Must Have List for Traveling with Food Allergies

I’ve become pretty dang proficient when it comes to having a safe home for my family by way of anaphylactic food allergies and intolerances. That was task #1 as a food allergy mom. Make home safe.

What happened if we wanted to go somewhere though?! The movie theatre, a playground, or heaven forbid… A VACATION?!

I have lots of tips and tricks to share regarding traveling, but one of the things I always do regardless of where we are traveling, is stock up on my essentials.

Life-saving medication? Check! There are so many options nowadays, and we have become an Auvi-Q family as of late. My son is getting into the pre-teen years and it’s not only a pretty cool device because of its sleek design, but also, ummm hello, it talks to boot!

The Auvi-Q is of course a must at home and on-the-go. We always carry two, and when my son is at home or with me, I have an extra pair as well. So we’ve got our prescribed emergency epinephrine, now what?

Here’s my list:

2 sets of Auvi-Q (total of 4 emergency doses)
An epinephrine carrier that can be strapped to the body. We have this one and it comfortably fits 2 Auvi-Q as well as several chewable Benadryl.
Childrens chewable Benadryl
Childrens single dose Benadryl (if I can find it, usually the only place I can find this gem is at Walgreens)
Wet Ones. Depending on how long we will be traveling I pack about 2 travel sizes pouches per day. I love the yellow packed citrus scented ones. If you’re going to be cleaning a ton, might as well enjoy the scent!
Gallon and sandwich sized ziplock bags. If I need to individually package snacks this becomes a huge help, especially while out and about touring a city, or hitting the parks at Disneyland.
That brings me to #6, a suitcase or duffel bag exclusively full of snacks, quick breakfast items, and entertainment for my children. This is anything from mini breakfast muffins, a bag of Blue Diamond almonds (processed in a peanut free facility), fruit snacks, and of course coloring books, crayons, and iPads). You never know what travel will bring and especially with little kids that seem to “graze like cattle” all day, it is a life saver to constantly have your own friendly foods with you at all times. I’ve got 5 kids, so we do use a duffle bag or suitcase, but with less kids you could easily accomplish this in a backpack.
If we will be traveling commercial airlines I also bring 3 disposable seat covers for round trip flights including there, back, and any possible carrier changes for connecting flights. So if we have a direct flight to and from a destination, that’s 6 seat covers. Because we have a decent sized family, we always put my son in the middle seat of a row, so that he is flanked by a family member on each side of him, and the siblings use a seat cover as well (hence the 3 each way). These are the covers I purchase, and then I just dispose of them after each flight.
Pre-printed or saved notes on my phone, of pre-researched restaurants, locations/addresses and websites.
Any necessary medical I.D. That he wears on his person, as well as insurance cards.
If we are traveling out of the country, translated pre-printed information for help in conversing with restaurants and reading ingredient labels.
If traveling foreign with a language barrier, I also like to have a translation app on my phone for immediate translating at a restaurant etc.