Travelling is one of the most stressful situations for families with allergies. As with many things, some forward planning, and some good habits, can make life a lot easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You should always have your allergy medicines with you (including inhalers, if you have them). Airlines will allow you to take medicines on board in your hand luggage, even if more than 100ml volume, but you will need supporting documentation from a medical professional. Take your written allergy plan with you as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Letting them know in advance will help a lot. Most chefs will be pleased to point out which foods are safe and which should be avoided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You will need to declare your child\u2019s allergy, otherwise any allergic reactions might not be covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local health care facilities (Accident and Emergency, GP) – find out in advance if possible, hotels usually have the details to hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There still appears to be considerable variation between different airline policies, and what actually happens on any given flight. In Dan Kelly\u2019s recent podcast https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/gb\/podcast\/diagnosed-with-a-food-allergy-at-25yrs-old-polly-parmar\/id1480156487?i=1000454528538<\/a> Polly Parmar describes a flight where the airline made an announcement about a passenger with nut allergy, served her a nut free meal, but then served the rest of the flight a breakfast of Danish pastry (with pecans) and granola (with almonds).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other people have been refused boarding https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/travel\/news-and-advice\/turkish-airlines-nut-allergy-woman-denied-boarding-flight-istanbul-toronto-a9110806.html<\/a> or else threatened with refusal because they have a food allergy. Bizarrely, the lack of a prescription for an adrenaline autoinjector seems to make some airlines more nervous, even though these would be people considered lower risk for anaphylaxis (if they have received good quality allergy care).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US Department of Transportation ruled earlier this year that American Airlines were wrong (under disability rules, interestingly) to refuse permission to a family with an allergic child to board early so they could clean their seating area themselves, to avoid cross contamination of allergens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So my advice would be, if you have a potentially severe food allergy \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although having an allergic reaction on a plane (or an underground train for that matter) is most people\u2019s nightmare scenario, actually it appears to be pretty rare. Some nut allergic people say they can feel themselves having a reaction from the breath of someone who has been eating nuts, but it is really unlikely you could have a severe reaction from someone else eating or opening a packet of nuts. There has been research into this and peanut proteins (the things that actually trigger a reaction) only circulate in the air for a few inches and a few seconds. Being able to smell nuts does not mean there are nut proteins in the air. The risk is much more from what you eat yourself (as in the case of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse<\/a>) and contamination of surfaces, ie people\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if you do think you are having a reaction, then stay calm, let people around you and cabin crew know (don\u2019t hide in the bathroom!), follow your allergy plan. Cabin crew can ask for medical assistance from other passengers or communicate with medical staff on the ground if necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Travelling\u00a0is one of the most stressful situations for families with allergies. As with many things, some forward planning, and some good habits, can make life a lot easier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":98,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-134","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nn.nhs.scot\/cyans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nn.nhs.scot\/cyans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nn.nhs.scot\/cyans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nn.nhs.scot\/cyans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nn.nhs.scot\/cyans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.nn.nhs.scot\/cyans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6690,"href":"https:\/\/www.nn.nhs.scot\/cyans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134\/revisions\/6690"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nn.nhs.scot\/cyans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nn.nhs.scot\/cyans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n