Food Allergies in UAE?

Hi,

I noticed that you're now living in UAE.  Just wonder how you find living there with your son's allergies?  We're in similar situation, my son has severe peanut and tree-nut allergies and currently considering a move to Abu Dhabi.

Aside from the list of questions you posted, does any international school in AD practices nut-free?

Thanks.

The language barrier can pose a bit of an issue; the workers here are not accustomed to saying "no", so you have to press to make sure they truly understand what you are saying and not just trying to give you the answer they think you want.
I usually have to say "life threatening" or "my son could die from eating nuts" and that gets their attention. I always have the cooks take me and my son around the buffets and we talk about each dish and whether or not it's safe. We also cover the cross contamination topic every time as well
Packaged food can also be a challenge, as its not always printed in English, and if it is it can be obscured by the Arabic translation stickers.
We have not had any reactions, but to be honest as a 10 year old boy, most of his food outside the home is from any one of the American fast food companies

Many thanks for your reply.  I guess it's similar to where we are at the moment (Hong Kong), where we have to scrutinise most dishes when eating out.  Being not speaking the local language, what we found really helpful was that our local allergist provided us with a card stating his allergy in Chinese which we could show to staff at restaurants.

How about international schools - do they have policies on nut-free environment?  My son is only 7yo, so having such policy will ease our minds a lot.