Making holiday trips easier with food allergies is a concern of many travelling this winter holiday season. How can we keep our food cold, what do we use to reheat it? What if people forget that our kids have food allergies? These are all questions we have had travelling with our kids who have multiple food allergies.
This holiday season check out a few products that may make life a bit easier when travelling by car. Whether you have one or multiple food allergies it can be tough to be on the road and at dinners far from home.
Large family gatherings and holiday travel can be exceedingly difficult to navigate when you have food allergies. Not only is the stress level a lot higher because you don’t know if there will be anything you can eat. If you are like us you will pack most, if not all of your food with you. In order to do that you may need a few items to make sure your food stays safe for you to eat.
Image Credit: EyeEm Mobile GmbH/Istockphoto.
1- Easy to Reheat Storage Containers
Areas of concern for us are always whether or not our food will stay free from cross contact with any of our food allergens. If we are bringing food with us to share with everyone at dinner, we alway pack our own portions in a container that can be reheated easily in the oven or microwave.
Image Credit: KoliadzynskaIryna/Istockphoto.
2- Electric Coolers/Freezers
For the long drives we need something that can keep our food cold until we get to our hotel and can store it in a mini fridge. We need to use products that can help make holiday trips easier with food allergies. Stopping at restaurants or getting a kitchenette unit isn’t always possible.
This is also a great option for if the hotel doesn’t have an in room fridge. There have been times we have checked in and our fridge doesn’t work or the hotel is out of fridges to bring to the room. Our food isn’t going to be handed over for a shared fridge somewhere else in the hotel so these coolers come in clutch in a situation like this.
Image Credit: Supersmario /Istockphoto.
3- A Travel Slow Cooker
When on the road these are a lifesaver to make sure you can have hot food without eating at restaurants, if they are not safe for you. They are also great to reheat your food in a busy kitchen that is making food you cannot eat. Getting a small applicance that you can travel with can help make holiday trips easier with food allergies.
Image Credit: Patricio Nahuelhual/Istockphoto.
4- A Travel Allergens Card
Usually people with allergies buy these for going to far away places where they do not speak the language, however we have one in English. We use it to help restaurant staff know what we need to avoid and help us stop any complications with our food.
Equal Eats Travel Cards
Our favourite cards are the Equal Eats. They have digital and physical cards that are wallet sized and easy to use.
Equal Eats has cards in many different languages. Each translation set goes through many different layers of testing before being released. The cards are customisable for multiple food allergies beyond the top 14 most common ones.
Image Credit: theallergenfreekitchen.
5- Allergy Placemats
If you have kids making sure no one gives them food they cannot have due to food allergens. Watching over them is a full time job at gatherings and parties with food. When the kids were younger I wish there had been something like this for our kids.
Why Use An Allergy Placemat?
Using a placemat that clearly states their allergens not only serves as a visual reminder it also helps to create a space that is mapped out that you can request is free from the kids’ allergies.
Image Credit: Rawpixel/Istockphoto.
6- Don’t Feed Me Shirts
When we delved into how other allergy parents keep their kids safe at Holiday family gatherings this is one item that many parents have been using. They put a t-shirt or onesie on their younger children, babies, and toddlers and tell the extended family about the kids’ food allergies.
When you live with food allergies, not everyone understands that even a little bit of the allergen can be deadly. The don’t feed me shirts are a visual reminder to help others remember which kids cannot eat anything but you will still need to keep watch over them.
This article originally appeared on Theallergenfreekitchen.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org
Image Credit: Amazon.
More from MediaFeed
10 Instant Pot Recipes to Get You Through the Cold Winter Months
Image Credit: nerudol/Istockphoto.
