We’ve just returned from a month-long trip to France with our 2 young kids. Our son Louis, 6, has type 1 and, wow, for a little man, he had a lot of extra luggage! I can relate to that feeling Aaron, of looking at the list of diabetes related equipment we needed to take and thinking “Er..we’re going to need an extra bag”!!
It was our first experience of long haul flying with Louis and it took a lot of extra thinking and planning- we were going to be in the air for a long time and travelling through a few time zones!
It was interesting noting the different reactions to and understanding of Type 1 by the various airline staff. Some were brilliant, stowing our insulin in the galley fridge for us and bringing us carbo snacks for the flight, others were less experienced, questioning us at check-in about the equipment and Syringes we were carrying (despite us having the official required doctor’s letter) and one even asked (luckily out of earshot of my son) if there was a cure for diabetes.
Administering an injection to a 6 year old (in his bottom) in economy class when you’re penned into your seats as the crew dish out the meals is no easy feat- but we turned it into an art-form! Louis was a hero and he coped brilliantly. Sometimes time became a blur and keeping track of his meals, levels and sleeping times was tricky,but we made it (phew) and had an amazing month of endless sunshine with our family and friends.
Enjoy your holiday Aaron- hope you have an absolute blast!
Tara, mum of Louis

I would love to know more about holiday insurance. We went to the UK last year and just took out the standard, easiest to get insurance so it probably wasn’t the best.
I normally travel with spare everything and for some reason this time I landed up with one blood testing kit, I managed to lose it between Sydney and Dubai (travelling with a 3 and a 5 year old we kept changing seats to keep them happy) and I still had a long trip from Bubai to UK so probably about 24 hours without testing. I knew I was sitting down a lot which isn’t normal but I was still too scared to have too much insulin. I was also careful what I ate – not too much sugary stuff seeing I couldn’t test my blood.
I finally got to my mother-in-laws’ house and had to go straight out to the local shopping centre (the tiny local pharmacies only had testing strips) and buy a testing kit. It turned out good in the end – I bought the Accu-chek Nano over there – only 50 pence more than the regular Accu-chek. I think both models were less than 15 pounds (and there were more models of Accu-chek and other meters – amazing choice) .
When I got back to NZ Accu-chek kindly swapped it for the NZ version of the Accu-chek nano and I love it – I couldn’t have afforded the price of them over here.

OUr 10 year old was diagnosed with Type one a couple of months ago. I’ve just booked to go to Aussie for Chirstmas (2 adults, 2 kids) and did my usual travel insurance booking with Soutnern Corss (we are members). Normally it would cost $80 for the four of us for 2 weeks. This time it cost $130 (Mr 10’s diabetes meant our policy was ‘loaded’ but the extra $50 means he’s covered while we’re away).

I’d love to hear of your investigations into travel insurance for diabetics.

OMG so many typos – must learn to read what I’ve written before I post! LOL!

INSULIN PUMPERS BEWARE

You will need to purchase specified cover for your insulin pump which is 2% of the cost of your pump. All the policies I looked at only covered single items up to $2,500 Max (Most were only $1,500). This means an extra $140 for me each time I travel overseas even if it is just a weekend in Oz

Southern Cross will cover Type 1 under the following conditions:

However under this policy, You are automatically covered for the following controlled Pre-Existing Conditions:
•Diabetes (both Type 1 and Type 2)

By controlled, we mean:
The condition is stable and You have not had a change in medication or treatment in the last 6 months or experienced symptoms of such a nature as would have caused a prudent reasonable person to seek medical attention, or been hospitalised (including day surgery or emergency department attendance) for that condition in the last 24 months.

So Mel after 2 years your son will automatically be covered

So exciting.
Look forward to reading what you found out about the health insurance.

Aaron – good luck and have such a great time!!! I bet Montreal will be fantastic. Totally understand the luggage thing, have just gone to visit my parents in Europe and half my bag taken up with enough cannula, strips etc PLUS the extras in case of emergency. Cripes!! Not to mention that insulin has to be put in your “carry-on” luggage. The bag gets really heavy after 20 hours…

I’m with Southern Cross so don’t need to make any extra declarations regarding T1 as per Sianne’s email above, but admit I never really thought about my pump…ooops!

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