by Kelley Lindberg
Summer is a great time for family vacations. Whether it’s a road trip to see natural wonders in our scenic national and state parks, a weekend fishing at the lake, camping, or a flight to see grandparents, vacations are luring many of us away from home for summer fun.
Travel can mean extra complications for those of us with food allergies, but that doesn’t mean we have to stay home! All it takes is a little extra planning and smart packing to make your trip as safe as it is fun.
Here are a few tips that might help if you’re hitting the road this summer.
1. Embrace picnics. If it’s a road trip, pack a cooler with safe food for lunches and breakfasts, and stop at parks or rest areas for picnics. Bread, sandwich fixings, snacks, fruit, veggies (carrots, celery, etc.) all travel well in a cooler and make for a great picnic. It’s safer, healthier, and cheaper than all those fast-food places, too. And picnics are fun – even if the weather isn’t great and you have to hunker under a pavilion in the rain, it still can be an adventure and a fun story to tell later. Those are the memories your kids will still have years later.
2. A UFAN member on the UFAN email forum suggesting taking a crockpot and plugging it into an adapter that runs off the car’s power. Put dinner in the crockpot in the morning, and by the time you reach your destination, dinner’s ready! Sounds good – but it could be dangerous in a crash (boiling grease flying through the car = bad). But taking a crockpot and letting dinner cook in the hotel room while you’re sightseeing sounds like a VERY good idea. Who needs room service?
3. If you’re flying somewhere and can’t carry a big cooler, invest in a collapsible cooler that fits in your suitcase, or buy a super-cheap Styrofoam cooler at a discount store at your destination. I have a small lunch-sized insulated bag that fits in a day-pack, so I can carry my son’s sandwich whenever we go on day-trips. I also have one of those larger collapsible coolers that fits in my suitcase, for carrying picnics and drinks to the beach. Then I pack (or buy) a bunch of Ziploc bags to hold ice as well as food. Here’s a tip: fill a Ziploc bag with water, lay it flat in the freezer, and let it freeze. Presto—an icepack for slipping into that lunch sack.
4. Plan your route and scout out hotels or condos that have microwaves or kitchenettes in them. You can fix easy meals in the room that way. Not only is it safer allergy-wise, it saves money, too.
5. When you arrive at your destination, plan to grocery shop on the first day. The internet is great for finding health-food or gluten-free stores, so do a little research before you leave to find a likely grocery store. If there is a product you love that you don’t know if you’ll find where you’re going, pack it. I always take a jar or two of Sunbutter in my checked luggage, just in case.
6. On an airplane, carry plenty of safe food in your carry-on luggage. I pack granola bars (even if you don’t much like them, they can be a life-saver if you’re stranded in an airport because of a missed connection or mechanical trouble). Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain bars are nut-free and egg-free. Cascadian Farm Harvest Berry granola bars are nut-, milk-, and egg-free, and Enjoy Life Foods bars are free from the Top 8 allergens. I also pack fruit snacks (don’t carry fresh fruit if you’re going internationally, however), safe cookies, or other treats, too. We have been stuck in airports for up to 13 hours before – it may not be the most nutritious day of eating, but at least we don’t starve if I’ve got a box of granola bars in my bag.
7. If you’re traveling with other people, let them know before-hand about your family’s allergies and the best way to handle them on the road. Ask them for help in keeping your child safe.
8. Pack your own soap, shampoo, and lotion. Those cute little bottles and soaps in the hotel are appealing, but if they don’t have an ingredients label on them (and most don’t), don’t use them. Too often, they contain nut oils, soy products, milk, or other botanical products that you may be allergic to. It wouldn’t be much fun to slather on that nice-smelling lotion, only to discover that you’re breaking out in hives and have to be rushed to the hospital.
9. Carry a pack of hand-wipes at all times. Great for cleaning all the surfaces in an airplane (armrest, tray-table, seatbelt buckle, and window shade), as well as for cleaning any other surfaces in fast-food places, restaurants, etc.
10. Order a medical ID bracelet or tag for the allergic person. My son wears a cool nylon sports-band ID bracelet from American Medical ID that lists his allergies and my cell phone number. For my own diabetes, I have medical alert tags from Sticky J on my key ring and on my purse (I’m allergic to metal, so I can’t wear them on my body).
11. Traveling internationally? Visit SelectWisely.com to order translation cards – they say things like “I have a life-threatening allergy to…” and you can list all the foods you’re allergic to, and choose from a staggering array of languages. They also offer cards for other illnesses and conditions, in addition to allergies.
These are just a few tips to get you going. If you have more tips to share, be sure to post them in the comments section.
Happy travels!
Showing posts with label hotel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hotel. Show all posts
Monday, June 14, 2010
Monday, April 13, 2009
Hidden Ingredients in Lotions
While we were in Mexico, my son and husband began calling me “Picasso.”
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it was my natural artistic talents that earned me this nickname. My penchant for patterns. My love of colors.
You’re right. It was all of those.
Unfortunately, the canvas for my artistic endeavors was my family’s winter-white skin, and my paint was sunblock.
Every day, I would dutifully apply sunblock to myself, my son, and my husband. And every day I would miss a spot or two, which would reveal itself later that evening as another bright red patch in a place it didn’t belong. By the end of the week, we all looked like patchwork dolls pieced together from a dozen different red fabrics.
