Camping with a Food Allergic Child

Camping Safely with Food Allergies


Tomorrow we are venturing on our first family camping trip!  Last year we went to Maine for our summer vacation, and if any of you remember it was quite an adventure with a food allergic child.  Traveling with stays in hotels proved to be less than ideal for our family (setting off the smoke alarm and having the fire marshall arrive due to a smoky hot plate was quite embarassing!)..... 

This year we are embarking on a new adventure....Camping!  I thought I would share with you some of the planning I do to try to ensure that it is a safe experience for my daughter who is anaphylactic to all dairy, eggs, peanuts and tree nuts.

Before you do anything else, make sure you have your Epi-Pens (more than one -remember that an epi-pen only lasts for 10-15 minutes and you may be required to administer additional dose(s) depending on the response rate for emergency medical care where you are traveling).   I personally bring 4-5.  Bring Benadryl as well.   Make sure your medications have not expired and are good for use (have not been damaged by exposure to extreme temps etc.)  
Having an epi-pen on hand is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you need in the case of an anaphylactic reaction.*****

First thing I do (after learning the hard way) is to scope out the destination and to make sure I know where the nearest hospital is.  I inquire about the response time for ambulances in case of an emergency and the location of the nearest hospital.  I also make sure that I know the correct address and location information for where we are staying so that if I did have to call 9-1-1 I would be able to accurately describe my location.  Preparing to have a cell phone that is charged and ready to use if needed is a must.  If camping in a remote area where cell phone signals may be compromised, you should have another plan for contacting 9-1-1 if required....where is the nearest landline phone?

Second of all I plan for cross-contamination of surfaces. I alway pack my daughter's own pillow when she travels (it may be crazy but I worry about someone having nut saliva on the hotel pillow!)....  I pack wipes (if there is not an issue with lanolin, choose lanolin based wipes as they are effective at removing protein from surfaces).  I bring my antibac Norwex enviro cloths these are great for cleaning surfaces using water alone.  They even have a travel pack which comes with 4 mini enviro cloths.  I also pack my own dish soap, hand soap and other toiletries (such as lotions, toothpaste, sunscreen and bug spray)....this is to ensure that all products are safe for my daughter.

Now for food...the most important part!  Here is what I pack for food and food-related needs:

  • table cloth or placemats to form a barrier between possibly contaminated surfaces in restaurants (now this time we are camping so I am just bringing a table cloth for the picnic table)
  • cleaning cloths and dish towels and dish soap (I already mentioned this :)
  • plastic plates, bowls, cutlery and sharp knives -I got great ones with covers for travel from my mother and sister-in-law
  • napkins
  • allergy safe foods for all meals and snacks & lots of it!  I have been chided for over packing but when you have a child with food allergies, you want to make sure that you have more than enough -it is not easy to just go and grab something as other parents could for their non-allergic child.
  • Note:  **I refrain from being any new food products with us when we travel.  I try to bring only foods my daughter has had before that have been proven safe for her.  Sometimes packages neglect to mention the possibility of traces of allergens having contaminated the food or have undeclared food allergens in them.  I would prefer not to experiment when on vacation!**
Ok so here is a sample menu of what I have packed for one day of camping:

Breakfast:
  • Cereal
  • Rice Milk Drink Boxes -don't need to be refrigerated and small portion size is great for this
  • fruit (fresh fruit or apple sauce -as luck would have it, my daughter refuses to eat most fresh fruits so we usually do apple sauce with cinnamon)
Morning Snack:
  • Ryvita Crisp Bread or allergy safe bread with Wow Butter or Sunbutter, honey, jam etc.
  • fruit (grapes, oranges)
Lunch:
Afternoon Snack:
  • Nacho chips with salsa or
  • Rice Crackers with Hummus
  • Cosmic Cookies (these are AMAZING and very fulfilling)

