Monday, July 14

Beach Vacation and Food Allergy Planning

What's the secret to a wonderful beach vacation with family (and views like this)?
beach trip vacation food allergies

Planning, preparation and fun!

But as you know, going on a vacation or trip takes a little more preparation and planning than usual when you have food allergies.

Last week we stayed at a beach house with 7 other family members. We all had a wonderful time together and also had a successful food allergy friendly experience for Little Guy.

What are the main things that I prepped?  Well, beyond LISTS and LISTS of everything we needed to take and remember for the trip....

I baked a double batch of pumpkin muffins from Sophie-Safe Cooking the day before we left to share with everyone in the family.
beach trip vacation food allergies

I baked a loaf of food allergy friendly egg-free, dairy-free (and gluten free) bread two days before. We use King Arthur Flour, Gluten Free Bread Mix. It's STILL Little Guy's favorite bread. (Deep breath exhale of frustration). More on that in another post.
OC Maryland food allergies

I bought a FRIO pack to make sure Little Guy's Epipens stayed at the correct temperature at the beach. During other years we kept the Epipens in a thermos in the shade of a beach umbrella. This year we tried something new and I was VERY pleased with the FRIO pack. It was simple to use and it made me feel more at ease without having to worry about the Epipens getting too hot at the beach.

Ocean city maryland food allergies restaurants
Frio pack to make sure the Epipens stayed cool at the beach

I normally would have researched restaurants before our trip, but since we've had a few good food allergy related experiences at restaurants in OC Maryland the past few years, I felt comfortable in knowing where we could go. We only went out to eat one night at Harrison's Harbor Watch restaurant, and we had a great experience. I'll write a separate post about it!

I brought a lot of food to the beach (including items I knew I might not find at the beach grocery store like coconut yogurt, Sunbutter and safe soymilk), but I also planned meals beforehand and wrote a shopping list for the beach. My list included things like meat, fresh veggies, fruit, brown rice, etc. 

One of the nights we all had the same food allergy friendly chicken chili meal with avocado and safe tortilla chips. Thankfully everyone was very satisfied!
beach trip vacation food allergies

And all the kiddos had dairy free So Delicious Coconut Milk ice cream with mini Oreos on top. A definite treat!
ocean city maryland food allergies

We all had a wonderful trip in general and love the family and beach time. Here are a few pics of the beautiful community where we stayed in OC Maryland.
ocean city maryland restaurants
A few of the bayside part of the resort looking at the beach area where the kids loved playing.

oc maryland beach vacation
Lots of fun at the beach and pool here.
food allergies oc maryland
OC Maryland and the setting sun.
beach trip vacation food allergies
The kids loved playing by the bay. 
food allergy ocean city maryland
Fishing off a pier was fun too.
traveling food allergies
We all had fun playing in the water! Some days we went to the bay, and some to the ocean.
food allergies traveling
A beautiful sunset. We felt like we were on an island in this picture!

And here are some other beach and food allergy posts you might find helpful:

OC Maryland Food Allergy Friendly Restaurants

At the Beach: Traveling with Food Allergies

Traveling with Food Allergies: What I packed on our beach trip

Here's the link to the Frio pack we used:

2 comments:

Diane said...

Yeaaa! Grammy had the best vacation ever! Love your post and pictures Kathryn, perfect :)

Kathryn @ Mamacado said...

Thanks Grammy...we sure had fun!

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