Dealing with severe nut allergies in France

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d think about renting a place and doing your own cooking. While American restaurants are used to orders like “no, tomatoes, dressing on the side” type orders, from what I’ve seen, French restaurants do less of this.

The popular nuts there are hazelnut and almonds. I can’t see how you can get anything from a boulangerie or pâtisserie because of the risk of cross contamination.

This is a good idea. And maybe even look into hiring a chef to come to your kitchen and prepare a bunch of meals you can warm during the week. We did this during a visit to Italy and it was so lovely being in a home like environment and having fresh food in our fridge to eat over the trip. The night he came we ate a big fancy dinner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d think about renting a place and doing your own cooking. While American restaurants are used to orders like “no, tomatoes, dressing on the side” type orders, from what I’ve seen, French restaurants do less of this.

The popular nuts there are hazelnut and almonds. I can’t see how you can get anything from a boulangerie or pâtisserie because of the risk of cross contamination.

I think you might need to do this too. The French seem to use hazelnuts and almonds a lot.

[Anonymous]

We took my son with nut allergies to Italy last summer. My general rules were no desserts and no gelato. I wouldn’t do crepes in France. There’s too high of a risk of cross-contamination. Also, like French, there is no generic term for nuts in Italian. I had the allergy cards made to list each allergen specifically (walnut, almond, pistachio, cashew, pine nut; etc.).

DS was annoyed that he couldn’t indulge in dessert (we did buy treats like gummi bears), but we made it through two weeks without incident.

[Anonymous]

You might google around for bakeries, chocolate shops, restaurants, etc that specifically advertise themselves as allergen-free. They do exist because food allergies are on the rise everywhere. For example:
https://www.tastingtable.com/1045453/the-allergy-friendly-paris-pastry-shops-david-lebovitz-swears-by/

[Anonymous]

Allergy mom here with young adult who has dealt with food allergies his entire life. We have traveled extensively with him BUT we always get places with kitchens and cook our own food. Every so often we can find a safe pizza place but mostly we eat in our hotel room/VRBO. Yes, it changes how we travel (I love to eat out!). It is our reality. I enjoy going to foreign grocery stores to see the different kinds of foods. Invest in a travel skillet. I would not trust restaurants, esp. in non-English speaking countries. Go travel the world, but have a kitchen and cook your own meals. Welcome to the "club."

[Anonymous]

As an allergy parent, I’m kind of skeptical your child could have a “severe allergy” you are just discovering in ES.

NP. Sorry, just have to add to this comment because it is so wrong. Severe allergies can develop at any time.

My daughter had a "mild" allergy to peanuts and tree nuts and would get hives and an itchy throat with exposure. So we avoided them but were not too concerned. Then, when she was 8, she ate candy that was cross contaminated with hazelnuts -- did not even contain hazelnuts, was just processed on shared lines (and incidentally was labeled on the front as "peanut and nut free"). She went into anaphylaxis and had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

I developed a shellfish allergy as a teenager after years of eating it. Same with penicillin, which I discovered in college when I went into anaphylaxis and almost died.

So you are absolutely, 100 percent wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an allergy parent, I’m kind of skeptical your child could have a “severe allergy” you are just discovering in ES.

Putting that aside, epinephrine, if given quickly, is extremely effective and not something you should be wary of using. My daughter sees Dr. Wood at Hopkins, failed a food challenge there, and I’ve seen epinephrine in action. A miracle drug. There is no downside to giving Epi even if you are unsure if the person “needs” it.

Allergies can develop at any time. My son's grandmother developed a life threatening fish allergy overnight in her 70's after eating fish her whole life.

+1. I know many people who developed serious allergies to foods they had eaten for years without a problem.

[Anonymous]

Things that have gotten us in the hospital before for my tree nut allergy kid. (Over the past 20 years)

A lick of my spouses ice cream when kid was a toddler.

A “plain” brownie from a bakery (must have been near or had one with walnuts)

A sauce from an Indian restaurant meal we didn’t know had cashews. (In the dc area)

A restaurant meal in Arizona we didn’t know had mole sauce, which was made with ground nuts.

All this is to say, you can be careful and still be exposed. In Europe, so many things have almonds, pralines, hazelnuts, cashews, pecans, walnuts, etc. I have decided not to go to some countries on vacation with my kid. DH and I will go separately.

It has always been restaurants or bakeries for us.

[Anonymous]

We carry an Epi-pen for peanut allergy and traveled in France. We stuck to plain, known entities in restaurants and always let the waiter know.
Bakeries - same, always asked. Skipped a lot of the patisserie items. Cross-contamination can happen anywhere. Kids are aware and good about this now. When kids were younger we exclusively traveled within Disney because we found them exceptional with allergies, that was our experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We took my son with nut allergies to Italy last summer. My general rules were no desserts and no gelato. I wouldn’t do crepes in France. There’s too high of a risk of cross-contamination. Also, like French, there is no generic term for nuts in Italian. I had the allergy cards made to list each allergen specifically (walnut, almond, pistachio, cashew, pine nut; etc.).

DS was annoyed that he couldn’t indulge in dessert (we did buy treats like gummi bears), but we made it through two weeks without incident.

I can't imagine Italy. My husband and I went there pre-kids and there were pistachios everywhere and I found restaurant servers to not take you seriously generally. For instance, I was pregnant at the time and would ask to not be seated in the smoking section and they would just ignore the request and sit us next to smoking people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're just finding out that our young elementary child has a pretty severe tree nut allergy, given a reaction recently at a restaurant likely due to contamination in the kitchen (there had been past reactions, but not this severe). Since then, we've started letting the restaurant know whenever we eat out, and haven't encountered any problems.

Does anyone know what the etiquette is in France? Just wondering whether we should pack our own meals for the kid when we go out, or whether the kitchens can accommodate our request. We'll be heading there this summer.

Europe is better vs the US for allergies but nuts are a little tougher. One of our kids has Celiac and we found looking for “health food” restaurants really helped. They are usually smaller and they take allergies very seriously plus the food is usually pretty good.

[Anonymous]

In France what more does a child need than the 3 Cs: croissants, cheese and chicken?

Stick to those, and some fruit and vegs, and the kid will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Stay at a high end hotel (four seasons etc) and have kid eat at hotel only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stay at a high end hotel (four seasons etc) and have kid eat at hotel only.

Yes. This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In France what more does a child need than the 3 Cs: croissants, cheese and chicken?

Stick to those, and some fruit and vegs, and the kid will be fine.

Yes, that croissant that is likely a harbinger of cross contamination. Do that and spend some time in the ER.