Peanut Allergy and Airplanes
With dear grandparents, aunts and uncles on the other side of the earth, airplane travel is a regular occurrence in our family. Even though Tanner has a severe peanut allergy and tree nut allergies, we can't let that stop us from staying connected. Compared to 14-hour plane rides, domestic travel is a no brainer! Every few months, we find ourselves banking more frequent flyer miles. Of course, it is with measured safety precautions that we prepare for every trip. For the parents that are apprehensive of airplane travel with food allergies, here are a few tips:
• Pick the right airline. Obviously for us, Southwest is out of the question. We are relatively comfortable with American although they do serve/offer snacks with nuts on their flights.
• Call ahead and ask about their food allergy policy and don't hesitate to inform your ticket agent and your flight attendant about your special needs.
• Be prepared with medication. Along with our auto injectors, we carry a note from the doctor and chewable Benadryl tablets. In our years of traveling, I've only had security check the Epi-pen once and only because I volunteered it.
• We bring our own snacks for the plane and wipes to clean off airplane trays or tables at the airports.
• We cover our seat with a Plane Sheet (see photo above) and now that Tanner is four, we remind him not to be rooting around in the seat pocket or floor. Sometimes he actually listens!
A previous post from last year contains more detailed tips for traveling with food allergies.
Labels: nut allergy, peanut allergy cure, traveling with food allergies
posted by Ria at 1:06 PM
3 Comments:
You have a very nice blog, good post…keep up the good job
I love the airplane seats - I would never have known to look for those. Thanks for the tips - flying would make me a wreck! It helps to get tips from those who've done it.
I was just on a plane the other day that made an announcement about someone aboard the plane having a peanut allergy and asking no one on the flight to eat any nuts during the flight. I think it's awesome for people who do have nut allergies (especially those who are bringing children who have nut allergies) to feel safe while flying, however, I was strange for me (since I'm not allergic to nuts) because I had brought trail mix with me to snack on and couldn't eat it in flight. I just wish that airlines would warn other passengers in advance so they could be prepared (I would have brought something else instead!). Wouldn't it be awesome to live in a world where before you traveled you could have warnings like that -- that way all would be accommodated!
Great post, and great tips. I also enjoyed the post from last year, too!
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