Traveling and our own 'OIT nuclear football'

Summer time - it's time for family vacations!  But can you travel and successfully continue on OIT?  You sure bet you can!  It takes quite a bit of planning, but it's totally possible.  Here are a few of my tips and a few stories of how we've handled it.

• Plan ahead - if you have ever had young children, you know it takes an act of God to get everyone somewhere with everything you need in a reasonable amount of time.  🤣   OIT isn't quite that extreme, BUT, you do have to plan ahead.  In peanut OIT, we have a kool-aid solution that we pull Brandon's daily dose from.  That solution has to be refrigerated because it doesn't have any preservatives in it.  So we have to travel with it in a cooler bag anytime we go somewhere and will be away from the house overnight.  So throw in a cool pack with it and you're good for the travel time.

• Know what's at your destination - because his solution has to be refrigerated, we always have to make sure we have refrigeration at our destination.  For example, when we drove to my parents' house twice over the summer, we packed our trusty soft sided cooler with his solution and an ice pack, and as soon as we got there, we popped it back in the fridge at their house.  When traveling to a hotel, it gets a bit trickier . . . . case in point, our cruise.  I called ahead of time to make sure we would have a fridge in our cabin.  I was told we would.  When we got there, we found it to be nothing more than a 'slightly cooler than room temperature box' under one of our counters.  🙄  I quickly asked our room steward for something colder.  He ended up bringing us a medical fridge, which was a pretty nifty contraption!  (I took about a million pictures on the cruise, but of course I forgot to get a picture of our medical fridge.  😑)  Essentially, it was a small hard sided box that had a shoulder strap.  It plugged into a traditional outlet, and had room for about 6 cans of soda.  We put his solution in there, threw in some ice cubes, and it stayed cold all week.  Done!  

• Right after school started, we went on a quick weekend trip to Galveston.  Thankfully, both of our hotel rooms had small fridges in them, so we were able to put his solution in there and re-freeze the cool pack overnight.  We had a bit more of an issue on that trip though, as we were going to a water park and knew we couldn't take in any glass bottles.  (His solution comes in a glass bottle from his allergist.)  I put some of his solution in a small Tupperware container and left some in the glass bottle, in the event that they didn't allow us to bring the glass bottle in.  Fortunately, they let us bring both containers in.  Unfortunately, the Tupperware container leaked a bit 😖 and some of the solution spilled on the other contents of the cooler.  Brandon saw it and got a bit panicked, as he didn't want to touch anything that had any of the peanut solution residue on it.  Mom to the rescue 💪, I wiped everything down, and that night at the hotel, I emptied the Tupperware back into the glass bottle, and all was well.  Wshew!

• Bring food for dosing - Brandon has to have a small snack with every dose (we tend to do applesauce and usually something carb-y.)  On the cruise, we couldn't bring our own food on board, so we had to plan ahead and grab a roll or two from the buffet line the night before and take it back to the room.  I packed baggies so they'd stay a bit more fresh, and that seemed to work for his doses.  When not on a cruise or somewhere where we can't bring our own food, it's a bit easier - a box of Triscuits or Ritz, and we're good to go.  👍

You may be thinking, "What the big deal if something happens to your solution?  Can't you just miss a dose and pick back up the next day?"  Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding no.  You can't miss a single day of dosing.  If you do, you have to consult your doctor, likely downdose for a day or more, and potentially set yourself back a week or more on your progress.  That's particularly true for us, as we're already on the 'slow track' for OIT.  😉  Any 'misses' on this - either from a missed dose, forgetting your solution, or spilling your dose while traveling - and we're moving back even farther than we were.

It's not **nearly** this serious, but I almost feel like the military representative who always has 'the nuclear football' for the POTUS.  😊  Michael and I are continuously asking 'who has the solution?' when we travel.  And all for a good reason!  It just adds a level of complexity and planning to your travels.

So if you're contemplating OIT but aren't sure if you can fit it into a busy, on-the-go lifestyle that includes traveling, do not worry.  Yes, you can do it!  It takes some planning, but it's totally doable.

Below is a pic of our own 'OIT nuclear football.'  😂  This cooler goes with us everywhere when we are on the road - someone always has eyes and hands on it.  After all, its our ticket to eventual allergy freedom!  Who wouldn't protect it as precious cargo?  😉

Until next time,

Momma Knows Best  💚🐢

Our soft-sided cooler that goes EVERYWHERE with us when we are traveling 😊