Dinner:
  • Campfire cooked hot dogs
  • veggies and allergy safe dip
Dessert:
  • Smores!  We are going to have our first ever smores tomorrow!  Very exciting.  Marshmallows are safe for our daughter and so are graham crackers but unfortunately we have a hard time getting chocolate bars and find chocolate chips that are dairy and nut free much easier to find.  The problem is that chocolate chips will just fall out all over the place in a smore so to solve that problem I have melted the chocolate chips at home ahead of time and spread the chocolate over graham crackers on one side.  Refrigerating the graham crackers with chocolate results in a hardened chocolate covered graham cracker...add a toasted marshmallow while camping and enjoy a smore!!
Beverages:
  • water -I purchased larger bottles of water and am bringing our reusable stainless steel water bottles...I figure this is somewhat less plastic than buying individual water bottles and hopefully helping to reduce our waste somewhat!
  • juice boxes (totally negating what I just said but at least they can be recycled???) -I should have purchased larger container of juice but cut me some slack...I have a lot to think about here! :)
  • chocolate rice milk juice boxes
  • treat: pc 100% fruit sparkling fruit juices
  • adult beverages of your choice -how else are you going to sleep crammed in a tent with your whole family?  :)  ha ha
 Please remember that I am not a medical or dietary expert and am only sharing my experiences and advice as a fellow allergy mom.  You should consult your medical professional, dietician, naturopath or nutritionist if you are unsure about any of the advice I have given in my blog.  If you have any additional comments, tips, corrections etc...please let me know!  My intention is to provide support (emotional and experiential) to other parents with food allergic children.

All the best and happy travels!

Melissa Scheichl
The Allergy Mom
xoxoxo

9 comments:

  1. Excellent post. It was very helpful for me.Thank you for sharing!

    Outdoor Blog

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  2. Where did you find rice milk boxes? My daughter is peanut, dairy, and egg allergic as well and we just discovered the chocolate rice milk, but juice box sized would be awesome! We are going camping for a week with lots of realitives and I am trying to get things together to keep her safe!

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    1. Rice Dream brand makes them in Vanilla, Regular and chocolate. They are great for travel! http://www.tastethedream.com I am in Canada and am wondering if there is a difference between Canadian and American ingredients - I know that in Canada it is safe for nut-free, dairy-free but perhaps not in the U.S.? I will look into this and report back. :)

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    2. Hi Melissa
      Thanks for your very informative post!
      My teenage son is going to have his 1st sleep away camp next week. He is anaphylactic to dairy. I was gathering more information see how other moms would do things differently. He's also going to have his first s'mores at a campfire and he is ecstatic about it. I'm also going to melt dairy free chocolate chips into chocolate bar molding from Michael's or Joann's. Thanks for the awesome cookie recipe!

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  3. Awesome post. Most informative. Thx! , Super! Thanks especially for the food. Thanks for sharing. Its always great to find good honest practical content. Thank you so much.

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  4. Hey Valscsi,
    For smores I take enjoy life safe chocolate chips and melt them and then spread them on graham crackers and allow them to cool in fridge. Then I pack those for use with our smores! Built in chocolate! Super easy and yummy!

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    1. Thank you very much for the tip!!! It would be certainly more practical but this time he just wants to break away the chocolate pieces like all the other teenagers. haha :)
      You mentioned above you use lanolin based wipes. Is there a particular brand that you prefer to use? I'm not sure which kind has lanolin. I've ran into trouble (major break out!) before for using just a "plain" wipe thinking that all of them work.
      Thanks Melissa

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  5. Thank you for posting this! I am preparing to go on a weekend-long family camping trip with my husband's family and their church friends. I have several serious food allergies (wheat, all meats and shellfish) and was worried about what to do/bring with me for my own meals. They typically have meals pot-luck style (as there are close to 100 of them attending) and I know that would be dangerous for myself. I will definitely try the boxed milk idea and bring along my own cereal and pre-packaged snacks.

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You're awesome! Thanks for sharing your comment!