[Budapest]

Hi. We plan to be arriving in the Kapiti Coast area in September 08 - we are all really excited but have a few reservations too - that is to be expected though eh!

One of the kids has a pretty severe peanut allergy, I am not sure how common this is in NZ; he has to carry an EpiPen around with him but we find most places in the UK at least aware of nut allergies and although we cannot allow him to eat at most places, there are a few exceptions...

Anyone know more about nut allergies in NZ? Are there any restaurants which can guarantee nut free food? (Pizza, KFC, McDonalds etc - all the stuff kids love for a treat).:confused:

[Georgebulldog]

Sorry can't help too much but I have noticed that most of the food I buy does say if it's processed in a factory line that uses peanuts, I haven't taken too much notice but might be worth going on to Google.co.nz & googling it to see if there's more info

[nippa&pippa]

All my children & OH got mutli-food allergies of either - milk, egg, fish, pea, rice, kiwi fruit and peanuts, poss tomatoes and strawberry (so far.....as baby is still in weaning stages:uhoh ).
I have found, so far, bit difficulties in some cafe and some cafe is very helpful. After been here over 18months, I now know which cafes I can "safe" go to and the staffs go far as they can to help us producing lunch for my kids :nice1
Fast foods is one we stayed clear from because they haven't got any clue what in the food unlike UK, we can go to mcdonald's and ask for allergies/ingredient list whereas in NZ, forgot it!
All food in NZ have allergy awareness on the back of packet of what is in but food made in China or similar is something you need to be careful with, so I usually stayed clear from it
http://www.allergy.org.nz/ is best link to get advice on food allergies in NZ and best they have "undeclared" food warning page where there is a list of food that has failed to warn allergies sufferer.

One things I would like to point out to warn you, epi-pen is NOT free in NZ...going rate for epi-pen is $130-180 each, ouch!:exit

PM me if you want to ask questions in private.

[Tia Maria]

I can't answer for public areas (it might be worth checking with the airline when you fly as I know of a few people who have had issues with airlines not taking allergies seriously).

But the schools and Kindys seem aware. There is a boy in my sons class with an epipen and as well as the usual no Peanut butter warnings, it has also been discussed with the children so they know not to swap food (not allowed anyway but it goes on) and to be extra careful.

Cheers

Tia

[mgbridges]

But the schools and Kindys seem aware. There is a boy in my sons class with an epipen and as well as the usual no Peanut butter warnings, it has also been discussed with the children so they know not to swap food (not allowed anyway but it goes on) and to be extra careful.


Same at my boys school. Exactly same situation with one child in his class who is allergic to a lot of stuff but most severely to nuts. There are also a couple of other children with milder allergies so the school is really hot on reinforcing the message that they shouldn't swap food. The staff are all made aware of which children have inhalers etc and there are pictures with details stuck up in the medical room of the children who have epi-pens.

HTH
Anneliese

[nippa&pippa]

But the schools and Kindys seem aware. There is a boy in my sons class with an epipen and as well as the usual no Peanut butter warnings, it has also been discussed with the children so they know not to swap food (not allowed anyway but it goes on) and to be extra careful.


Same for my son's kindy, they have ban egg, milk and peanuts product in their food bag. Also picture of child with instruction what to do in case of reaction and medication hang up next to it. My son's spare medication is kept at kindy's first aid all the time as he doesn't use epi-pen (yet..).
I just spoke to his school yesterday about allergies policy before he start in july, again they are very allergies aware and show where they keep medications.

[Familyofmonkeys]

I wish my daughters old kindy had been more food aware. She doesn't have any food allergies (although possible intolerances) but we are veggie. Despite them having discussions and written instructions about what food is and is not acceptable, I turned up on more than one occassion just in time to whip cake covered in jelly sweets and cheese scones etc out of her hands......and they had a policy of not giving out birthday cakes etc until the end of the day when parents were present and can say if OK or not. They also tried to make her eat a sausage one week because they forgot to put a sticker on her (how they identify kids who don't have saussage sizzle food and bring packed lunch instead) :mad: ....luckily she refused to eat it :) Imagine how awful that could have been if they did the same with a child having food allergies.....

[Debbie]

My son also has the same food allergy. The link than Nippa&Pippa gave you has been very helpful to us. As she said make sure you get a new epi-pens before you arrive cause you pay for them here. The cheapest way we have found is to get the GP to order them for us as they don't put any mark up on them and they have always had a long BBF date.
That said the medical care my son has received has been great. That may in part be due to us living close to Auckland and getting in under the Starship catchment area.
The schools have all been great about the allergy thing but it pays to give them plenty of notice. My sons school applied for special funding to pay for a teacher aid for break times and school trips.
Eating out here is as difficult as ever. I tend to tend to weigh up risk and his need to be a kid but you soon get an idea of places you are willing to try, (epi-pen always at the ready).
Flights here were difficult, I spoke to our GP for advise before leaving. We chose direct flights as didn't want the hassle of asking for nut free food in a foreign language and didn't want to fly via USA. Only a few airlines would guarantee nut free meals but It's impossible to get a nut free flight. There is no way of knowing if the person who had the seat before you wiped their greasy peanut oiled fingers over the seats. We were advised to put my son on steroids for the flight, (the side effect is he can go hyper so that's fun). IMO it's best to get letters from your GP stating that you need to carry the epi-pens on the flight not in the hold as it saves a lot of fuss at check in. Remember that an epi-pen in the hold can be damaged by the low temp. and not be effective at a later date.
In my experience, once we were here life in NZ with an allergy kid was no worse than life in the UK and in some ways, (the consultant care and school plans) has been better.

Hope that helps Debbie.