A friend of mine is traveling to Asia in a few months with her sesame seed allergic child. She is seeking any tips or suggestions on keeping her child safe. Can you post your ideas or suggestions below for her?
They will visit Hong Kong and stay with friends who are from Singapore, then they will travel together to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. My son is highly allergic to sesame seed (plus nuts) and we avoid all Asian restaurants period, so the thought of traveling through Asia sounds very challenging to me. The pieces of advise I was able to share were these…
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- Visit Hoisn sauce to get chef cards in the languages needed and
translated as well. - Bring plenty of Epi Pens® since I had learned from a reader in Malaysia that she did not have access to Epi Pens® and pleaded with a hospital to sell her epinephrine and a needle.
- Learn about where the local hospitals are located–oh I just realized that she should also check to see if she need cash for the hospital too. I know when I worked in China years ago, I was advised to have enough cash if I ever needed help since you pay first. Which is the opposite here in the US.
Have you traveled to Asia or can you give advise regarding which foods might contain sesame seed, such as Hoisn sauce or other traditional foods that are adorned with the seeds? Truly, I believe she needs advice regarding traveling through the Orient with a sesame seed allergic child in two aspects:
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- Safety and emergency response. She needs suggestions about what kind of emergency response is there and what kind of information she needs for that response. For example, should she carry an international cell phone and call for help herself? Are there translators or is she better off handing off a laminated Emergency Action Plan to someone or both?
- Avoidance. Foods to avoid or tips for managing restaurants.
Thanks for any tips or advice regarding travel to Asia with a Sesame Seed food allergy would be GREATLY appreciated!!!
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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!..
Obviously, avoiding countries that use sesame seeds & oil as their staples is the best option to avoiding any problems. Keep a large amount of liquid benedryl handy, as well as numerous epi pens. Know the country’s emergency system -developing countries (like most in Asia) are not as ‘safe’ in this regard. Consider leaving the child with a nanny or delaying the trip, if it’s not imperative.
If the above options are not viable, have faith & enjoy the overseas visit. There are no guarantees in life & fully understand the consequences of all decisions made.
Having been to Thailand and Japan, I can tell you there are plenty of choices for eating. We had plenty of choices of where to ear and what to eat from American to Italian to Asian. A lot of the restaurants have English speaking personnel. You will find more Europeans while traveling in Asia as the travel time is much shorter for Europeans, so there is a lot of different languages spoken.
They do use a lot of sesame oils for cooking so I would just make sure you are able to communicate with someone that speaks English to verify.
Patti, thanks…this is good news!!!
I am very curious to see how this pans out. My son is allergic to sesame, and I can’t imagine traveling to Asia. My husband and I went to Japan years ago, and we would love to go there again. The fear of the sesame allergy is keeping us at home, but I would love to go….
I would advise to be as pro-active as possible. I would definitely get an international phone, and maybe talk to the embassy to find out about hospital care and emergency systems. And this is really coming out of nowhere, but maybe find any military base hospitals? Is that even viable? It just popped into my head…
Unfortunately, although there are several different food choices in these countries, the prevalence of sesame oil is everywhere. The cross contamination risk I just can’t imagine. Plan ahead to see if there are any boiled easy dishes to eat. In Japan, the food was so different than here, and without knowing the language, most dishes we ate were crap shoots. Learn key phrases in each language- allergy, anaphylaxis, sesame, emergency, hospital. At least that might help a bit.
There are always food options through grocery stores etc. The food might not be the best that the child will eat, and he/she might be eating a lot of rice…
I sincerely wish your friend the best of luck, and I would love to hear how they did. It would really
give me the push and inspiration to go back to Japan!
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Marla, thanks for the insight, I’ll let you know what she does and how it turns out!