menu in advance. Generally, we will do breakfast in the room, lunches (we pack ourselves in the room) on the go and dinners out. We’ll talk more about eating out in Step 3. I will write down our tentative schedule, where we will plan to eat and jot down a few ideas of food we can eat that we prepare ourselves.  Sometimes this includes bringing food with us if we are on a road trip, other times this involves placing a grocery delivery order through services like Instacart. An easy breakfast I may offer in the room for my child would be yogurt, fruit, and a muffin or bagel from home. Recently after my son overgrew his milk allergy we started venturing into the hotel breakfast buffet to get him juice, milk, yogurt or packaged cereal from the continental breakfast. This feels like such a treat for him and makes me feel less guilty about eating from the continental breakfast myself.  Lunches we will often do sunbutter and jelly sandwich, fruit, cheese stick and something crunchy like a prepackaged snack of crackers, veggies straws or cookies.  We keep it simple and for kids the excitement is focused on the travel and adventure in front of us, not on the food.

Step 3. Pack the Essentials. Our essential packing list for our child with food allergies of course includes our medications we take with us everywhere- antihistamines, epinephrine, our inhalers and spacer, topical eczema cream along with our regular first aid kits like bandaids, thermometer and children’s tylenol. We also pack liquid handsoap (easier for us to use than the bar hand soap), hand wipes, sanitizer, travel sized Clorox wipes, our Boon Trip Travel Travel Drying Rack, dishsoap and some minimal food prep items like kids utensils, bowl, paper plates, our Bentgo box and water bottles. This helps give us the variety we need to food prep in the room. If we have booked at a place like a Residence Inn with a built-in kitchenette we will take advantage of the dishes and silverware included there.

Keeping Your Travel Safe with Food Allergies

Step 4. Prep the Room. For us, I can’t trust what condition a hotel room was in before we got there. It may look clean, but our concern about contact reactions combined with how often we have have had little fingers (or objects- hello remotes) put in their mouths as babies, but we can never be too careful. Using Clorox wipes to wipe down door knobs, surfaces, countertops and remotes helps give some peace of mind. We also do a quick search of the room, under the bed, in drawers, at the bottom of floor length curtains just to ensure no crumbs or nuts were left behind. It’s happened to us before once before a cross-Atlantic flight. Yikes. If our room includes dishes or silverware we can use I will pop a set into the dishwasher and run it. I won’t wash all of the dishes, but just enough of what I plan to use for my own peace of mind to confirm that the dishes and utensils we used were freshly sanitized and not handled by anyone else.  Honestly, with the pandemic I can say as food allergy moms, we are not the only people taking these types of precautions anymore. 

Step 5. What You Can’t Pack, Order. We prepare in advance knowing exactly what we plan to bring for food with us and what food or items we don’t have room for or ability to refrigerate. We will plan ahead with an Instacart or other grocery delivery service. This has been super convenient for us and saves the stress and headache of packing. For us, this typically includes our safe food like sunbutter, jelly, bread, yogurt, string cheese, some fresh fruit, bottled water and juice boxes.  I tend to pack our own dry goods and snacks. I always make sure to include some fun treats so in case my husband and I are eating a treat, our son won’t feel excluded from the special food or fun. Our last two trips I’ve managed to scheduled delivery times within the first couple hours of our arrival to deliver our baby equipment rentals, grocery delivery and dinner delivery. It’s great to just arrive and get set up without having to make any extra stops. Tip your help well! We are always so grateful when they go out of their way to ensure they are shopping safe brands for us!

Find Food Allergy Friendly Meal Choices

Step 6. Plan Ahead Dining Options. Our motto, always be prepared. Food allergy moms know no other way. We have to be prepared in advance. For me, I like to write our the days of the week we will be gone, tentative plans, and general menu ideas of where and what we will be eating. This typically includes breakfast in the room, lunches we have packed on the go and dinners out. Finding safe places for us to eat with my son is always a challenge. There are two chains we can count on and that helps us tremendously. When we intend to try a new place, I will look at the menu in advance and place a call before our trip to speak with a manager (key tip here- don’t call during busy meal times, always, always call at a time when they will be less busy and able to give focus and attention to getting you and accurate answer for menu items you may order). I’m always less stressed on trips when I am not making meal plans spur of the moment when the hangries are setting in for my family. 

Step 7. Don’t Forget Your Foods- Important pro tip (and this may seem like an obvious one)- don’t forget your bag of safe food like I just did on our recent trip to Boston. Oye. Please tell me I am not the only one that has done this.  Nothing stresses a food allergy parent out more than forgetting your bag of prepared safe food. Not many other parents may get it, because when you can just stop anywhere to buy a snack or meal out for your children not much stress involved, but when it happens to a food allergy parent that could mean you are truly without safe food options for your child with life-threatening food allergies. If this happens to you, I recommend taking a deep breath, finding your closest grocery store and reminding yourself, life happens.  Pivot to your Plan B. And it is totally ok if your Plan B is just safe snack foods for dinner. Traveling is about adventure and it’s ok if they don’t eat a perfectly well-balanced meal when you are in a pinch.

That’s It! Enjoy Your Trip!  You’ve done your research, planned, packed and prepared, from here you can try to relax and focus on the fun ahead of you. Things may not go 100% according to plan, but let’s face it, that’s life with littles whether or not yours have food allergies and if it’s one thing a food allergy mom knows what to do it’s to be prepared and get creative. 

So what are your favorite travel tips when you’re traveling with food allergies? Anything you do in advance or on your trip to prepare for being on the go with your little ones? I’d love to hear your best tricks in the comments below.

Here’s  hoping your trip goes splendidly according to plan and if not, remind yourself there’s always tomorrow.  Bon Voyage!