Allergies and Airplanes

dmum

Tue, Nov 23 2010, 11:23 am

This is a question for mothers of kids with nut allergies, especially airborne allergies.
What do you do on airplanes? Is it an issue at all? I'm asking because I'm flying soon with my kids and was thinking of snacks to take along, and wanted to take pb sandwiches and bamba.
Do I have a responsibility to think that there might possibly be a kid on board who has an airborne peanut allergy, or can I assume that the parents are prepared for this kind of thing, and I can give my kids whatever I want?
Also, if you say it's everyone's responsibility to worry about your kids' allergies, then what do you do about airline meals, peanuts served with drinks etc? I know someone with an airborne fish allergy, does that mean if there's a fish meal being served she will have an allergy attack? How does it work?

This is a serious question, I want to understand how much of an issue it is in a confined space.
Thanks!!

mummy-bh

Tue, Nov 23 2010, 12:36 pm

I think it is a very serious issue, particularly as the air on aeroplanes is recycled.

Personally, I have one dd who if she were to fly must take along benadryl and two epipens. Possibly because of her issues having made me aware, I don't take any nut products on board when I fly. It's just too scary.

My dh was flying a few months back, and as soon as he boarded he and all the other passengers were asked if they could please not open any peanut products that he may have, as there was a person on that flight who was severely allergic.

maze

Tue, Nov 23 2010, 1:59 pm

They told the same thing to us. A stewardess made an announcement that two children on board the flight had severe peanut allergies, and asked us not to either open or eat anything with peanuts in them. It would be nice if they warned you in advance instead of on the plane. What if you prepared peanut butter sandwiches like you said and have nothing else to give your kids? It would be much better if people who have allergies notify airlines as soon as they book their ticket, and airlines should e-mail all customers in advance of the flight.

amother

Tue, Nov 23 2010, 2:18 pm

Its realy nice of you to consider children with allergies. Just to be on the safe side don't take the peanut products along. There are plenty of other snacks and things to put on bread. Those foods that you mentioned have very strong smells and can be fatal to people/children with peanut allergies

dmum

Tue, Nov 23 2010, 2:39 pm

Thanks for the replies.
But how far do you gp? I mean, peanut allergies are well known. But what about others, like fish etc?
Is it really up to me to be careful of other people's possible allergies, or do they need to worry about it for themselves and take precautions in case others haven't thought in advance about it?

Mommy3.5

Wed, Nov 24 2010, 8:22 am

dmum wrote:

Right, so then what do they do?
You can't live in a vacuum.
If what Mommy3.5 is saying is true, then why should I bother not making my kids pb sandwiches, it that is what will keep them happy on a long flight?

Because peanut allergies are so prevalant, there is a good chance there will be a peanut allergic person on any given flight, if you are asked not to eat PN, you'll be up a creek without a paddle, if you have no other contingency plan.

I don't live in a vacuum. I end up with rather serious reactions because of it. Oh and every member of my family has at one point almost killed me because they "forgot".

small bean

Fri, Nov 26 2010, 9:45 am

when I was flying to isreal with my daughter who is very allergic to penuts. I called the airlines before to request no peanuts on the flight... but in the airport I had to ask for a seperate room because there were kids there eating peanut butter sandwiches.....

I think it's better to pick things peanut, fish and egg free because those are the most common airborn allergies.

Marion

Sat, Nov 27 2010, 8:47 am

Hi, my name is Marion and I'm a peanut allergic MOM. Note, not my child, me. The airlines all laugh at me when I ask about nuts when I book my ticket and tell me to notify the attendants on board. Kids' meals are all peanut free on ElAl (I asked for myself, as well as my sensitive child...he recently passed a food challenge). It's not always so simple to say "fend for yourself" when you're 40,000ft over water...even with 2 epi-pens.

Mommy3.5

Sun, Nov 28 2010, 6:46 am

Marion wrote:

The misconception is that epi pens stop the allergic reaction. that's where non allergic people get it wrong. epi pens postpone the reaction, they give you somewhere between 15 minutes and a 1/2 hour to get to a medical facility. When you are on an airplane, that complicates things to a whole new level.

mosma

Sun, Nov 28 2010, 7:48 am

I flew with my anaphylactic DS once. On the way there, the crackers they gave out were made with peanuts, and the people around me agreed not to eat them (which was very nice of them).
On the way home there was a huge issue bec the plane was late and they didn't have time to clean it and there were PEANUTS all over the floor and I asked them to sweep it and they were really nasty to me. Finally I got a steward to sweep it away from our seat and I spent the next 2 hours (short flight thank god) holding my epi pen and watching his face in a panic.
He was fine, thank goodness.
But I was really upset.

su7kids

Sun, Nov 28 2010, 7:52 am

I once flew from NY, think it was Jet Blue and they made an announcement before take off that there were peanut allergy kids on board and if we could please not use anything with nuts. It was tough, cos I had almonds, and I know they're not peanuts, but I was respectful, because if it were my child, I would want others to respect the caution, too.

allrgymama

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 4:07 pm

Having flown only once with my allergic daughter, I don't have much experience.

However, as a responsible Mother of an allergic child I called the airline (JetBlue) to notify them immediately after booking my ticket. Right now, most American airlines don't have a strict no-nuts policy (airlines in Canada are starting strict no-nuts policies, now, though) so there wasn't much to do besides ask for a buffer no-nuts area around my daughter.

I would not expect anyone on a flight to not eat something that they wanted to because of my daughter. I do my best to impose as little as possible on the people around me with my daughter's allergies. If she had an airborne allergy, I would have driven to where I had to go or skipped it entirely.

I think it is, in general, unfair to ask complete strangers to behave differently because of your child.

For what it's worth: our flight was delayed on the runway for close to two hours. At one point, I asked a steward how long they could keep us on the flight as I had a limited amount of food that was safe for my child. He gave me an answer and we continued waiting. What was amazing is that when they started doing a snack service, this steward came back to my seat to inform me that they were starting to serve snacks and was there anything they shouldn't serve because of a possible airborne issue. Baruch Hashem, my daughter has never had an airborne reaction to nuts and so I was able to tell him it wasn't a problem -- but I thought that was very thoughtful and accommodating. I would definitely fly with them again.

Marion

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 10:04 pm

allrgymama wrote:

If she had an airborne allergy, I would have driven to where I had to go or skipped it entirely.

I think it is, in general, unfair to ask complete strangers to behave differently because of your child.

1. When they build that transatlantic bridge I'll be happy to drive to my family's smachot.
2. Is it fair to ask complete strangers to behave differently for your OWN benefit?

allrgymama

Sun, Dec 26 2010, 11:03 am

1) You could always drive. On a boat.

2) I think it depends to what degree. When you're asking someone in a restaurant to stop smoking, then yes, that's a minor inconvenience. But like other posters said, when parents show up to a flight with peanut butter sandwiches or tuna fish sandwiches to all of a sudden find out that they can't take things out then that's unfair.

I know we all don't like it, but people with allergies are still a minority and it isn't fair to ask people, in a public space, to behave differently for you or yours.