Last week, I spent some fabulous days in Italy. Though I was in a fairly tourist-laden area and people in shops and restaurants generally spoke English enough to get the basic messages across, I could imagine how difficult it would have been for someone with food allergies to order in the restaurants. I was not traveling with my son who has multiple food allergies, but if I were, I would have had no idea how to ask or explain his condition.

Explaining food allergies when dining out is already complicated enough. How many times have we heard of people having allergic reactions despite all the efforts of avoiding dishes containing food items they're allergic to? Add to that a language barrier, and you're upping the risk a hundred-fold.

If you're traveling abroad where English is not widely spoken, you may want to get Select Wisely's food and travel translation cards. They have different types, depending on the offending food item and how strongly worded you'd like the message to be (such as "I have a life-threatening allergy to shrimps"). The translation cards are available in 15 standard languages, but you may place special orders for Arabic, Czech, Croatian, hindi, Vietnamese, Khmer (Cambodia), etc.