My family is composed of my new husband Steve, myself, and my three kids. Of the five of us, all but my husband have food intolerances and/or food allergies. My 10 year old son, Truman, is intolerant to gluten, allergic to dairy, soy, and walnuts, and has asthma, eczema, and seasonal allergies. My 8 year old son, Hunter, carries epi pens for bee stings and latex, is allergic to dairy and soy, and has celiac disease. He also has insane seasonal allergies and eczema. My 6 year old daughter, Mandie, has celiac disease, reactive airway disease, and eczema. She is anaphylactic to dairy, sunflower, safflower, shellfish, mollusks, palm, coconut, sesame, almond, chamomile, wheat and latex; and is allergic to soy, peanuts, honey, oats, corn, mustard, chocolate, olives, rosemary, and bananas. She also has a TON of environmental and medication allergies. I have asthma, eczema, severe seasonal allergies, am anaphylactic to dairy, walnuts, latex, am allergic to adhesives, soy, have severe Oral Allergy Syndrome symptoms to all melons, banana, and kiwi; and severe gluten intolerance/celiac disease.
In spite of all of this craziness, we travel often. My husband and I go to a bunch of air shows and things, being in another city or state at least one weekend per month all year long. Twice a year we make a 3-6 day trip up to Mandie’s allergist in LaCrosse, WI – which is a 5-6 hour drive for us. During the summer visits we take 3 days prior and go to WI Dells. I have become extremely experienced at travel with all of our allergies. Is it easy, NO WAY!!! Is it worth it? Yes!!!!

A few weeks before a trip I start making lists of what food we are going to bring, how long we’ll be gone, and if we’ll need to snack in the van. I also research grocery stores that carry things we might need, and safe restaurants. Once I have this information written down, I start planning how many breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks we will need – plus extra for unexpected circumstances. I then make my menu and do our grocery shopping. A day before we leave I do our cooking, so that all we will need to do is use a microwave to re-heat meals. We make sure to always stay in a room with a fridge and microwave! I make dinner meals that are easy to reheat in the microwave, such as spaghetti, casseroles, eggrolls and fried rice, and soups. For lunches I plan on sandwiches with fruit and baby carrots or chips. I make bread, Mandie’s potato chips, cashew butter, and toasted chickpeas to bring along. For breakfasts I either make muffins of some kind, bagles, or bring safe cereals and safe milks (almond for Steve, Hunter, and I; rice milk for Truman, and Hemp for Mandie). Luckily we can get all of our milks in shelf-stable containers, so we only have one of each in the cooler at a time. We have a large tote full of travel things such as plates, bowls, silverware, flexible cutting boards, a toaster, knives, cups, dish soap, dish cloths, and dish towels. Before we leave we add serving spoons, our tea pot, and honey and sugar. We usually bring two coolers full of jellies, the cashew butter, baby carrots, grapes, safe milk, bread, dinner meals, and whatever condiments we need. We have re-usable shopping bags full of cereals, peanut butter, canned veggies, napkins, baby wipes, paper towels, apples, bananas, chips, and muffins. And yes, after all this packing is done, we pack all of our clothes, pillows, blankets, safe soaps, etc.

With all of Mandie’s allergies, the ONLY place safe for her to eat out is Outback Steakhouse, which is still risky and is thus a special treat usually reserved for after testing during our winter allergist trips. It is a bit easier to eat out safely with my allergies, so we research places on sites like Find Me Gluten Free, Allergy Eats, and Gluten Free Near Me. Once we’ve decided where we’re going to eat, we look up the menus and allergy info online, and then call the restaurant to verify the safety. We can also grab snacks from convenience stores, and bring along Udi’s bread, bagles, cookies, etc. I think that when we travel this summer I am going to bring along a crockpot and my favorite recipes so that we have some more variety.
Traveling with food allergies is not impossible, it just requires some planning and lots of extra packing!

To say our family loves Disney World is an understatement. Besides the beach it is our favorite vacation spot. One of the mains reasons for this is how they handle food allergies. In one word AMAZING! This is one of the few places I can go and relax and eat out for a solid week and not only do we eat good, it’s safe for me and the kids.

