a question about kids with food allergies

[jfletcher]

Our son has a peanut allergy. We understand that the DCL people are very good about handling that sort of thing, but we were wondering if we should still get a little button or some stickers to put on his shirt. ("My name is Justin and I have a peanut allergy.")

Or do they take care of that with some sort of wristband or something?

 

[ktpool]

My nephew (3) has a peanut allergy and we didn't have any problems 2 weeks ago. I am not sure how they managed it (it could have been coded on the wristband), but we never had any issues.

Our waiter also asked about allergies our fist night and we had no problems at all the whole trip with my nephew!

 

[brandysmommy]

We sailed a year ago and at that time my DD who has nut allergies had a special colored wrist band and I felt that they handled the allergy fantastic across the board.

 

[jfletcher]

We sailed a year ago and at that time my DD who has nut allergies had a special colored wrist band and I felt that they handled the allergy fantastic across the board.

Did u leave the epi-pen with them at the Oceaneer Club? Or do they have that stuff already?

 

[brandysmommy]

I completed the medical forms that they have in advance. Then when you got on board we had an epi-pen form to complete and they labeled our epi-pen with a label that had everything about my daughter and we left it there everytime we left her. It came up on the screen that they needed it everytime she was checked in. She ate in the clubs twice I think and their policy is that if she was eating there (we had to give a few hours advance notice) nothing served contained or was co-processed with nuts. I can't say enough about how thorough they were and I'm pretty paranoid. On the first day, I wasn't sure I would leave her in the clubs so I questioned each counselor independently about policies and procedures and got them same confident answer from each of them. Good Luck!

 

[jfletcher]

Hmm, I just checked out the medical form and it says it must be received 14 days prior to sailing. We are sailing on Saturday. I didn't fill it out before because at the time I did our online checkin we didn't even know DS was allergic to nuts. (We had suspected it and kept him away from them, but we didn't know for sure until he was tested last week, which is when we got the epi-pen and all that.)

Do you think it would be OK for me to just bring along the form and hand it to them when we check him in?

I mean, they don't need to do plan anything in advance for him (since we are supplying the medication), so I wouldn't think it would be a problem.

 

[brandysmommy]

I don't know about how it would work if you brought it with - I believe a doctor needs to sign the form that we did as well. I know it was coded on our reservation so that we or our kids couldn't swipe a card anywhere without them knowing that she was allergic - don't know what the lead time is on getting everything into the system. I would call DCL and ask.

If this is the first time you are travelling with the allergy, you might want to also ask your allergist for his/her recommendations. For example ours has us travel with extra epi-pens and other extra meds especially when we are on a plane, ship or out of the country. For example, if my DD were to have a reaction on a plane, they couldn't land it and get her to a hospital before the epi-pen would wear off. I don't mean to scare you as I know it can be scary, I just thought I would throw it out there as I know initial diagnosis can be overwhelming and I didn't even know where to start with regard to precautions when my DD was first diagnosed.

Good Luck!

 

[jfletcher]

Well, we already have some letters signed by the doctor that we got for the airplane and for his schools, so couldn't we just attach one of those?

The doctor got us all set up for the plane, with epi-pens and the other meds. DD is not so sensitive that he would react to dust or peanut in the air. He'd have to actually eat something, and since he's not going to eat anything but what we give him, I'm not too worried.

 

[LisaFB]

Glad I found this thread... We're taking the kids in Oct and DS is HIGHLY allergic to over 30 kinds of foods including dairy, eggs, soy and wheat and I'm a bit nervous. I've ehard nothing but great things about Disney and food allergies, though. I never even thought about brining extra Epis for him, thanks for the tip.

 

[brandysmommy]

I would just check with DCL to be sure. I know some places are real particular about wanting THEIR forms filled out even if you have the same information on another form. I'd hate to be on the ship and find out they aren't happy with the form that you attached.