The stress of trying to travel with food allergies has been a part of our lives for years. It can be very difficult and take lots of planning. We will give you some tips that can help make your life a little easier when traveling. Plus at the end of this blog we will give you our two favorite places to eat in the South Bends, IN area. Due to the number of food allergies we deal with, we have not traveled outside of the United States. These tips will apply to traveling anywhere but traveling to another county comes with additional challenges like a language barrier.
Our Story-EOE
Eating out is almost impossible due to our daughter’s severe allergy to dairy. She will react to even cross contamination. So it’s not as simple as ordering a taco and telling them no cheese. The person handling her taco has probably touched the cheese before, which is now on his gloves. Or there can be a couple of random pieces of shredded cheese in one of the other topping containers. She is also off gluten, eggs and soy but has no apparent symptoms that we know of. Jen has a gluten intolerance and a garlic allergy.
Our daughter has eosinophilic esophagitis also called EOE. A few years ago her endoscopy revealed she still had a large number of eosinophils in her esophagus even after being off dairy for a couple of years. The GI doctor and allergist both thought it would be best to keep her off highly inflammatory foods (gluten, eggs, & soy) to see if there was improvement. Unfortunately EOE isn’t as simple as you have an allergy with outward symptoms. EOE is a whole nother story for a different time. Let’s talk about how to travel with food allergies.
Where to stay
The best way to really control what goes on your plate is by cooking it yourself. To accomplish this you need to stay at a place with a kitchen so you can cook meals you know are safe. Plus we feel like we save money by not eating out when we travel. We used to do VRBOs when the kids were younger but then got into camping. We currently have a pull behind RV with a refrigerator/freezer, pantry, microwave, oven and stove. We feel like we have a lot more freedom and options with camping. All the food is packed before we leave the house and we don’t have to worry about running to the store when we get to our location.
If camping isn’t your thing, then a VRBO would be the next best thing. The only thing you need to consider is eating between the time you leave your house and getting to your destination. You will need to bring lots of snacks or a meal that you can travel with. Plus, you will still need to go to the grocery store when you get settled.
Research, Research, Research
Our daughter doesn’t like being “different”. She wants to be able to eat where we eat and we don’t want to exclude her. It’s a rare thing that we go to a place that we know she can’t have anything at and would need to bring her food with her.
Even though we only travel via camping we still like to explore the towns and if possible eat out or grab a snack. We don’t always want to run back to the camper to eat.
The first thing we do is our research. Social media is fabulous at being food allergy detectives for us. There are groups you can join on Facebook or just do a general search. In a group ask if anyone has eaten in a specific town and with what food allergies you have. You will be able to narrow down your places very quickly.
Look to see if there are any restaurants that seem like they would be allergy friendly. We visit their website and also their social media pages. Sometimes they will have an allergy menu. Even if they have a food allergy menu it doesn’t mean they take food allergies seriously. For us we need to know what their prep station is like, if they have shared fryers, or will the people handling the food change gloves between orders. We’ve been to ice cream places that have dairy free ice cream but they use the same scooper for all the ice creams. That completely defeats the purpose of having a dairy free ice cream. On the other hand we have been to ice cream places that have offered to open a new container and use a clean scooper. You honestly just have to ask nicely.
Once a place looks promising we will reach out to them. We almost always reach out to them via Facebook messenger first. We don’t want to bug the place by phone in case they are busy or the person that can answer our questions isn’t available. It’s not often that they don’t respond back through social media. After a few days if no one responds we will call during a non busy time.
Try to ask open ended questions. Something they can’t easily answer yes or no to mindlessly. You will learn very quickly if they seem to truly understand food allergy safety or not.
If you are lucky you will fall upon a place that is very allergy friendly like Erin Mckenna’s Bakery or at a local farmers market.
Reconfirm When You Get There
We always ask the same questions when we get to the restaurant. If we get consistent answers between the messaging of the restaurant and in person it gives us more confidence that the place takes allergies seriously and has trained staff.