Disney allows ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) 180 days in advanced. If you are like me you never book that far in advance (what I like to live on the edge). Anyway! When making your dining reservation online it will ask you if you have any allergies or dietary restrictions, it also suggest that you call if you have multiple allergies. I always call, and have always spoken with great Cast Members that have sent me ingredient list based on our allergies and where we can find safe foods. This is very helpful in my pre-planning. Once my ADRs are set (which is usually never because I am one to change ADRs at the last minute) and I’ve spoken with the a Cast Member I don’t worry about it. Why? Because Disney is awesome!

Table Service - When you arrive at your restaurant upon checking in tell the host or hostess that you have food allergies. This should already be in the computer but just in case let them know. They will stamp your ticket with SEE CHEF, this alerts your server that you have a dietary need. The server calls the chef to your table who comes out and goes over the menu with your and tells you what he can and can’t make for you. Not everything on the menu can be prepared allergy free but they try their best to get you what you want.

At the buffets the chef will go through the buffet and point out the safe foods. They will plate some foods in the back if you are worried about cross contamination but from experience they will only do this once per meal as they don’t really have the time. Our favorite buffet was 1900 Park Fare for dinner, as you can see above not only did the chef make us Udi’s Gluten Free Mickey shaped bread, but look at that dessert! OMG, it was amazing!

Each family style restaurant seems to do it a bit differently. At Whispering Canyon, Caity and I had our own plate of food with gluten free Mickey Wafffles and the rest of the family had their own plate of food.  At the Princess Storybook Breakfast we all shared a plate of gluten free foods and the chef brought out Udi’s Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins for Caity and I.

Quick Service – Quick service is a bit different than Table service and isn’t so quick when dealing with food allergies. Plan just as much time to eat a quick service meal as you do a table service meal.  Before you order tell the cashier you have food allergies. She will call the manager, be prepared to wait a few minutes as they are usually busy. The manager will come out with a book which details exactly what foods you can eat. There are a few choices and we ate a lot of french fries and chicken strips. But the BROWNIE from OMG It’s Gluten Free Bakery made it worth it. There was a point I was making the whole family get OMG Brownies so I could stockpile them for snacks later. These are the BEST brownies EVER!

Again be prepared to wait for your food here. The reason is that everything is prepared fresh to order and has to come from a separate area of the kitchen. So it can sometimes take awhile. Some of the quick service restaurants had buzzers so you could sit down and relax while waiting for your food. Others you had to wait at the counter which got to be a bit of a pain. Note to Disney, do the buzzer thing at all quick service restaurants for special orders, it made waiting with two kids easier and this momma happier!

Snacks Carts – the snack carts where a bit hit and miss. All and all we stayed away from them and getting ice cream on Main St. in the Magic Kingdom was a huge pain. I don’t remember it being that much of a pain in years past and I think it had a lot to do with them being busy and a language barrier between me and the cashier. Most of the snack carts have binders that list the ingredients or at least they should.

I also downloaded this Gluten Free Disney Dining app to hubby’s phone and my iPad to help me find quick service and snack spots. It was well worth the 1.99 cost.

All in all Disney is awesome with food allergies and this allergy mom is thankful they get it! It allows me to relax and enjoy our trip. And not having to cook a meal for a week, that’s a HUGE WIN!

UPDATE: Something I totally forgot to mention. In Downtown Disney there is a gluten free bakery, and you can used your snack credits there. Both kids where able to eat from here and enjoyed their treats. Check it out BabyCakes at Downtown Disney

]]> http://peanutsareevil.com/2013/05/15/walt-disney-world-with-food-allergies/feed/ 3 http://peanutsareevil.com/2013/05/15/walt-disney-world-with-food-allergies/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PeanutsAreEvilPeanutsAreEvil/~3/hcwm1bAgiFw/ http://peanutsareevil.com/2013/05/14/traveling-with-food-allergies/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000 Cara http://peanutsareevil.com/?p=4989 Our family likes to travel, from everyday road trips to vacations, and sometimes traveling is difficult due to both kids having food allergies. But we don’t let that stop us from hitting the road and exploring new places. Here are a few tips that help us stay safe of the road.