Artistic, perhaps. Smart, no. Attractive, even less so.
The resort where we stayed was quite nice, and it graciously provided a decent-sized bottle of “Gilchrist & Soames Chamomile Aloe Vera” lotion in each bathroom. As usual, there was no ingredients label on the bottle. There never is, on hotel-sized toiletries. So I don’t use those lotions on my son – I always bring my own small bottles of safe lotions and shampoos, because I never know when a manufacturer is going to use a nut oil in a cosmetic product.
I did use the lotion on my own sunburned legs, and it really felt wonderful – the aloe vera in it did the trick. I was tempted to use it on my son, because he got a bad sunburn on his cheeks, but instead I washed my hands and used my own lotion on him.
Turns out, that was the right decision.
When I got home from our vacation, I logged on to the manufacturer’s website, found a phone number, and called and talked to a very friendly and helpful woman. She didn’t have the ingredients list, but promised to track it down and email it to me.
The next day, the email arrived. Sure enough, the lotion contained sweet almond oil. Choosing NOT to use the lotion was definitely the right way to go. The lotion also contained sunflower oil and soybean oil.
I wrote back to the woman and explained that I was glad I didn’t apply the lotion to my son, because having an allergic reaction in a foreign country would be scary. I also let her know that soybean oil and almond oil represent two of the top eight food allergens that cause 90% of the reactions, and I politely asked if I could make a suggestion to include at least a small warning on their bottles about nut and soy allergies. I explained that since these lotions are found in hotels around the world, the people most likely to use them are always far from home and familiar medical help. It could be a problem.
The lovely woman promptly wrote right back and said she’d forwarded my email to her supervisor, explaining to him how serious nut allergies are for so many people, and she thanked me for taking the time to let her know.
She could have blown me off. That’s the typical response from customer service people these days. But she didn’t – she took the time to let me know she thought my idea and concern were valid.
I doubt we’ll suddenly start seeing ingredients labels on hotel bath amenities any time soon because of one little email on my part. But if we all start sending simple email requests to manufacturers whenever we encounter something like this, it might make a difference someday. I hate to think that somewhere in Mexico right now, a mom is putting lotion on her allergic child to soothe a stinging sunburn, and that simple remedy is going to make a good vacation day turn bad, when a simple label could have prevented that.
So use caution when you’re staying at a hotel, and avoid using those unlabeled toiletries. And apply sunblock twice as often as you think you need to. Unless you want to take over my role as “Picasso.”
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it was my natural artistic talents that earned me this nickname. My penchant for patterns. My love of colors.
You’re right. It was all of those.
Unfortunately, the canvas for my artistic endeavors was my family’s winter-white skin, and my paint was sunblock.
Every day, I would dutifully apply sunblock to myself, my son, and my husband. And every day I would miss a spot or two, which would reveal itself later that evening as another bright red patch in a place it didn’t belong. By the end of the week, we all looked like patchwork dolls pieced together from a dozen different red fabrics.
Artistic, perhaps. Smart, no. Attractive, even less so.
The resort where we stayed was quite nice, and it graciously provided a decent-sized bottle of “Gilchrist & Soames Chamomile Aloe Vera” lotion in each bathroom. As usual, there was no ingredients label on the bottle. There never is, on hotel-sized toiletries. So I don’t use those lotions on my son – I always bring my own small bottles of safe lotions and shampoos, because I never know when a manufacturer is going to use a nut oil in a cosmetic product.
I did use the lotion on my own sunburned legs, and it really felt wonderful – the aloe vera in it did the trick. I was tempted to use it on my son, because he got a bad sunburn on his cheeks, but instead I washed my hands and used my own lotion on him.
Turns out, that was the right decision.
When I got home from our vacation, I logged on to the manufacturer’s website, found a phone number, and called and talked to a very friendly and helpful woman. She didn’t have the ingredients list, but promised to track it down and email it to me.
The next day, the email arrived. Sure enough, the lotion contained sweet almond oil. Choosing NOT to use the lotion was definitely the right way to go. The lotion also contained sunflower oil and soybean oil.
I wrote back to the woman and explained that I was glad I didn’t apply the lotion to my son, because having an allergic reaction in a foreign country would be scary. I also let her know that soybean oil and almond oil represent two of the top eight food allergens that cause 90% of the reactions, and I politely asked if I could make a suggestion to include at least a small warning on their bottles about nut and soy allergies. I explained that since these lotions are found in hotels around the world, the people most likely to use them are always far from home and familiar medical help. It could be a problem.
The lovely woman promptly wrote right back and said she’d forwarded my email to her supervisor, explaining to him how serious nut allergies are for so many people, and she thanked me for taking the time to let her know.
She could have blown me off. That’s the typical response from customer service people these days. But she didn’t – she took the time to let me know she thought my idea and concern were valid.
I doubt we’ll suddenly start seeing ingredients labels on hotel bath amenities any time soon because of one little email on my part. But if we all start sending simple email requests to manufacturers whenever we encounter something like this, it might make a difference someday. I hate to think that somewhere in Mexico right now, a mom is putting lotion on her allergic child to soothe a stinging sunburn, and that simple remedy is going to make a good vacation day turn bad, when a simple label could have prevented that.
So use caution when you’re staying at a hotel, and avoid using those unlabeled toiletries. And apply sunblock twice as often as you think you need to. Unless you want to take over my role as “Picasso.”
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