FINALLY! This was the first time in thirteen years of managing life threatening food allergies, our annual trip to Los Angeles was free of major eating stress! As I was driving home yesterday, I asked the kids about their favorite parts of the trip. As they rattled off Disneyland, meeting the new twin cousins and being with family, I realized that one of my favorite parts was that I did not stress about food as I had in the past!!! Thanks to Disneyland‘s stronger Food Allergy Policy and to Allergy Eat’s smartphone App–we easily found restaurants–including driving directions that were able to accommodate my family’s allergies. My son didn’t want to go on this trip as he complained about always needing to worry about food and missing skiing (it finally snowed here). Needless to say, he was shocked and pleased that he found many restaurants he could eat at! 
Thank you Allergy Eats–you helped make LA fun! I thought back to 13 years ago, after my son was diagnosed with a peanut, tree nut, dairy, egg, fish, shellfish, lemon, berry, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, flax-seed, poppy-seed and sesame seed allergy we did not eat out and I carried one full small suitcase of food. My son has outgrown many of his allergies but we still avoid peanut, tree nut, dairy, sesame and poppy seeds. This trip, I carried two jars of Sunbutter®, a box of Chex® cereal, a package of Salami and Kings Hawaiian® sliced bread (note: my son is outgrowing his allergy to dairy and he can eat milk baked in foods). I only called one restaurant ahead of time. We even headed to Disneyland WITHOUT dinner reservations since we knew there were many options available. When my son was visiting his cousins without me, I knew all he needed to do was to open up the Allergy Eats App and find his food allergy favorite eateries or choose one that had already been rated — and there were plenty of options! The fun part, besides eating safe food, was being able to rate restaurants and add comments for other food allergy folks! 
This morning I’m feeling very grateful for the changes that keep taking place in our life threatening food allergy world. I’m very thankful to Disneyland for addressing food allergies as a serious issue and to Allergy Eats for taking on this kind of business and improving the quality of life for folks like us! THANK YOU-hope you are feeling the love!
P.s. I was not paid by Disneyland or Allergy Eats to have a good time using their products or facilities.
One of the hardest things I find about managing both life threatening food allergies and asthma is talking to others. I hate to be the one that might be perceived as demanding, pushing or for asking too much. What I now know, fourteen years later, is that honest, clear information presented with kindness works!..
this is so encouraging to hear–so glad the trip went well. I tend to stress about traveling with my son and avoid it when I can, and that’s kind of sad. I’m realizing what a missed opportunity it is sometimes on vacations, where we are home and not really out learning and seeing and doing, just because of that….need to rethink this. I’ll definitely use Allergy eats next time we do go though!
Robin,
I still do avoid certain trips, etc. Sometimes, I just don’t have the desire to go through all the planning. This was truly a pleasant surprise. Also, my son being able to eat baked dairy opened new pizza doors.
I have been an Allergy Eats fan for a really long time and the last time we visited Disney, it tooks weeks of planning and many phone conversations, to see how much they have changed is heart warming.
Yay for safe travels and Allergy Eats!!
I want to follow up on your “To-Do” list since I also have a high school sophomore and am starting to think about allergy friendly colleges. Allergic Living magazine had a little spread on them, but there is still so little information out there. Please post your strategies for researching colleges and what you are looking for at each. My son has multiple FAs, more like yours used to, and I fear that he’ll not be accommodated safely at a dorm dining hall.
Found your blog from an allergy post link to your son’s surveys 🙂
Thanks for joining the conversation and the great suggestion from my To Do List! Allergic Living is my favorite magazine. I will post, I know Allergic Child has addressed college as Nicole’s son gets ready to head to college this fall.
I’m sooooo glad you found us! Thank you for completing my son’s survey too! He has been very excited about all the good response coming in.
have a great day.