Always have your medication. We keep Benadryl Fast Melt Tabs and Epi Pens on us at all times while traveling. I travel with at least 2 if not more Epi Pens depending on how far we will be from a hospital / help. The Benadryl Perfect Measure Prefilled Spoons are also good for traveling but I find the Fast Melt Tabs are easier to carry regardless of which purse / bag is being used. We also keep Wet Wipes on hand to clean up hands and surfaces if needed.

Do your research – I always know which restaurants we can eat at on the road, we have certain restaurants we can eat at and we stick to those. If there is someplace you want to eat, call ahead and ask to speak to a manager or the chef if possible. Also a lot of restaurants have their menus online.

A word about hotels – we always try to get a hotel with a kitchen or we rent a condo when going places. At the very least we get rooms with a fridge and microwave. This way we can bring our own safe food to eat and not have to worry about finding safe restaurants all of the time. I have in the past called ahead and asked that are room be cleaned for medical reasons and I do sometimes wash all dishes before using them (I also bring paper plates etc).

Bring your own food – if you’re flying this may not be doable although I recall someone telling me they shipped food to their destination or packed a suitcase full of safe foods. I usually shop at home before the trip because I don’t know the stores in the area we are traveling too plus it saves time and sometimes money. Some places have grocery delivery services, and I think Amazon delivers to some hotels. Bringing your own food not only saves money but gives you safe options if there are none to be found especially when it comes to snack type foods.

We drive everywhere, the cost of flying has prohibited us from doing so, not to mention my fears of flying. I know other families who do so safely. Some basic tips from families who have flown:

• call ahead, a lot of the airlines now have procedures in place for food allergic passengers
• talk to the airline when you are checking in and at your gate, let them know of your allergy, ask if you can board early to allow you time to clean your area
• book the first flight of the day as it is usually the cleanest flight
• carry all medication in your carry on, you may also want to get a doctors note to make it easier to get through security.

You can travel safely with food allergies, it just takes a little planning and preparation. What are your tips for traveling safely with food allergies?

The reason this is so near and dear to my heart is because we have our own food allergy bullying story. When Chase was in 1st grade he was bullied because of his peanut allergy. A little girl in his classroom was taunting him on a daily basis with her peanut snacks / foods. Snacks that weren’t supposed to be in the classroom to begin with. Sadly this child sat near him in class and at PE. When Chase finally opened up to what was going on, he told us he was scared he was going to die at school. That was the last day he ever stepped foot in that school and to this day he says he never wants to go to school again. When we approached the school we were told it was hearsay and I was told later by another parent that the teacher was overheard saying that Chase’s allergy was a joke and for attention. This is what led us on this journey of homeschooling we’ve been on for the last 4 years.  We had a choice, we could bring our child home and school him ourselves. Not every parent has that choice due to many factors and NO child should feel unsafe at school due to bullying of their disability (yes according to the ADA food allergies are a disability).

You can read more about our journey into homeschooling here.

How can you help? One talk to your children about food allergies, disabilities and bullying. Tell them it’s NEVER ok to bully another child for any reason.  Teach your children how to be a PAL and protect a life from food allergies. FARE has tips on how you can prevent bullying.

Food allergies aren’t a joke, no child is claiming food allergies to seek attention. Why would you joke or seek attention from something that prevents you from participating in normal events with your friends (parties, ball games, etc)?

Bullying in general and food allergy bullying in particular is NOT a joke. Let’s spread the word that we as parents won’t tolerate it anymore.

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®, Odwalla, and Champions for Kids #cbias #SocialFabric

When you think about summer, what do you think of?  For me it’s lazy days at the pool or beach, family cookouts, vacations. Just being carefree and having fun. No worries.  But for 1 in 5 children in Louisiana they don’t get worry free days, because they are worried about something important. They are worried about where their next meal will come from. This is where our local Second Harvest Food Bank steps in.

During the school year Second Harvest has programs like the Kids Cafe and backpack programs plus it supplies different food pantries around town.  In the summer not only is the food bank still supplying the various food pantries but they are also feeding children at local summer camps.

