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Allergytravels.com – a new site for keen allergic travellers |
Emma Amoscato is a mum of two young children with multiple allergies and writes about their lives at Freefromfarmhouse.co.uk. She has launched a brand new website to help people travel safely and confidently with food allergies www.allergytravels.com |
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Travelling with food allergies throws up a lot of extra challenges and it can be a daunting decision to visit a new country or go somewhere you are unfamiliar with. You might be worried about flying, about finding safe restaurants or not knowing the local language in an emergency. It is difficult to know where to find the right information, who you can trust or what the reality of travelling with food allergies actually is. So that's why we've set up Allergy Travels. We were frustrated at not knowing the answers or where to look. We were tired of scouring Google, visiting Facebook forums and piecing together our plans from a range of different sources. We knew there was a better way and we hope we've found it! AllergyTravels.com is a new one-stop-shop for allergy travellers. AllergyTravels.com allows you to leave and browse reviews for individual countries and airlines so you can share your own experiences and learn from others who have already been there. We also have an extensive forum where you can connect with other travellers, ask questions and leave advice. Finally, we have lots of tips, inspiration, interviews and traveller tales over on our blog pages. 
The site was an idea dreamed up last year by four keen travellers and passionate allergy advocates who were all thinking the same thing but didn't know how to start. We all live in different countries – Canada, Germany, Slovenia and UK – and have developed and designed the whole concept without even meeting in person! The team consists of Kyle Dine, best known for his unique food allergy music and education for kids, Kortney Kwong King who writes Allergy Girls Eats, Allie Bahn aka Miss Allergic Reactor and me, Emma Amoscato. Between us, we have been to 74 countries across 6 continents and deal with over 30 different allergies. I am the odd one out in the group as I don't actually have any food allergies myself. I am the mum of two young children who both have multiple food allergies and I write about our lives over on FreeFromFarmhouse. I wanted to get involved as I love to travel and I want to be able to give my children the same experiences. But I know how hard that can be. I know how scary it is for food allergy mums to step outside their comfort zone. Our first international trip to America came just weeks after our 9 month old son had been diagnosed with multiple allergies, including peanuts, tree nuts, milk,egg and sesame. Suddenly I had so many questions – Is it safe to fly? What do I do with the epipens? Will I be able to find things for him to eat? Luckily, the trip was a success and since then we have been back to America and visited France, Spain and Dubai. We have had a few hiccups – like my son getting having a reaction from a hired car seat – but we have learnt a lot along the way. Dealing with allergies will not stop us travelling but it does change the way we do things. And that's why this new resource is so important. We are keen to build a community of allergy travellers so we can all share tips, experiences and support. And make sure everyone gets to see the wonders of the world. Here are our top five tips for travelling with allergies:
August 2017 For more articles on travelling with allergies and intolerances see here. |
Passport? Check. Plane tickets? Check. Epipen?
