It's Spring Break. We are taking a "quick trip" up to the hill country, and anyone with kids knows how fun it is to get ready for a family trip. Check off the list as you pile countless pairs of socks, underwear and pjs for one, two, three or more people.
I hate packing, especially for a quick trip. It just seems like a lot of trouble and stress for not much reward. We get there, I get everyone settled and then it's time for me to repack everything, go home and unpack it all again!
Throw into the mix having a child with food allergies and the check list and stress grows.
My Monk is just beginning his food journey, so much of his meal planning is easier now than I imagine it will be in the future, but there are a few parts about vacationing that I know now will have to become habitual.
1. Accommodations: a refrigerator and microwave will be imperative. With so many food allergies it is not realistic to believe that allergy friendly food will be readily available. Bringing food and storing it was our plan for this trip and will likely be the plan for all future "road trips". For this Spring Break we brought a cooler with Monk's favorite pulled pork, enough soy milk and yogurt for the week, boxes of allergy-friendly snacks, and plenty of fruit and veggie toddler pouches.
2. Grocery stores: researching the availability of local grocery stores will help to know if we can quickly and easily get staples such as non-dairy milk, etc. This will be doubly important when flying as apposed to driving, where we can't bring along a cooler.
3. Restaurants: If you are as type A as me, you can plan out all restaurants visits before hand, calling to ask questions about allergy-friendly dishes and procedures to avoid cross contamination. Otherwise, at least know what types of cuisine are most allergy friendly for you family and plan for a few different options. FYI...I did none of this on this trip mainly because we visited a town with about three restaurants, all of which we are fairly familiar with, and because Monk is still young enough that I bring his food to all restaurants.
AllergyEats.com is a great source of allergy-friendly restaurants. It allows you to search restaurants by location, giving you a list of customer rated restaurants. Because the site relys on customer ratings, information can be dated and sometimes non-existent, so be sure to look ahead of time.
4. Pharmacies: I practically packed a pharmacy for this trip, but knowing the location and hours of the closest pharmacy will be important. Additional tip: travel with a doctor (lucky us, both Boppa and Uncle W are doctors) or have your allergist write a spare prescription for all allergy medications just in case.
5. Medication bag: Get a bright carryall for allergy meds. With 5 suitcases, blankets, stuffed animals, pillows, and kids to keep track of, having something that stands out is perfect since you will need to take it everywhere. Here is what ours looks like (from AllerMates) We carry two Epi Pens, Benadryl, and our inhaler with chamber all inside this easy to see and easy to carry pouch.
I am sure that long trips and vacations that include flying will require much more planning, but for those fabulous "quick trips", this will do for now.
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