Medical Diet Requests - Experience??

[3mmm]

We are on the Quest for the West starting in 10 days and my son is on a physician prescribed very restrictive diet for seizures. I've placed my request with ABD, and instead of listing what he can't have, we listed what he can (which is a much smaller list), including basic meal plans. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this and what our actual chances of getting the correct diet is. I am bringing a cooler with back-ups just in case, but would like to know what anyone's experience has been.

The diet is not very complicated - he can have salad, veggies, plain meats, cheese. No starches at all and no fruit. We supplement with some things that are not readily available, but we are bringing all of them.

This is our first trip on this diet and trying to be prepared. He's at Scout camp this week, but I prepared and packaged all his meals for the week. I can't do that while traveling and without reliable refrigeration or I would.

 

[SingingMom]

On our trip to London/Paris, we had a fellow traveler with severe food allergies. Each meal, she spoke to a wait staff and sometimes even a chef. They were very accomodating. Our guides checked with her at each meal to make certain she was taken care of. They were very diligent on making sure she had the right thing to eat and drink.

 

[figmentfan2009]

3mmm

Hugs,

I have to say, I'm amazingly grateful that neither of my, now adult, kids (both of whom have seizures) are food sensitive (or light sensitive for that matter).

You will need to work with the guides (and probably the wait staff too, unless I miss my guess in some places) but everyone is AMAZINGLY good at making sure your needs are met.

My daughter is deathly allergic to seafood and we have had to get kind of creative at times (and I anticipate having to do so again in South Africa) but people really will work with you.

You can almost always be assured of veggies wherever you go... and you have the advantage of being able to speak the language fluently in the Quest for the West trip (China was an interesting challenge). Just be honest with the guides and they really will go out of their way to make sure everyone stays safe.

Have fun!

 

[3mmm]

Thank you both! I got the standard "we can't make any guarantees" line and I was just wondering what anyone else's experience has been.

Just had parent night at Scout camp and they have been 100% on board so that has been a relief - of course I prepackaged all his food, but even so there is room for error. They did lose his ice cream the first night so I had to bring one tonight to make up for it, but when you are feeding 500 kids things do happen. Leaving something out is so much better than adding in something wrong.

I'll check back and let you know about our experience. And yes, the language thing is huge - I don't think we'll try a foreign trip until we have more experience!

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I just got back from Quest for the West! We had a peanut allergy and a gluten free on our trip. They were good at working with the diets. Also, my DH does not eat carbs, and he found plenty to eat. They didn't know about it. He just took off buns or bread. There was an Italian lunch at the Brooks Lake Lodge, and he was able to eat chicken with salad and/or roasted vegetables. The chef at Brooks Lake Lodge talked with the mom of the gluten free child.

I'm going to do a trip report in the next couple of days, but off the top of my head I think there is "plain" meat at every meal. The picnic in the Tetons had fruit, chips, and a pickle as the sides so that one might be limited to sides.

Our guides were GREAT so if you get them, they will definitely help.

 

[3mmm]

We are back and had an incredible trip. Our guides, Tiffany and Doug were fantastic. When I checked in Tiffany and I went through the first five days of the trip meal by meal and made choices for him.

They called ahead to Brooks Lake Lodge for the last two days and filled them in. Our lunch there was a fourth of July buffet, complete with a separate salad just for him. The two previous trips the buffets were italian and mexican, both of which would have been difficult. My husband talked to the general manager at one point and he said they went with the fourth of July buffet (on the 2ND) because of him. I had mentioned the best veggies for him were broccoli and green beans and one of them was on each nightly menu. They also had a meat that could be served plain for him - steak the first night and pork loin the second. The food there was incredible.

The guides actually went to the grocery store and bought him sugar free jello, carrot sticks, and a salad for the picnic day. Everything else was worked out with the individual restaurants or vendors. Tiffany did most of the communicating. I would check with her before a meal and she made it happen.

I brought a plug in cooler that we were able to plug in on the bus so I didn't have to deal with ice. I brought his salad dressing, breakfast drinks and snacks like cheese sticks and veggies. I also made him homemade whipped cream a couple of times (brought my hand mixer) and stored it in the cooler and about half the nights I made him ice cream using the kosher salt, ice, shaker trick - the folks at Brooks Lake Lodge loved that.

The only issue we had was about the third day on a hike we had a longer than normal break waiting for a few people to catch up and Tiffany pulled out granola bars. I had not brought a snack for him and he felt left out. They don't usually have a snack break on that hike so it didn't occur to Tiffany to mention it to me. After that I asked at every outing if there would be a snack and if I should bring him one. We never did again - all the snacking was usually done on the bus.

I would say they did an incredible job - I couldn't be happier. I did have to bring some of my stuff, but that is because some of his requirements would be very difficult to meet otherwise.

The best news is he didn't have any seizures. tomorrow will mark a full year since his last seizure.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I'm glad everything went smoothly! The guides do so much to make everyone happy! I know we had a family whose plane was not leaving until 5 pm so the guides figured out how they could leave their luggage at the airport and then go into Jackson for a few hours.

 

[sayhello]

I'm so glad to hear it all went so well. Glad, but not the least surprised! It's one of the things I love about ABD, and especially their Guides!

Sayhello

 

[DisneyKevin]

Most US Adventures can be very accommodating and most European capitals.

I believe that some of the more exotic destinations can be a challenge.

That being said.....ABD does amazing things.