The Kids Cafe Program feeds about 1100 children dinner every day! The meals meet all USDA guidelines and they can accommodate some food allergies and vegetarians. The meals are cooked in Second Harvest Community Kitchen and are delivered to about 16 different after school programs. In the summer when Kids Cafe shuts down,  Second Harvest picks up the Summer Feeding Program. This program is for summer camps, and basically takes over where the schools leave off, feeding children on free and reduced lunches breakfast and lunch each day. Like the Kids Cafe, the meals are cooked in the Community Kitchen and are delivered to about 50+ sites around town, twice a day.  The goal for this year is to serve 3000 children daily!

In addition to these two programs Second Harvest provides the different local food pantries with foods to feed families in need. They also supply weekly backpacks with easy to prep foods for children who may otherwise not eat over the weekend when not in school.

With the help of Champions for Kids and Odwalla the kids and I were able to purchase and make a donation to Second Harvest today as a simple service project. We were also able to tour the food bank and learn about their various programs and needs.  It was humbling to see that even though they have a lot, so much more is needed. Their comfort level for their main warehouse is 2 million lbs of food, they currently have 900,000 lbs. And with the face of hunger changing and 1 in 5 children in Louisiana worried about their next meal, more is needed.

So how can you help?

• Donate Food – this is huge! They currently get perishable foods from local retailers like Walmart on a daily basis. What they need is non perishable foods, this is where they are lacking.  Donating is easy, you can drop off your donation at Second Harvest or leave it for your mailman on Saturday, May 11 for the annual Stamp Out Hunger Drive.  Bags will be in the Wednesday and Friday Times Picayune however any sturdy bag will do!
• Volunteer - the food bank is in great need of volunteers especially for the summer feeding program. The volunteer group they were relying on was removed from the New Orleans area leaving them in NEED.  To volunteer in the kitchen you need to be 16 yrs of age and older.  Volunteers are needed June 3rd – August 2nd. There are two shifts available 6:30-9:30 & 10:30 – 1:30 with the early morning shift being the one in great need. To volunteer contact Taylor Bartley – tbartley@secondharvest.org or 504-729-2850 or Melanie Hoeman – mhoeman@secondharvest.org or 504-729-2850 .
• Monetary Donations – you can make donations to the Second Harvest Food bank or you can purchase a duck for the Rubber Duck Derby  or you can support one of the Canstruction Acadiana teams who will be building structures our of canned foods and donating the foods to Second Harvest.
• Conagra Child Hunger Ends Here and General Mills Outnumber Hunger  promotions – on specially marked boxes of Conagra and General Mills foods, you can go online and enter your zip code and a code on the product and Conagra and General Mills  will donate meals to the food bank.

For more information on Second Harvest Food Bank visit them online, on Twitter and on Facebook. Check out my Google + story of  my shopping trip to purchase our donation.

To start your own simple service project to help fight hunger in your area go to the Champions for Kids Odwalla website and be sure to check out Odwalla online, on Twitter and on Facebook. Special thanks to them for making this donation happen!

Do you donate to the local food bank? How do you plan to help them feed hungry kids this summer? Follow along with the hashtag #Odwalla4Kids on Instagram and Twitter to see how others are helping hungry kids in their communities!

The trip to SoFabCon was adventurous and included a bad tire and messed up room reservations, but all was fixed and I had a GREAT time. Here are my top 10 take aways from SoFabCon and some Instagram pictures from my trip as this photographer was bad and didn’t use her Nikon all weekend.

1. One on One consults – notice a few changes to the blog. I sat down with Sarah from East 9th Street to see what I could improve on the blog. She recommended a few changes and I’m trying to follow her recommendations. I’ve updated the tabs, added my photography to the sidebar, made my about me page my name, added a contact form to my contact page. I still need to add a bio and a picture of me. Thanks Sarah

2. SEO – one of my favorite session was Dan Morris’s SEO  session. I learned that tags really mean nothing and I only need to tag posts with one thing, that you should have your own link shortener (there are plug ins for this), and other small changes I can make to help improve my SEO. I’m also going to take the Social Fabric SEO class

3.  Show me the Money – my favorite session of the conference was the Show Me the Money session. I felt like this was the first session of this type that wasn’t a lot of fluff. It was nice to hear how the panel made money in this space and that most of them didn’t actually make all of their money from the blog but used their blog as a platform for other money making opportunities.