Choose the Right Destination for your Food
This might seem silly but we have never been to Hersey, PA because all we can think about is everything our daughter couldn’t do. Like she can’t taste test all the amazing chocolates. That probably seems silly but that’s how our heads work.
One place we have gone over and over is Disney World. We know everyone says it’s so expensive but honestly if you have been to any other amusement park it’s similar in cost especially in food. Yes, a little more to get in but the magic is so much better than a Six Flag or smaller amusement park. But the biggest difference is they are amazing with food allergies. We have not been able to feed our daughter at any of the other smaller amusement parks. We always go back to the camper to eat.
Being that we like our daughter to feel as “normal” as possible we are willing to pay a little extra to visit Disney. They always have a chef come out to talk about her allergies and let us know what options she has. We’ve even had a restaurant at Magic Kingdom tell us if there wasn’t any food at their place she liked, they could run over to a different restaurant and get her food there. That kind of service is what keeps us coming back. Plus the campground at Disney World is AMAZING!!
Have A Back-Up Plan
There have been times where we think a location will work out and then when we get there we don’t feel as confident. We will usually bring a lunch box with a simple meal like lunch meat, fruit, veggies, etc. This way she won’t starve when we don’t let her actually eat their food. She does get a little bummed but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Our hope is we bring the lunch box back to the camper full because she was able to eat there. We recommend having an allergy friendly backup plan just in case.
Have Emergency Medications With You
This probably seems obvious but make sure you have all your medication with you to help treat a reaction. Have your epi pen, Benadryl, Zofran, etc. in your bag when you are out and about.
South Bend, Indiana Area recommendations
We truly don’t find many places that can accommodate all of her restrictions and how sensitive she is to her dairy allergy. If you happen to be traveling to the South Bend area (we are locals), we can recommend two places to visit that are minutes from South Bend. We have been to them multiple times with no issues and they have had wonderful staff every time we have gone.
Mission BBQ in Mishawaka (the town to the East of South Bend) is great with food allergies. They have an allergy menu that makes it easy to pick what you can eat. Our daughter can eat almost all the meats without a bun and be safe, plus a few of the side items. They have lots of sauce options but you add them at your table. She prefers to eat the meat without the sauce so we don’t have to worry about that. When you place your order let them know what your allergy is. Their kitchen is all open so you can see them prepare your order. When your order is up to be prepared the kitchen staff announce they have an allergy order and they all change gloves. LOVE IT!! Plus the fact you can watch them handle the food gives us more confidence in her safety.
Urban Swirl & Scoop is located in Granger. Also to the East of South Bend. They have a wall of soft serve frozen dessert machines. Each one is marked with the froyo or sorbet flavor along with any allergies they may have. Our favorite dairy free flavor is the watermelon sorbet. Before our daughter pulls the handle to serve herself, we take one of the sample cups and put some of the sorbet that she’s wanting in there to clear whatever was sitting on the end. Then she can serve herself without touching her cup to any of the machine pieces.
They also offer a ton of toppings! Of course she wants to put candy on top of it as well. We always look to see if any of the surrounding candy is a dairy item. Luckily it’s normally not by dairy candy. The owner is very sweet and has told us if we needed her to open a new bag of candy because of cross contamination, they would.
For those without a dairy allergy, they have delicious Graeter’s Ice Cream.
Take Away
If we could offer any piece of advice, it would be to be politely firm in your request but understanding. Not everyone lives with a food allergy and they don’t understand how every detail is important. Some of these businesses have high school kids working there and have had zero exposure to this. It can be a fabulous teaching moment for both of you. We never expect the world to accommodate our food restrictions nor will we get mad if they tell us they can’t accommodate us. You politely thank them and move on. It would be worse if they lied and then caused someone’s death due to them not understanding the severity of your request.
Do you know of any great allergy friendly restaurants? Let us know in the comment section.
Really love your takeaway at the end. Most people who deal with this day in and day out seem to develop an us-against-the-world mentality (and for good reason). But I love how you encourage an understanding and empathetic approach even toward the people who make your job so much tougher. That’s such a great example to your kids (and to the rest of us!). 😊🤝
Thank you so much for your kind words. It means a lot to us.