Having recently tried to book a cheap break in December for the three of us, I have once again been left debating with myself about what risks I want to take when it comes to food.

Staying somewhere ‘safe’ is always top of the list – where there will be a hospital with decent facilities nearby, if required, and somewhere where eating allergy-free food doesn’t come with a likelihood of ‘traveller’s tummy’.  So, considering that, the time of year and our budget, I started trawling the sites for a good deal in the Canaries.

I soon became annoyed at how easy and cheap it is to book ‘all-inclusive’ holidays.  They claim to be so much better as there are free ice-creams for the kids and a great buffet offering lots of different foods every night.

Now, having a dairy-free child who doesn’t eat ice-cream is one thing, but the idea of taking him to a buffet dinner would give me a bad case of ‘stress tummy’.  Trying to establish what ingredients are in what, whether they could have been contaminated by allergens if prepared in the same kitchen and if guests are helping themselves, potentially mixing serving spoons from one dish to another, is just too much for us to be able to look forward to and enjoy eating out each evening.  The chefs may be well-trained and knowledgeable, but I cannot let myself take the chance.

As all-inclusive seems to be very much the typical package deal these days, finding a self-catering apartment is a bit harder than it used to be.  Nevertheless, as long as we can pack plenty of Oatly in our luggage, with self-catering I can at least be sure he can have cereal for breakfast all week, and for other meals too if needs must.

Previously we have had a lot of luck with his trigger foods written in the local language and aiming for smaller, family-run style restaurants where they have been more than happy to disregard the kids’ menu and cook MIB something plain and allergy-free.

It can be stressful enough to plan where our next meal is coming from and having an allergic child definitely takes the impulsiveness out of eating out so if we find somewhere good, we’re happy going to the same place a couple of nights.

A week of me cooking really does not appeal as I’m after a break from the norm too.  But, I’m not prepared to take too much risk with MIB’s health.  After all, spending every evening cooking certainly beats a day or two in A&E.

  

MyItchyBoy

My son has atopic eczema and he reacts badly to dairy, soya and we are slowly working towards him eating eggs again. He's had a mild anaphylactic reaction to peanuts and has regular flare-ups to random things that we rarely manage to pinpoint. I started the blog to share my experiences and frustrations of having an itchy boy.

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