4. “Riches are in the Nitches” – How many times as bloggers have we heard this? It was nice to finally hear people say, you can make money and get opportunities and you don’t have to nitch yourself. As a lifestyle bloggers that has struggled with how to nitch herself, this was refreshing.

5. Snow – ok ok it has nothing to do with the conference or learning, but there was snow people. In May, it made me giddy for all of 20 minutes. Then it was just COLD. But the snow was awesomesauce.

6. DO YOU – this was one of the biggest themes of the conference. Collective Bias wants it’s bloggers to just be them, be real.  We were left with a challenge this week to be ourselves and Instagram it with the hashtag #thisisme my first picture, is of all my bags on the couch because I still haven’t unpacked, the bags are still sitting on said couch.

7. You Tube / Video – I’m scared of video but it’s becoming a huge part of blogging. Danielle Smith’s session on Video and Media helped me get over this. I’m going to be putting up my first video next week. I also checked my HARO emails for the first time in months and actually emailed a reporter about an article on food allergies. Who am I? I’m going to be doing Danielle’s 7 Day challenge soon.  Danielle has other tips on her website on how to get started doing videos.

8. Social Media – I learned a lot about social media this week. From Ted Rubin talking about how to use Twitter effectively for social marketing, to Umang Shah and Calvin Peters talking about how Walmart and Duane Reade are using social media to grow their companies, from seeing the influence and reach Maria and I had on a map that was measuring tweets using #sofabcon over a 10 day period.  I learned a lot on how to use social media to not only make the most of my influence but to help my social media clients grow theirs.

9.  Powering down – Tiffany Romero gave Saturday’s opening keynote and talked to us about powering down. I know as a blogger and social media manager I spend a lot of time on my devices especially my computer. I need to power down more, it’s just hard to start. How do you power down?

10. We are family -  My last top take away but certainly not the least is the feeling of family. We also talked a lot this week of finding a community and a tribe. Of having hype-men in our lives to boost us up. I can say that Social Fabric is exactly this, it’s a community, a family, a tribe. Call it what you will but I don’t think you will find a better collective of bloggers on the internet. A group that truly cares about it’s members. Thanks CB for caring, for being there for us, and happy 4th birthday!

If you went to SoFabCon what was your top take away from the conference? If you weren’t at SoFabCon why not?

At about 3 am this morning, Maria from Blogging, Babies and the Bayou, and I set off on a 10 hour road trip to SoFabCon. By the time you read this we should be more than half way there!

What is SoFabCon? It’s the first annual conference from Collective Bias. SofabCon will bring bloggers and brands together in a great way just like they do on a daily basis in their Social Fabric community. Except this time it will be face to face! I have been blessed to be part of the Social Fabric community for part of a year now. I have met some of the members at various conference and a conference with us all together! That’s something special!

It’s going to be a whirlwind of a weekend, full of learning, connecting and some fun!

Thursday starts off with a cocktail party at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Then Friday’s agenda is  packed with sessions. Friday sessions involve a bloggers track and a business track. The business track is to help teach brands and businesses about social marketing. With my new job as a social media manager, I am going to spend all day Friday attending sessions on the business track. I think this will help me learn how to help my clients better! Friday night ends with a family style dinner and dancing!

Then it’s up bright and early Saturday morning for more sessions. I still haven’t decided exactly which sessions I will be going to on Saturday. Saturday night is an 80′s bowling party and crazy sock contest after my roommates and I have dinner at the Tusk and Trotter.

Then Sunday we say goodbye and head home.

It’s bound to be a great weekend in Arkansas and I will probably sleep all day on Monday when I get home!  Until then you can follow the #sofabcon hashtag to see tweets about the conference and I’m sure I’ll be posting pictures and updates to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, so follow me there! And check back Wednesday for a full recap of the conference.