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Koyte
10-09-2006, 10:40 AM
I wasn't sure 'where' to put this!

My daughter and I went on holiday to Barcelona for ten days last month and my biggest worry was how we were going to cope with her milk and wheat allergy but it actually worked out fine.

There were quite a few Spa convenience stores, all of which sold soya milk (or soja as it is in Spanish) and even chocolate soya milk which made tasha very happy. The big Spanish department store El Corte Ingles had a great food allergy section though I couldn't find any milk free cheese. Their wheat free rolls were better than the ones tasha has on prescription. We ate out a lot and I'm really fortunate that Tasha eats a lot of things that most kids her age wouldn't eat, like mussels and fresh sardines with their heads, tails and spines still intact! She ate alot of fish and where possible avoided anykind of white sauce. We did have a few problems. For example one cod dish came with a creamy sauce which Tasha just scraped off. For some allergy sufferes I know this would still be a problem but with Tasha she can tolerate small amounts of milk.

We did find that she was perfectly ok with Crema Catalana which is a dessert similar to cream caramel. I checked out the ingredients in a shop and there was no sign of milk or wheat in it.

When we went I took two cartons of soya milk, our own cereal, pasta and flour. I didn't have a letter from the doctor which I know alot of people suggest you do but my doctor is pretty hopeless about that sort of thing. We didn't have any problems though the new security measures over liquids in hand luggage might have been a problem if they'd come into effect before our trip out instead of after it!

Our next trip will hopefully be to Rhodes next year.

jill
10-09-2006, 08:21 PM
Pleased to hear you holiday went well, it is reasuring to know that Soya is available in foreign countries. I am okay when I visit my sister in Belgium as they stock the Alpro milk and deserts in many shops - Spa, Aldi and one called Del Haze.

whitewabbit2001
11-09-2006, 09:47 AM
i took the letter just in case , met some allergy suffers when i was in greece was great,
glad u had good hols

goose
11-09-2006, 10:34 AM
Glad to hear you had a great time, And good to see Tasha didnt go without

JaynieB
11-09-2006, 10:58 AM
Glad to hear you had a good hols and well done Tasha for eating all that sea food - muscles I wouldn't even fancy!!!

We were similar - DS having only an intollerance not an allergy - I can only imagine how hard it must be if your child (or anyone) has a severe allergy to a food stuff - especially going on holiday or somewhere where you feel a little out of control on the food front, it does make me feel really fortunate that he doesn't have an allergy.

DS is quite young so I could cook him food in the apartments at tea time and I think it worked out quite well - I 'think' I saw soya milk in the greek supermarket but as I don't use it yet I wasn't really looking to buy - and of course their alpahbet is different which doesn't help!!! but I find they are so happy to help and friendly they will accomodate you in any way they can.

Glad the holiday experience was a good one - Rhodes is supposed to be beautifull - Lindos was recomended to us but as DS is only 1 it is no good for prams as the town is on the side of a hill.

Jayne

Koyte
17-09-2006, 06:07 PM
Thanks everyone!
Have to admit Rhodes seems daunting as the Greek alphabet won't mean much to us! My Gran went to Rhodes many years ago and said it's very nice!

Helen

yvie
18-09-2006, 07:47 PM
Hi Helen
Glad you had a nice time.

Chat soon,

Love Yvie and Haylie x

Lou C
11-10-2006, 11:07 AM
Well just returned from a week in Spain, thought I'd just pop a couple of things on here that I managed to find in the supermarket, in case any of you are going

I took rice milk with us as ZAc's allergic to soya as well...........managed to find the equivalent of "tiger white" milk in one of the supermarkets, "Don Simon horchatta de valencia" chufa milk, in a carton....I did find some other chufa milk in plastic bottles but this had milk proteins added.
Also some margarine "maiz" with a picture of corn on the lid...I think this is widely available.

I looked through the ingredients myself then showed the allergy card I had got from dietary card to an assistant, then double checked all the ingredients on the translation site.

Obviously ingredients may change but it's handy to have a starting point of what to look for if you run out of things you take with you.

yummy
11-10-2006, 07:59 PM
That is great that you and your daughter had a nice time in Spain. Belle, my daughter and I went to Japan for three weeks in September and I found it was quite difficult to find some bread for her. She is allergic to Cows milk and eggs. She loves a pice of bread with marmite and soya margarine. Japanese bread always have milk, lactose or butter and we could not find any margarine which is suitable for her allergic condition. So she had lots of rice and Udon, Japanese noodle instead. Udon sometime contain egg white, so I had to look up the ingredient. Great thing about Japanese soya milk is that they had orange, banana, mix fruit and Maccha (Japanese green tea) flavor soya milk. Belle love them except the Maccha. I hope we can find similar products in the UK.

We were allowed to take only one hand luggage when we took an airplane from Heathrow, so I had to convince custom officers that I had to take lots bags with foods and medications like epipen, calcium-sandoz and etc... It went all fine eventually with a letter from Belle's doctor.

matt
12-10-2006, 04:15 AM
welcome to the site and sounds like you had a good time.

goose
12-10-2006, 09:19 AM
Yes, welcome to the site Yummy. The soya milk sounds good. And looks like the Gp's letter was a great help.